The 'C' Words

This one is a tough one to bring focus upon. There are so many worthy candidates.

Clarity. Conciseness. Consciousness. Consistency. Compatibility. Consideration. Conveyance. Caring. Conversion. Customers. And these are just a few off the top of my head.

I think maybe that these words should become part of a checklist that we can use when crafting our messages to prospects and customers.

We need to be clear about what we are offering and what benefits that offering will bring to the customer. I know I've seen messages that leave me wondering what the advertiser is trying to sell. And this is the antithesis of clarity.

We need to be concise in our messaging. We have only a very few seconds to capture the attention of prospects who are bombarded by tens of thousands of marketing messages every day. Thus how we convey what we're offering, why we're offering it and why the prospect should care that we're offering it must be crisp, clear and concise.

To effectively establish our brand presence and make sure that our repeated messages actually sink into the consciousness of our prospects, we need to have consistency in our messaging across all media and in all variations on the theme. And speaking of media, we need to make sure that not only are the messages compatible in terms of delivery methods, such as mobile optimized websites for smart phone and tablet delivery, but also that the audience is compatible with the delivery vehicles. For it does little good to push multimedia messages aimed at 70+ year olds who don't actually own or use the devices to receive them.

Knowing how our audiences are constantly being bombarded with messages, we need to be considerate in when, how and where we deliver our messages. While they must be attention-getting, they must also avoid being obnoxious or viewed as spam. This will lead to blocking and disconnecting, again the antithesis of the engagement that we are seeking. We want to convey a (hopefully sincere!) feeling of caring if we're going to build trust, get people to like us and, of course, convert our prospects into customers.

Are you clear, concise and consistent in your messaging? So you make sure that you consciously convey a caring attitude and take into the consideration the compatibility of your messaging, media and markets? If not, you could have trouble with the conversion of prospects into customers, especially if you make that final call to action difficult to execute. Something to consider?

Comments welcome, as always. Success and horror stories especially solicited. Share what you've experienced. It will make you feel good.

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