2009 by admin.

Avoid these three common mistakes made by countless corporate newsletters, and you’ll be on your way to producing a valuable marketing tool that develops deeper customer relationship.

• Don’t promote your product – Instead of promoting your product, tell about solutions that come from your product, For example, instead of writing about the large number of residential fire alarms your company sold in the last quarter, tell how 50,000 families have protected themselves against fire.
• Don’t write about internal goings-on – Instead of writing about how 100 employees enjoyed a lovely holiday bash in December, tell how 100 orphans enjoyed the secret Santa gifts company employees provided.
• Don’t profile employees – Instead of interviewing your employee of the month, interview your customers and have them tell why they like working with your employee.

– Amy Biemiller

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2008 by admin.

Research shows a listener will decide how or if they will respond to voicemail within 10 seconds of hearing the message. Rushing through those 10 seconds does not serve you well. If voicemail had a warning label, it would read: “For best results, speak your name and return phone number slowly and clearly.”

Take the time to practice your voicemail message. Learn how to slowly say your name (especially if the message recipient has not met you before), by pausing between your first and last name. Provide your phone number with care, enunciating each number, not spewing all 10 digits in one syllable. And for best results, repeat it at the end of your message.

–Amy Biemiller

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2008 by admin.

Studies show that profitability is linked to customer retention, and customer retention is linked to employee engagement. Employees are engaged at work when their managers talk to them, recognize their work and explain what they should do to achieve company goals and how they will benefit from those actions.

Do your managers know the four things they can do to improve employee engagement?

Communicate sincerely. That means no rhetoric. Talk about what the company does in plain English, and communicate directly about how their department fits into the bigger picture.

Personal delivery. Managers have to get up from their desks and away from their computers and speak directly to their department associates, individually and as a team.

Acknowledgement. Address associates by name, and acknowledge their work, performance and contributions.

Invite response. Ask for feedback, questions, and concerns, and be attentive to communication from others.

– Amy Biemiller

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2008 by admin.

How dependent are your employees and your corporate executives on your newsletter? Get your employees and execs to participate in the newsletter process, and see how soon your employee newsletter becomes a necessary commodity and not an expendable luxury. Here’s how:

Executive involvement – Your newsletter should provide information, every issue, about what those corporate goals are and where the company is in achieving those goals. Ask your executives for information about industry developments, how the company fits in, and how that relates to goal achievement. Also publish when and how the company was mentioned in the news since the previous issue.

Employee involvement – Focus on different departments in each issue, and ask for stories from employees about how what they do influences corporate goal achievement. Work with HR to develop stories about community involvement by employees. Work with the sales department to learn about good customer service examples. Write like a news reporter, and quote more employees than executives.

- Amy Biemiller

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2008 by admin.

Who hasn’t had second thoughts after sending an e-mail? Either you get that sinking feeling because you sent something to the wrong person, or what you sent to the right person was wrong. Sender’s remorse can be avoided with these top tips.
1. Address the e-mail last – Go ahead and write that e-mail. Just start with the content and make the e-mail address the last item you type in. You can’t successfully send without the address, and you have a few more moments to consider that the information is correct, and going to the correct person.
2. Do not rely on the pre-population feature – The larger your e-mail address book becomes, the easier it is to send the wrong e-mail to the wrong person. Make it a habit to type in the whole address, and not rely on the pre-population feature.
3. E-mail to one, not all – When responding to an e-mail, respond just to the sender, not the whole group.

- Amy Biemiller

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2008 by admin.

While working on public-speaking techniques with a group of high school students recently, we were reminded about the importance of slowing down our delivery for better audience reception. Being around teenagers puts you into the ‘perfect storm’ of communications conundrums: an onslaught of creativity and enthusiasm, coupled with the English language spoken at the speed of light.

Getting your message across to a group often makes even veteran speakers nervous. Nervousness can then translate into rapid-fire delivery of well-prepared information. Here are two exercises we learned a long time ago, which help to slow delivery of the spoken word:

Alphabet recitation – Easy to do and works like a charm. Simply say the alphabet (and you can do it aloud or just under your breath), but whisper every other letter. Try it and you’ll see that you have to make a conscious effort to do the ‘whisper’ part, which slows your delivery.

Vowel distortion – You should definitely try this only when you are alone, as anyone with you will think you need medical attention. But it works. Simply say each vowel, but get your whole mouth and jaw into the pronunciation. Really distort and elongate the vowel letter, along with your lips, and you will not only take yourself a lot less seriously, you will have calmed your pulse and your speaking pace.

–Amy Biemiller

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2007 by admin.

As conservation is the trend-du-jour, we are taking a stance to eliminate unnecessary e-mails. Did you know that over 130 million e-mails are sent daily? Some of you reading this may feel you get all 130 million, so you may consider yourselves charter members of our lobby. It’s the other percent of the population we want to convert.

Here’s the short list of conditions under which you should NOT e-mail:
• When you need iterative back-and-forth discussion. It’s better to do this face-to-face.
• If you receive a rambling, long, confusing or angry e-mail, call that person and ask to discuss.
• Confidential information. Remember, someone else can always read your e-mail without you knowing. If you don’t want something shared, don’t e-mail it.
• When you need to tell someone bad news. Do this in person. It helps you gauge their reaction and helps both of you move past a conflict.
• When you need to apologize. Always do this in person.

–Amy Biemiller

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