Compelling Customer Communications

To be "compelling", business communication has to 1) be meaningful to its audience and 2) generate results that support a client's business goals. Good written communication in the high tech industry (and perhaps all industries) is relentlessly focused on the end customer and his world, shows a deep and clear understanding of the subject matter being presented and its benefits, and takes advantage of the way in which the message is transmitted.

This last point might require a bit of explanation. In 1964 Marshall McLuhan famously wrote "the medium is the message", pointing out that the way a message is transmitted is at least as important as its content. If we look at the sales cycle for high tech products and services today, we see the ways of reaching and interacting with customers is changing, and companies have many more options at their disposal for getting written communication to their customers. This is a pitfall as well as an opportunity for those who don't understand how McLuhan's point applies.

Just in the last couple of years I've seen a lot of changes in many aspects of high tech business communications. Some examples include: new distribution methods for white papers and their use in lead generation or relationship building; the use of distance education or collaboration tools for webinars and other events that generate awareness and momentum; blogs and social networking tools that provide another avenue for written communication and are becoming increasingly important in engaging prospects and influencing buying processes and preferences.

If a writer doesn't understand the specific medium and how to write for it, the communication won't be effective. And if a company neglects traditional communication vehicles for sales and marketing -- white papers , brochures, websites, sales presentations, print media, and so on -- then they'll also quickly find their sales process is faltering. I find this whole changing dynamic both challenging and exhilarating.

Interesting as the changing face of communication media are, they don't lessen the importance of the basic foundation of good communication: understanding how the audience hears the message being conveyed. Writing compelling communications means knowing what the target audience finds meaningful and will convince them to act. To help customers with this, Ergo is also offering research services that support the creation of effective and on-target communication.