To grow your business, you need to effectively reach your audience—your customers, supporters, and brand advocates. And that job is getting tougher, according to media expert and owner of Cynthia Kay & CO, Cynthia Kay.
The new reality is that people are bombarded with information on more channels than ever before, Kay said. This means fewer face-to-face interactions with customers and more interfacing with virtual audiences. Strong, clear, concise and compelling messaging is more important than ever.
“The speed of business is increasing. Keep your copy short and attention grabbing,” Kay told Chamber members recently, pointing out that people just don’t read text like they used to. “You sometimes have only seconds to reach someone.”
As part of her strategic communication plans, Kay regularly recommends storytelling as the best approach to engage your audience, and she sees video as an ideal medium for offering ideas, sharing unique perspectives, and refining your message.
“Smart companies large and small know that video is the way to capture the shorter attention spans of their target audiences and these companies rely on it as an integral part of their communications mix,” noted Kay.
Make your messages stand out and get your company’s voice heard above the din by:
- Providing high-value content in short timeframe… be sure to add the “WOW” factor
- Making communications easy to digest and entertaining… think YouTube
- Leveraging your content on social media, in media relations, and directly to customers (TIP: Try creating a new video newsletter.)
If content is king, make sure yours reins through quality. Share your thought leadership or expert tips and tricks. Offer up impressive results or cool “how to’s.” Put the spotlight on your customers and showcase their story about your business, service or product. Develop a series or explore a topic in-depth. Get creative and have fun—maybe try a music video or other high-emotion feature.
Bottom line: Give something away—whether it’s expertise, new ideas, or contests for your product or service—and you’ll get more attention, more traffic, more business.
This information is taken from Cynthia Kay’s presentation (Finding Your Company “Voice”) at the Chamber’s Business Matters Series event in April 2014. Cynthia Kay and Company (CK & CO) is a communications agency that provides media production and communications consulting. Visit www.thinkck.com (opens in new window) for more info.
