Top Five Communication Insights for 2008

There have been many "Top 10" lists proclaiming that they know best ways to for corporations to communicate with their target markets, but very few focus how to communicate. To help solve this problem, I have pulled a little content from each list compiling my own "Top Five Communication Trends of 2008" list. Instead of listing the most popular or innovative ways to communicate with your employees, this list focuses on helping companies understand the different mediums of communication and how to utilize them effectively.

The first four trends on this list are from HumaNext's "Top Ten Communication Trends for 2008." Some great insights from this list include:

1.) "Social Media and 2.)Web 2.00: The revolution is here. The emerging technologies of web.2 are causing a transformation in the communication profession. These technologies include the use of Blogs to communicate with employees and customers; the use of platforms like social networks and wiki to achieve sharing and collaboration, and other new tools and technologies like podcasts, video-casts, and others. But beyond the technology, Social Media demands a basic shift in the way communicators see their role and approach their stake holders."


3.) "Electronic Publications: Communicators are increasingly looking at electronic publishing to supplement or replace their print publications. Because of its significant advantages in the areas of speed and cost of delivery, electronic newsletters are used more often to communicate with customers and employees."


4.) "Content is King & Conversation is Queen: With all the changes in technologies, content remains the primary focus of communicators, and it's their main tool for informing and influencing audiences. If content is king, then conversation is queen. The organization as a conversation is an emerging area of interest to many communication executives and training professionals alike."

5.) Blogging: Blogs land at number five on my Top Communication Insights for 2008 list for many different reasons, but corporations must understand corporate blog basics before the dive in to this new world of communication, or risk failure. In May of 2008, interactive Consultant Jennifer Slegg outlined why corporate blogging is so important to a company's marketing strategy. Here are a few juicy tidbits.

"It is becoming more and more important for corporations - as well as businesses of all sizes - to have a blog in today’s world where so many people own computers. But if your business has put off starting a blog for far too long, here is why you should really be blogging, and how it can be advantageous to your overall business marketing strategy.

Human face
You don’t really want people to think of your company as “big box” or “typical corporate America”. And blogging can actually put a human face to your company, since the company now has a voice it can relate to when it reads your blog. When you consider how much money companies put into creating a human face for their business, doing it with a company blog is a relatively inexpensive way to humanize your corporation.

Controlling the message
Public Relations tends to want to run far, far away from blogs. But now, more are embracing blogs as a way to control the company’s message and how they release it. You can now have a fireside chat with your company’s CEO in the format of a blog interview, where responses can be monitored. If there is a scandal or other negative publicity surrounding your company, you already have a platform ready to release information that doesn’t involve sending press releases to the media or subjecting your CEO or other employees to a press conference.

Excitement and anticipation
Companies can easily use a blog to give hints and tidbits about new product releases or services well before the actual launch so you can get people excited about what you are going to announce before you did it. Since press releases are rarely sent to announce something your company hasn’t done yet, a blog is an easy way to get the word out and build anticipation."

As companies venture out into the ever growing "new" world of Social Media, and communications, they must understand that they have only two choices: (1) adopt and grow, or (2) ignore the new wave of communication mediums and get swept away with the tide. For more information on the topics listed in this blog, check out previous posts, and our other blogs at Internet Marketing Voodoo.

Cultural Cues to Effective E-mail Marketing

How does culture play a role in Internet Marketing? Since the Internet has a global scope and people from any country can access immeasurable amounts of information from other countries, does culturally formatted marketing apply online?

Six International E-Mail Marketing Challenges, an article by Derek Harding on Clickz.com says you can bet your money on it! In fact, when it comes to email marketing, marketers must have an elevated awareness of cultural factors in order to truly target the user that goes way beyond language translation.

According to the article, here are key points to keep in mind when engaging in effective international email marketing:

Message form. The amount of content that works well in messages varies from country to country. In the United States, when we send newsletters, it's common to only include article overviews with links to the full articles online. However, in some countries the expectation is the full content will appear in the message.

Personalization and salutations. In some countries, use of personalization and salutations (e.g., Dear Derek) can improve results. In others, it's seen as hackneyed or even a privacy invasion.

Send time. When to send is also a regional and cultural question. Clearly, the local time zone must be taken into account. So should variations in when people work. Which days constitute the weekend vary across the globe. Holidays vary from country to country, as does when people commonly take vacations.

Local norms. There are many local norms that can be entirely unexpected if you don't have local knowledge. For example, in the U.S. it's quite common to post prices exclusive of tax. In some other countries, this is simply not done and may even be disallowed by local law. In France, it's common to ask recipients to print out a form and fax it back, whereas in many other countries this would be considered absurd.

Local laws. While anti-spam requirements are the most obvious laws that apply to international e-mail, some countries may have additional laws and requirements for doing business electronically, especially related to privacy and use of personal information.

Language. The language selected does matter for international communications. However, the choice of language isn't necessarily clear-cut. Many countries use more than one language, and which languages you support can be very important. For some cultural groups, using their language may be essential; for others, it may have little effect. Some audiences may even prefer to receive communications in English rather than their native tongue. This is often the case for more technical audiences.

In today’s globalized business world, it is so important to truly have a keen awareness of our audiences when it comes to online marketing. With such diversity, standardized marketing may not always make the cut. These tactics can reduce costs, improve consistency; and since it’s easier to target online than any other form of media, the matter of true importance is to remember that people are looking for relevancy.