Get creative with your business comms
I’m not a fan of the term ‘newsletter’, mainly because extensive research (by which I mean talking to other people randomly) shows that the six most ignored words in marketing are ‘please sign up to our newsletter’. People just don’t want another ‘Look how fascinating our news is, and have you seen our hilarious office poster’ missive, nor do they want to be shouted at weekly from their inbox to BUY MORE STUFF.
But there’s no getting away from it, newsletters or regular email communications (a less baggage-laden phrase, but boy, is it clunky) are a fantastic way to keep your audience engaged, and moving closer to purchase or re-purchase.
If you google the return on investment for newsletters – and I would suggest not to, as life is way too short and I have done it so you don’t have to (#SelflessAct) – several sources claim you can reap up to 40 times the investment. Nice.
But don’t just jump onto the nearest email platform and squeeze out a tedious 300 words about your business and chuck in a stock image of some hands, a keyboard and a frothy coffee. A bit of creativity deployed at the start of the process will reap dividends further down the line, as your comms will create more interest, stand out from the crowd(ed inbox) and give people a truly on-brand experience that deepens their connection with your business.
There are so many ways to think creatively about creating a brilliant comms experience for your audience, and I thought I would share one of my favourite creative thinking tools and some of the ideas I came up with. Feel free to magpie (it’s the middle class way of saying steal) any that work for your brand, or use them as inspiration to create your own ideas to create a unique comms experience for your audience.
The Brand Swap tool is simple – think of a brand, then ask: How would that brand ‘do’ my newsletter? Think about the personality, feel or look of that brand. What ideas does that provoke?
Here are 10 brands that popped randomly into my head, and the first two ideas that I thought of for each (do bear in mind I am not claiming each idea to be a masterpiece of creative thinking, but each can be explored which will create further ideas that could work. Feel free to create your own list that is more nutritionally balanced).
XBox | Collect points for every level you pass / article you read and redeem those points. Some way of knowing who else has read or is reading the comms, and a way of engaging with them.
Spotify | create a listening playlist for when people are reading your newsletter. Ask other businesses or customers to curate content.
Lego | Small pieces of comms that fit together to create a bigger story / learning. No words, just simple, instructional diagrams.
Polo Mints | Only include really fresh thinking. Allow audience to choose a flavour of comms that suits their palette.
Chupa Chups lollies | Display your content on a digital rotating display so people can pick just the one thing they want to consume. Make your email really bloody hard to unwrap (maybe there is a puzzle to solve, or a question to answer?)
Starbucks | loyal readers get a delicious bonus or discount. You can opt for a ‘decaff’ version which is a ‘lite’ version of edited content highlights.
Marmite | Actively encourage the haters to unsubscribe at the start of each newsletter. Collaborate with another business that can be the toast to your Marmite – together, you make more sense. Add a third - who is the delicious sliced cheese?
Colgate | make your comms a 2 minutes daily or twice-daily ritual. Make it easy for people to squeeze out the useful bit.
Zoom | Create a ‘live chat’ option from one of your comms topics. Audience can pay for a longer version with more features and value, so that it is properly useful.
London Philharmonic | Create a newsletter / brand theme tune that plays when you open the comms. Have a roster of contributors who all have expertise in different things, and they all contribute to one piece of amazing content.
That should get your creative muscle twitching to have a think about how your business can create comms that stand out and reinforce what your brand is all about.
And if you’re interesting in creating comms that work, hop over to the Tool Shed to download our latest tool which will help you think about idea for content that really resonate with your audience.
Of course, it would be remiss of me not to mention that you can also sign up to the Tool Rack if you are not already a subscriber – each month the Rack contains a new tool or insight to help you run and grow your business, interesting stuff I’ve spied over the Allotment fence, and I shed light on one of our amazing clients. Plus a bi-monthly Creative Hook, to keep those creative juices flowing. Subscribe here.
Right, I’m off to fire up the chainsaw to try and get that wrapper off my cherry Chupa Chups.
