Publishers’ Letter – Fall 2020

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION has never been more important for SMBs, regardless of the industry. With face-to-face meetings shut off for the foreseeable future – we’re already hearing from some of our corporate clients who say they won’t be back in their offices until mid-2021 at the earliest! – how often do you need to be reaching out to your partners and end-users, in which formats and what’s the most effective way to manage everyone’s time and expertise?

We’ve had these talks with the majority of our own clients and have come to several conclusions:

Be consistent. This is perhaps the most critical element in effective communication. Regardless of whether you publish newsletters, video updates, on-line digital magazines and whether you are reaching out daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly, get on a schedule and stick to it.

Content is king. Just like we advise for our social media clients, original content is a must nowadays. Aggregating content is fine for a media company, but not when you are presenting your own brand, your own ideas, your own vision. And here’s the thing about content – it’s okay to have an engineer write an article, as long as a professional editor reworks the copy so you’re not burying the lead. But more importantly, how much time is it going to take one of your staff — who aren’t probably professional writers — to compose and edit content? And is that what you’re paying them for? When to outsource and when to bring things in-house is the real question that you need to analyze.

Reinventing product launches. Since we don’t have trade shows anymore to showcase our latest products and services, video livestreaming has come to the forefront for most progressive marketers. And there are any number of effective means to share your story with your audience when it comes to video. Our own strategies for clients is to advocate for 4K HD quality, prepare in advance the basic script and ideas that you want to leave with your audience, and to always allow for live Q & A post-presentation.

Communicating effectively is all about fresh ideas, creative storytelling, and rich experiences that leave viewers and readers with an indelible imprint of your brand. Communication is our business, and we love exploring new ideas and new concepts for what works best for our clients and for our own audiences. From websites to social, livestreaming to press releases, and the cadence of quarterly Technology Designer magazines, the 24/7 website and monthly newsletters, our world is shaped by the stories we hear and the stories we get to share.

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