When using email, think about your audience.
What would you say to them if they asked a question like,
How will your product or service make my life easier?
What would you say if they asked,
What got you interested in this business?
Tips for communicating with your audience:
What information (features, specifications, history, improvements, upgrades), can you provide your audience about your offerings?
How does your product or service change with trends or over time?
What trends could you discuss and how would this information enlighten your audience about what you do?
What best practices should your customers use to care for their product or to maintain the essence of your service?
So if you clean homes, what products do you use and why? Any family or holistic remedies that still work for you?
Do you sell shoes (or any product)? Recently I saw a video on how shoes were made, granted it was a local company and that make the story more interesting to me considering it was in my own town, but the process itself was captivating.
Some of the most fascinating stories can be about how products are manufactured, especially when the story is told in a way that tells how a seemingly complicated product is built on the line; and how the people working on the line, and with the machines, have made improvements.
Imagine a story about your well-made product, by someone local or from another part of the globe, and having your consumers identify with this product on this personal level. That’s compelling.
Yes, the manufacturing business is fraught with stories of labor issues, but that could be your side of your story. And has the need to have a human story ever changed how a company operated…
I once worked for an industry that dealt with USTs (and sometimes referred to as “L.U.S.T.”) — Underground Storage Tanks or Leaking Underground Storage Tanks.
Never did I imagine I would come to recognize the extent we all rely on USTs – from tanks at gas stations, to tanks that store home heating oil, to marina’s, fueling stations, large construction projects, and the more obvious one, crude oil containers.
The trade industry is tremendous, complete with information about new tanks, fittings, tank lines. The process of making these large tanks is a tremendous feat, making it personal by being able to walk into one set up as a demo. And we haven’t gotten to the environmental, political, and regulatory processes and impacts.
Whatever your organization’s offerings, use these ideas to create a dialogue:
— Create your list of FAQs
— Update your about page
— Create stories about your employees and what they do
— Provide compelling and value information about your organization
Publish customer stories on your website with entries and links on your social network account
Last but not least, develop a tips and ideas page to help customers with your product or to maintain a product.
Again, start by placing yourself as the customer, what would you want to know about your offerings. And don’t forget to check what your competition is doing – remember, they’ve already checked up on you.