In Write for the Customer I wrote about making sure that you have your audience in mind when writing and communicating. Today, I want to write about a different audience — the employees in your business.
To employees, senior management appears as if they are on top of a mountain. Isolated. Separated from the rest of the company. Making occasional pronouncements from on high.
When we look at a beautiful flower, we can appreciate how nature has made everything in the flower perfect for us to enjoy. From the texture of the pedals to the depth of the color. When writing for customers and prospects, we need to appear authentic and natural to them in all of our communications. This starts with our thinking about our customers and continues with our writing.
A year ago I wrote about The iPad — My First Apple Computer. I have been surprised over the last year at how much I have used my iPad. It is an amazing device for consuming Internet content. I spend less time on my laptop and overall more time on a computer (laptop + iPad).
Businesses come in all shapes and sizes. Their marketing plans are similarly diverse and the sophistication of plan often has no relation to the size of the company or the markets they serve. There are certain marketing fundamentals that apply no matter what your business or your target markets and prospects. While we need to paint a vision for our prospects, maybe they do want to sail into the sunset, we also need to focus on those fundamentals that will let us communicate our vision.
I last wrote in Red, Orange, or Green that top performing organizations find one or two critical numbers that drive all organizational results. Rather than tracking tens or hundreds of numbers, there are always a handful of critical ones that all the others depend on. Focusing on those few critical numbers creates rhythm and momentum. I want to give some concrete examples of how this works for me.