You work in manufacturing. Or medical
technology. Or law. Or accounting. Or high tech / computer software
in Silicon Valley. Or advertising. Or banking. Or politics. Or the
non profit world. Whichever it is, your messaging is an essential
part of your business. Messaging enables you to speak to customers'
needs. Messaging enables you to draw business collaborators and
partners. Messaging enables you to attract, keep and cultivate the
best employees who, in turn, enable you to be a winning business or
organization. But what constitutes great messaging?
You understand the facts of your
business- the nuts and bolts, what you offer and what makes it run.
But are you an expert when it comes to communicating in a way that
wins people over to you and your product- regardless of the specifics
of your product? As well as you are doing now, imagine you and your
business attached to a completely winning, unstoppable message?
Ever meet someone, in a store, a cafe,
on the sidewalk, in a park, at a party, and say “What a great
guy/gal? They're fun to be around, and they make me feel lighter and
just better about everything being around them.” Is it always
because they have technical expertise or valuable products or
investible capital? No, often none of the above. It's because they
just relate well in human terms. They make all things seem possible,
they put the world in perspective and they are entertaining. And that
usually involves the use of humor. You see, humor brings
together intelligence with surprise and a defiant sense
of optimism- all very attractive traits to humans.
You have to create marketing and
advertising materials. You have to do a lot of product copy writing,
whether it's for the website description, the paper & ink catalog
or the physical label on the product. Look at the companies that have
integrated humor, or at least personality- into their
business plan: Vitamin Water, Dollar Shave Club, Trader Joe's,
Groupon, State Farm- the list goes on and on. Think of how the simple
addition of a little bit of levity, a self-effacing comment, a
surprisingly “honest” product description makes a company seem
more human, more trustworthy, more caring
for you, the potential or actual customer.
Using humor in copy writing and
marketing makes a company seem a lot less desperate for your money
and a lot more confident and principled. Now there's a big
word- principles!
Just as your external messaging to your
customer base can be radically improved by incorporating a lighter,
more human touch – humor- so can your internal messaging- be
it company speeches, industry-wide presentations, the entertainment
at social gatherings, in-house newsletter, etc- be drastically
improved to noticeable affect by using some well-placed levity.
Just as the layperson out on the street
would be penny wise and pound foolish to try to build their own
medical device or program their own software application, you need to
utilize the strongest, most experienced and specialized messaging
specialists, in order to harness the power of humor and entertaining
language. Top professionals wield a laser-like way with words and
imagery, and are able to have a crowd feeling warm with recognition
one moment, lightly amused the next, and falling down laughing in
hysterics after that. Every dollar that goes toward charismatic,
winning messaging- whether it's in-house or for external consumption-
comes back to you many times over in increased success- be it good
word-of-mouth, higher quality product or bottom line revenues.
When speaking to a professional
messaging specialist, especially those with an emphasis on humor,
always ask to see samples of written work, for a variety of past
clients. Many can claim to offer such a level of professional humor
writing, to understand comedy, to have have created superior
messaging products which have yielded outstanding results, but a
precious few can show you the actual proof you can hold in your hand.
And the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Make sure your pudding
is the sweetest- and funniest- it can be.
