Are Your Customers on Information Overload?

Last week I opened my email, for the fourth time that day and found 6 newsletters in it.

A few from current clients, one from a past and various reach outs from companies I have possibly given way to much money to over time. With the limited amount of time I have, I found myself naturally prioritizing what I needed to read, wanted and would never even open. Each week, I find myself doing this more and more and wonder, can there be too much information?

Wiki tells me that we just got out of the Information Age, which would make a lot of sense since it feels like we are entering the Information Overload years. You can’t open anything anymore without it being someone telling, informing, teaching, guiding or alerting you of something. Being a woman that went the distance for her own degrees, I respect nothing more than information. It opens a persons world to becoming as self sustained individual; whether in your career or life.

So, could all the business’s that have something to say, keep delivering that incredible information, but a bit more strategically?

Many people got caught up in the content generation years. You know, that time not too long ago when all we were told was to write, tell, inform and give. It started becoming the only way we were told to promote something. It was a time where we were leaving those “intellectual property” years in which everything cost something and we didn’t give anything away for free—even information or advice. However, with how much information is now being shared from every business we do business with, I feel like the scales are slowly tipping and if we don’t catch them, the efforts(and expense) many are taking to capitalize on this marketing strategy will fall short.

To ensure you just don’t talk to talk, but talk with purpose, take a look at my list of three key pieces to keep your content strategy delivering the results you need.

Outreach Strategy: Have you given thought to why you say, what you say, when you say it? Creating a mix of content, promotion, announcements and education throughout the year will ensure your outreach feels relevant, current and needed. This will entice your market to be more willing to open everything you send then, because they trust you are sending them what they need at that time.

To understand how to identify what you should do when, watch your industry, region and market. Natural themes will emerge based on those three elements. If you are feeling stuck on where to start, rotate the top four over the year and watch your open and click through rates. If they are going up, you know you are on to something.

Subject Line: Content marketing is now delivered electronically. If you are still delivering snail mail newsletters, you may want to consider a better use for that stamp, envelope and printing cost. Besides your name, your subject line of the email is your best line of defense in attracting attention and moving up the priority list to be opened. Relevant, fun, real and honest. Short and Sweet. Have fun with your subject line and realize it is making a first impression that can add to your open rate and is vital to keep their attention.

Branding: If you are not fun to look at, you are not going to hold someone’s attention for very long. So, what colors, logos and high level messaging are you representing yourself with? Are you aware of what fonts your content is written in? Being able to create the feeling your customers desire from your company, via your content, will allow you to stand out from the 500 other emails they received that day.

“In this ever-changing society, the most powerful and enduring brands are built from the heart. They are real and sustainable. Their foundations are stronger because they are built with the strength of the human spirit, not an ad campaign. The companies that are lasting are those that are authentic,” said Howard Schultz.

As I look and see what I have just done, I laugh at myself. The irony sets in and I realize I just did what everyone else is doing. Hopefully I did it differently, strategically and with a bit of flair that kept your attention. Because life should be filled with a bit of flair, some information to back it up and delivered at the exact time we want to read it.