Stop Overselling, Start Storytelling

Once upon a time there was a product and a seller.

Jackson, the seller, woke up and saw that there was no money left in his wallet. He was concerned about this situation. He needed to do something about it and quickly. He needed to promote more his product. He needed to sell more.

Of course, Jackson knew everything about the product. Therefore, he decided to write all the information down. It took the entire day to get this ready but, he did it! He felt very proud of how much information he collected. His text was long and complex. "Beautiful", he thought. The text described the technical specifications and the attributes of the product. In addition, He mentioned the benefits that the customers can get from his product. In fact, he wrote everything he knew about the product. He was very eager to sell.

When the text was ready, He made a list of all his contacts. He added some other email addresses that he has found online. He sent the text by email to all of them.

Meanwhile, in a remote location in Europe, John was waking up. John is Jackson’s old customer. It was cold and dark and John was tired. However, John was willing to read his emails before the sunrise. John took his cup of coffee and turned his computer on. He started checking his Inbox while drinking the coffee. John was glad to see that there was a message from Jackson on his inbox. He opened it immediately with a smile on his face. "It has been a while", John thought.

He has not heard from Jackson for a while, perhaps, since he bought the product a few years ago. “That is a very good product”, John whispered. 

John took another sip of coffee but, something happened that wiped the smile off his face. He was a bit sleepy still but, this did not stop him. With a firm movement, he took the computer mouse and clicked the email from Jackson. He marked it as SPAM.
Jackson never heard back from John, despite sending multiple emails to him.

Instead of spamming information about your products or about your company, create stories. As the world is overloaded by advertising, and your customers’ attention is harder and harder to maintain, storytelling might help you to differentiate and to connect in a unique way with your customer. The fact is, no one cares about your selling goals and only few care about your technical details. But your customers like a good story especially if they feel identified with it.

El Tono De Su Comunicación Interna

Como comunicadora he aprendido que los gerentes no necesitan decir todo lo que saben pero deben hacer todo lo posible para mantener una comunicación abierta y positiva con su equipo. Esto hace que los empleados participen activamente en el desarrollo de la empresa y en la dinámica interna. Esto también incrementa su compromiso. Claro, como todos sabemos, también podría hablar sobre otros factores como las diferencias culturales y su papel en la comunicación en las empresas, pero eso le dejo por ahora para después. 

Mi punto ahora es que, aunque sabemos que el mensaje es esencial, el tono juega un papel muy importante cuando los gerentes se comunican con su equipo. Si el tono es positivo, se verá reflejado en los resultados de la empresa y en la atmósfera. Por ejemplo los empleados actuarán con mayor entusiasmo y serán más positivos. Es algo así como que ellos podrán obtener la energía y la buena vibra del mensaje y de su tono. Contrariamente, si el tono es negativo, todo el ambiente y la conducta de los empleados también lo serán.

El tono es el mensaje:

• Mantenga el tono positivo: especialmente en los momentos más difíciles.
• Explique la visión claramente: no importa lo que su empresa o su equipo deban lograr, sea claro. Asumir que todos le pueden entender es uno de los errores más comunes de la comunicación.
• Enfoque: No hay nada más destructivo para la motivación de su equipo que el estar constantemente apagando fuegos por aquí y por allá. Si usted tiene muchas prioridades para su equipo, seleccione tres y hable de ellas. Al comunicar estas prioridades a su equipo recuerde que para cualquier ser humano es difícil digerir mucha información a la vez. Sea breve.
• Comparta el mensaje adecuado de la manera adecuada: Todos los miembros de su equipo son diferentes por ello debe ajustarse en términos del canal que usa para comunicarse, así como también en la manera como lo hace.
• Actúe rápido: si usted o su empresa están enfrentando un problema o una nueva situación, no espere a que la tormenta pase. Las comunicaciones deben ser su prioridad. Use esta urgencia para apoyar a su equipo y motivarlos en este momento tan importante.
• Remueva los obstáculos: Si usted ve que algo no está funcionando, hable. No ayuda en nada ignorar la situación. Deje de quejarse que las cosas no funcionan, busque los problemas y actúe para tratar de eliminar los obstáculos.
• Deje de controlar todo: la comunicación no es un trabajo de una persona. Deje que su equipo le ayude.  
• Sea consistente: Sincronice los mensajes, el tono y sus acciones.

Recuerde la comunicación, formal o informal, debe ser un proceso continuo en su organización. Practíquela con frecuencia. Si Usted siente que es difícil conseguir la manera adecuada de comunicarse con sus empleados, busque ayuda. Mejorar las comunicaciones es una inversión para su empresa.

SEO, Content Creation, Social Media and Courage: A Summary Of My First Year Of Blogging

A year ago I decided to start my own blog. I was missing writing so badly.  I wanted to practice my writing and to develop my marketing,  communications and social media skills. As you might know by now, my background is in marketing and in communications, however, during the last two years, I have been working mostly on sales.

Starting my own blog was something new and very personal. When you do marketing for a company, you focus more on the product, on the brand or on the corporation. In addition, you have to align your content with your company messages and you have to schedule your posts according to the company's plan. My blog is a perfect place to talk about the things that I am interested in. Here, I can focus on my own thoughts and I can arrange my own schedule.

The main goal of my blog is not to sell or to promote a company. It has been a personal experiment, a development plan. I have learned so much from my readers, and I am very thankful for that. In fact, there have been more readers than what I expected at the beginning of this journey. Some of my articles have been read around 1000 times. This is very encouraging and motivating.

I have experimented a lot and learned from each post. Here, the three most important things I have learned during this year of blogging:

1) Creating the right content for your blog

The process of creating content for my blog has been fascinating and challenging at the same time. It is good that you cannot see my drafts. At the moment, there are ca. 40 messy ideas. This blog has helped me to find a writing opportunity in almost everything in my life. Sometimes, I get topic ideas from things I see at my work place, other times, from my friend's conversations and experiences or from a book. I have accumulated a lot of ideas, however, some of those need to be very polished before I actually can publish those. Ideas are not very useful if I am not able to create something relevant from those.

Yes, content is the king, but I have learned that the way I present my content is also very important. It is not only about having fancy pictures but, more about having the right structure. SEO matters and you can see that very clearly when you have the chance to try these structures, titles, subtitles and wording, and measure the results by yourself. It is a great learning experience.

In a nutshell, a blog post should be:
- Relevant (information that matters)
- Easy to read
- With the right structures (titles, subtitles, etc.)
- With the right keywords to be found.

2) Mastering Social Media: 

To share your content on other channels is a must if you want to be found.  In my case, I use social media to promote my blog and my posts. Most of the visitors come to my blog from Twitter or from Google+. There is some organic search, too. I have used Facebook only a few times and I have gotten great results. However, I don't use Facebook so often because half of my contacts are not speaking English. It feels like I would be spamming them.

When I publish something on my social media channels, I can see the changes to the visitors' statistics. Following the Google and Blogger analytics have been very important part of the development of my blog. I have had the chance to play with many messages and content and see if those work or not.

There is something about the timing, too. I get more visitors to my blog if I promote at the right time for my audience. In my case, I write mostly in English so, half of the visitors are coming from the USA. When I tweet at the USA time I get more visitors than if I tweet at my local (Finnish) time. However, Finns are reading my blog, too. (Kiitos!)

Social media is all about interactions and getting to know people. I have noticed that if somebody "relevant" likes or share my tweet promoting my blog post, I get more visitors. If I am the one sharing other's people content, I also get more visibility. Sharing is caring.

3) Courage:
Jeff Bullas said once that "The biggest challenge for any blogger, social media marketer, content creator, and publisher is to -start- ". I could not agree more. It took a while for me to start this project, but, I am very glad I did.

Writing a blog is getting exposure. This can be very intimidating at some points. It took me a while to start my blog trying to find the perfect topic (or even the perfect language). The truth is that the perfect topic does not exist, so you just need to write and publish. I have done this experiment and I am glad about the results and the learning. Sometimes, I write and publish. Other times, I come back and edit. It is all about experimenting.  Hopefully, you have enjoyed this year on my planet as well. Thank you for be there.

Cuando Las Redes Sociales Son "Un Baúl De Recuerdos"

Muchos de nosotros hemos hablado ya por algún tiempo sobre las redes sociales. Sin embargo, todavía nos encontramos con empresas que están dando los primeros pasos en el desarrollo de las estrategias de mercadeo en estas redes. Si éste es tu caso, felicidades. Nunca es tarde para dar el primer paso.

Me imagino que ya debes tener en mente qué redes son las mejores para tu audiencia y a lo mejor ya has pensado qué tipo de contenido crear y publicar. Un buen contenido te ayudará a alcanzar tus metas.

El contenido para mercadeo tradicional y el contenido para redes sociales

Muchas veces por falta de tiempo podrás sentirte tentado en utilizar el material viejo, ya usado en canales tradicionales, y simplemente publicarlo en tu Facebook o en tu Instagram. Para tu audiencia será aburrido ver los contenidos ya conocidos, ahora “almacenados” de manera “digital”. 

Sin duda alguna, las redes sociales son frescas y así deberá ser tú contenido también. Algo muy bueno del auge de estas redes es que nos desafían a diario a ver y trabajar nuestro contenido de una manera diferente, de una manera más rica. Las redes sociales se enriquecen de la interacción, del contenido interesante, de nuevas perspectivas visuales, de arriesgarse a ser diferente así como también de actuar rápido y con un poco de urgencia. Sé creativo, olvídate de las mentes cuadradas y cosas demasiados tradicionales y diviértete con tu contenido.

Enfrentando lo desconocido. El primer contacto con las redes sociales

Si aún no has aprendido a usar por ejemplo, el Twitter, no tengas miedo. Mira a tu alrededor. De seguro que encontraras uno de esas personas “digi-nativas”. También hoy en día es mucho más fácil conseguir ayuda en Internet para desarrollar tus habilidades. Olvídate de tu orgullo, busca ayuda y empieza a aprender y disfrutar de esta aventura. Usar los medios sociales no debería sentirse como una tortura. Te puedo prometer que si consigues una red social que sea “tu alma gemela”, la pasarás a gusto.

Crea un contenido nuevo y relevante

Yo soy una persona súper afortunada a nivel profesional. He tenido la suerte de pasearme por varias industrias -por el B2B y por el B2C. En estas industrias de verdad que el mercadeo se mueve de una manera diferente, pero a la final todos le mercadeamos a humanos. Los humanos como tal se dormirán y dejarán tu sitio web o tu red social, si el contenido es tipo “noticia de ayer”.

Entonces, ¿estás listo para escribir tu primer tuit?  Allá vamos, respira profundo y comparte algo que menee un poco tu negocio y tu marca. Llama la atención de tu audiencia. Recuerda, que como todo en la vida, hay que tener un poco de paciencia. Si lo que quieres es incrementar las ventas de tu negocio, hay que darle un poco de tiempo. No obtendrás la venta inmediatamente después de escribir tus dos primeras líneas. Seamos optimistas, pero realistas.

A Simple Marketing Tip: Your Signature Matters

Something so simple yet so important. 

Your email signature says more about your company and about yourself than you think. 

Doing business by email:

 
I receive hundreds of emails per week, perhaps thousands. You might be surprised by the amount of emails I receive from people working for respectable companies without a formal company signature.

Call me old fashion but, if you are contacting me for the first time by email, you need to make a great impression. I understand that we are quite busy and so on but, an email without contact information will take you nowhere. 

If you are trying to sell me something or if you are contacting me to start a business relation with the company that I represent, you should absolutely let me know who you are. Or if you need more information about the company where I work for or about its products, you need to know that I will not be able to give you a price without knowing you. I know there is Google but, your email signature is your business card. It will make our lives easier if you provides us with some basic information.

Use your signature to marketing yourself:


Your signature is not a wasted space on your email bottom. These characters can be used smartly to marketing yourself and marketing your company. Think quickly, how many emails did you sent today? Well, your information has been exposed to all your receivers. Don't lose this opportunity.

You don't need to use anything extraordinary. In fact, I would say that the best option is to use a clean, easy to read information that might help our communication in the future.

6 steps to a useful signature:

1. Add your first name and last name
2. Add your role in your organization
3. Add your contact info (office phone, mobile number, email, etc). Please, if you are in contact with people from different countries, kindly notice this when giving the phone and mobile phones number.
4. Do you want to direct your customers to your website or to your social media channels? If so, the signature is a good place to show the links/gadgets.
5. Make sure that your font style and the font size are good. Follow your brand book in case of using the corporate email signature.
6. Make sure that people in your company use similar signature style.

Does Your Customer Understand Your Product?

You have a fantastic product: the latest technology, a state-of-the-art, etc. 
Nobody is buying your product.

You have invested a lot of money in marketing, communications and sales material. 
Your team used a lot of hours preparing it. 
Nobody is reading it. 

You have gotten no inquiries.

It is perhaps time to ask yourself a very important question: are your customers understanding what you are trying to say?  

Create messages which are easy to understand.  
Picture http://smilingtreetoys.com

Technical communication for non-technical customers: 

I have been involved in multiple technical or engineering-oriented projects. If I am honest, at the beginning it was not easy. I remember sitting in technical meetings listening to technical presentations. There the product managers used their field jargon and presented all the possible technical data. This was heavy data. It was hard to understand. For some engineers, the messages about their products were "so obvious" that they thought additional explanations were no needed. Unfortunately, the delivered messages to the customers were as complex and difficult as those used during the meetings. The messages were not reaching their audience.

Assuming that your (non- technical) target group understands very well your technical messages is a very common mistake. Another common practice is delivering very detailed data to "clarify" something forgetting that the target group has a very different level of understanding.  

The solution is simple. If your audience is not as technical as your team, you have to translate the technical information into messages which are easy to understand by your audience.



Communicate with your customers effectively:

If you are an expert on the topic, and especially if you are the "father of the product", you might try to impress your audience with your knowledge. That is a normal human tendency. However, there is a big difference between knowing something and being able to explain it to someone else. When preparing your marketing, sales or communications material remember the blog post, the brochure and the campaign are not for your or for your team.

The solution is not adding technical details to your content. You need to think a bit more like the customer. So, focus on finding out your customers' needs as well as getting to know your customers' understanding level. With this information you might know the right level of detail needed on your content. It is important to always keep in mind that if you are focusing only on the technical details or scoping your message too narrowly, there is a high risk of getting bogged.

Keep it simple. If your message is too hard to explain, it will be too hard to be understood by your audience.

Teamwork means better marketing and communications material:

Are you thinking that your product is so unique that nobody else than you is able to talk about it ? If your answer is YES, it is time to change your mentality. Such a product does not exist. 

You should work with different people to prepare your marketing, communication and sales material. It will help you developing your content. If more people understand your content, you will have more chances to get your customers and prospects interested in your product.

If you want to start with something simple, test if your actual material works. Ask feedback from people who are not directly involved in your project. 

Let your marketing and communication team work on your wording and on your content. If you are working with an outside agency, they might give you a sincere feedback on how you should try to create your content to increase your product's awareness and especially, to be understood by your audience. You don't need to accept all the suggestions but, it is all about working as a team. Be ready to interchange ideas, to ask and to answer questions as well as to share your thoughts.

Tus Empleados Se "Enredan" En las Redes Sociales ¿Está Tu Empresa Lista?

Siempre he creído que los empleados son los mejores embajadores de las empresas, de sus marcas y de sus productos. Las empresas necesitan ser bien representadas frente a los consumidores, competidores y hasta frente a los futuros empleados. Está de más decir que, sí los empleados están felices, ellos van a transmitir esa felicidad a la gente que les rodea, ya sea de forma online o cara a cara. Los amigos de tus empleados absorberán esta información (y hasta pueden sentirse celosos si los amigos trabajan en una súper empresa). En el mejor de los casos, estos amigos pueden pedirles trabajo a tus empleados lo que te ayudará a reducir los costos de reclutamiento de tu empresa. También vale la pena mencionar que los amigos de tus empleados poder ser tus consumidores y al escuchar las buenas historias y experiencias sobre tu empresa, comprarán aún más tus productos.

Con el alcance de las redes sociales, tus empleados ahora también pueden ser parte de las comunicaciones y mercadeo de tu empresa, te guste o no. En comparación con la comunicación tradicional, ahora tus empleados pueden comunicarse con tu audiencia de una manera más fácil e informal, pero a la vez más poderosa.

Las redes sociales han dado a los empleados un poder que puede ser bien intimidante para algunos gerentes y supervisores, especialmente si ellos no conocen bien los nuevos medios. Sí eres uno de esos gerentes, y te sientes un poco ansioso o estresado porque esta situación no la puedes controlar, relájate, y toma las acciones necesarias para que este proceso sea exitoso.

La verdad es que tú o la empresa no pueden evitar las redes sociales. De la misma manera, no se puede controlar la comunicación de tus empleados en las mencionadas redes. Lo que si puedes hacer es ayudar a tus empleados y hacerles entender la importancia que tiene sus comunicaciones y mensajes y especialmente, el papel que ellos juegan construyendo la presencia online de tu empresa.

El debate sobre prohibir el uso de las redes sociales en las horas laborales, o controlar lo que se escribe, ha estado en la mesa por largo tiempo. La verdad es que prohibirle a tus empleados la participación en las redes sociales es absurdo y será más un problema que una solución. Ignorar el papel que tus empleados juegan en tus comunicaciones, simplemente, porque ellos nos son ejecutivos de comunicaciones o porque no son unos gurúes de las redes sociales también fallará como estrategia. Lo mejor será organizar entrenamientos sobre las diferentes áreas de las redes sociales como por ejemplo: cómo usar las redes sociales, el tono de mensaje que es más apropiado para tu empresa, tips sobre temas para compartir, etc. Esos entrenamientos, organizados de acuerdo a tus necesidades, te ayudarán a canalizar los mensajes en la dirección apropiada y así podrás evitar "sorpresas". Lo más importante es usar estos entrenamientos para alentar y entusiasmar a tus empleados a usar las redes sociales.

 

Las redes sociales te brindarán muchos beneficios. Sin duda alguna son una opción de mercadeo más económica que el mercadeo tradicional y con alcance global. Las redes sociales son canales para interactuar, lo que te ayudará a alcanzar nuevos prospectos, fanáticos y seguidores. Tus empleados pueden usar las redes sociales para conocer más sobre tu producto o tu negocio y para evaluar los cambios en la industria. Ésta información será útil para reaccionar a tiempo e innovar.

Si tu empresa está en una de esas industrias en el que usar las redes sociales no es una práctica común, disfruta de este privilegio. No esperes que otras empresas tomen la iniciativa, al contrario, ahora tienes la oportunidad de ser el primero en usar éstos canales.

Recuerda, las redes sociales están aquí para quedarse. Tú no lo puedes evitar.

Are You Ready to Listen To Your Employees?

Every day employees find small problems and challenges at work. However, this is not a bad thing. In fact, each challenge can spark ideas for improvements. Even the simplest idea can have a positive impact on your company performance improving your revenue, your safety and also your employees' engagement rate. 

When you open "the employee's suggestion box" with an open heart and especially, with an open mind, you can make your employees feel valued, therefore, their performance can reach a completely new level. 

Your employees can help you to improve different processes and areas in your company

Are you currently receiving fresh and innovative ideas?

- You have asked your employees for opinion and you have gotten no answer
- You have a suggestion list on your internal system with no marks
- Nobody comments on ways to improve performance
- In team meetings, your employees are mostly silent and agreeing in everything you say. 

It is time to check why this is happening.

Corporate culture for innovation: 
 
In many companies, suggestions seem to disappear into a dark hole. In others, employees with new ideas might be seen as an unfit for the organization. Sometimes, the company's priorities list does not include managing employees' suggestions. Or perhaps they are just "too busy" to improve.  

If you want to properly use your employees' suggestion to improve your company's performance, you need a corporate culture that matches and supports it. It this is not the case at the moment, you must reboot your existing corporate culture. 

Be ready, this is not an easy task.
 
How to work on your employees suggestions: 
 
Evaluate your corporate culture: if you are not receiving fresh and innovative ideas and your employees remain silent when you ask for suggestion, it is time to evaluate your corporate values and rituals. Change those in a way that your new values supports the employees' suggestion experience. 

Create a safe environment for suggestions and input: make sure that your employees feel free to talk about their ideas and point of views. Your employees' collaboration will be better when they feel comfortable providing input without being demeaned.

Be welcome and open for ideas: as each employee is different, you might get ideas, proposals and points of view which are different than your own. If people want to do things in different ways than your way, it does not mean that they are wrong, that they don't know how to do things or that they want to go against you. When you add different approaches to your company actions and processes, you inject richness into your company.

Be empathy: let say that your employee is sharing a solution to a problem he is facing at work but, this problem does not resonate to you, remember to put yourself in this person's shoes and try to understand his situation.

Facilitating spaces for experience sharing:  I have learned so much from the professional experiences of my colleagues located in other units and regions, that I cannot recommend this experience sharing enough. The point is not to imitate the tactics that others are implementing but, to learn from them, take some inputs from the cases and perhaps, adapt and use those inputs in your own activities. Make experience sharing a regular part of your communication and processes. 

Give space to the anonymous: The truth is that not everyone feels comfortable to share the own ideas, however, this does not mean that they have no ideas at all, or that their ideas are invaluable. By giving the chance to share their points of view in an anonymous way, you are getting also another set of ideas and approaches.

Focus on things that add value: positive and constructive criticism is accepted, to be negative and nasty, is not.

Prioritize: you might receive many suggestions and it might feel a bit overwhelming. Talk to your people a select those topics and actions which are more urgent. Make a priority list and go trough the cases according to the list.

Engage people in solving the problems: you don't need to be in charge of solving all people's problem. In fact, you should delegate and engage your employees in solving their issues. Making them responsible of some improvements, will make them more committed.

Follow-up tasks: work together with your employees and create clear plans and deadlines for these improvements. You can, for example, manage those as projects. In this way you can follow up and evaluate the results.




Receiving feedback and suggestion from your employees will help you to develop as a manager and especially, to develop the way your company is doing things. Remember to be open minded and make your employees part of the process. Your employees will feel that their opinions are valued and they can have an impact on changing things to better. If at the moment you are facing difficulties receiving feedback, you might need to transform your corporate culture into one that is open for employees' suggestions and feedback. For that, you need organizational commitment, clarity and ongoing communication