Do the responses to your communications, content and messaging vary widely?
I've always found it interesting that you can present the same information to a group of similar people and get back a variety of interpretations. I just had this experience and it left me intrigued. Three people in the same industry with similar job roles and related background experience all read something I wrote and responded differently.
I had asked for feedback, so I expected responses. I wanted a read on impact. But, here's what's funny. Each of them commented on something different. The piece struck a chord with all three, which was good, but in entirely different ways.
Therefore, their feedback about improvement came back in relation to three totally unrelated areas of the piece. This had me start thinking about personas and profiles and how far off the mark we can get if we don't have good insights and evaluate the intelligence we have appropriately.
This is because, although they appear the same demographically, psychographically these three people vary quite a bit. And personal perspective will influence interpretation.
When trying to align interpretation and perspective consider:
- Word choice - don't get too tricky. Simpler is better, if you have a choice. It's interesting to consider that most people who scan information don't do well with it above about a 6th grade level of difficulty. Note - we all scan these days. It's the only way to keep up.
- Sentence structure - Assess every sentence for that dreaded "and" and commas that allow you to continue a sentence too long. Get rid of as many of them as you can. Remember the attention span thing. Don't put more than three items with commas. Three is the number of things most people process easily.
- Tone - don't preach, talk down or use sarcasm. With written words, it hardly ever comes off the way you intend, unless you're really good or your audience expects it from you.
A word about jargon. Jargon can be good or bad. Too much and your writing becomes incomprehensible. Too little and your audience may think you don't understand them. Well placed terms, used sparingly, can be helpful in making a solid connection and in raising your credibility level regarding the topic at hand.
Finally, segmentation is not a nasty word. It's an imperative for getting the interpretation you want to align with the perspective applied to your communications. The more narrow you can "niche" your marketing segments, the closer your pieces will be to generating the response you intend.
Try adding keyword, phrase and perspective insights to your segment personas. If you haven't already.
And, for those of you shuddering about writing 6 different articles for 6 different segments, this may not be necessary if you write the piece well in the first place. For each segment, refer to your keyword, phrase and perspective notes and adjust your content accordingly to match the intended segment.
Read the content out loud to see how it sounds. If it doesn't roll right off your tongue, go back and look at your word choice, sentence structure and tone again. Read it to several different people (or have them read it).
- Ask for their response and feedback.
- Ask them why they responded in a particular fashion.
- Ask them what resonated and what didn't.
Consider how you might apply their interpretations to the piece. Or, if you should. Will applying their feedback be helpful in increasing relevance for your intended audience?
As you progress with your content nurturing program compare the content that generates the best reponses to the content that doesn't. Can you isolate the differences in style? If you've been sending one message to the entire list, is there a definitive segment that's responding best to that communication?
Just remember that people don't leave their personal perspective at home when they go to the office.
