Communication Archives - Bike Lane Business Development

“I’m just checking in…”

"I'm just checking in..."

from HubSpot

File under: Communication

I’m not going to lie. I delete almost (sometimes I’m weak) every email that comes to me that starts with “I’m just checking in…” or “I’m sorry to bother you…”.

Karla Cook from HubSpot (@krla_cook) posted an article that is a useful guide on how to get that useless chatter out of your emails. The goal with any business writing, be it marketing copy or simply business communication, you don’t want to sound like everyone else.

HubSpot goes into detail about why each phrase is not good. I think the overarching message is, “Don’t sound like everyone else! Stand out!”

Read the post here 10 Business Email Phrases to Stop (& Start) Using With Clients

Photo by Rupert Britton on Unsplash

If ‘We’ score 80 and ‘You’ score 20… ’We’ lose

Communication

If ‘We’ score 80 and ‘You’ score 20… ’We’ lose

from Social Media Examiner

File under: Communication

How often have you gone to someone’s website and read, “We focus on the customer, and we do wonderful things, and we do it better than anyone, and we can solve all your needs, and we can...and we do...and we...and we…”?

‘If’ you read the whole page, it’s a good chance that you still don’t know why they are different because those words seem to be the same words that you read on their competitor’s website too.

On Social Media Examiner’s blog, they interview Pool Company owner and Marketing Guru Marcus Sheridan. It’s pretty eye-opening stuff about how to phrase your website (and all your marketing language as a whole).

The mistake he mentions that I see the most is the ‘We vs. You’ mistake. Here it is below:

"Here’s another test that you can do with your site right now. Count the ratio of “we” versus “you” on the website. You or yours. We or our.

If you look at most homepages, you’ll see that it’s 80% “we.” So if you have ten statements using “we” versus “you,” eight are going to be “we”-based, and two are going to be “you”-based. It needs to be the other way around."

This article is well worth the 15 minute read. Fair warning, it may cause you to get more business because you’ll feel compelled to re-write everything.

You’ve been warned.

Photo by Gursimrat Ganda on Unsplash

Classic Blunder

Communication

Classic Blunder

from Content Marketing Institute

File under: Communication

Don’t be remembered like Ignaz Semmelweis.

Poor Ignaz fell victim to one of the classic blunders of communication. He told people what they were doing wrong, and his message wasn’t received. While another medical person at the same time was saying the same thing differently and got people listened to her, and it saved lives. You may have heard of her, Florence Nightingale.

If you can’t read the post right now, here is my biggest takeaway:

“People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they themselves have discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others.” - Blaise Pascal

Read the article here https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2019/10/get-audience-greenlight/

P.S. The timing on this with what is going on in the world is serendipitous.

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