I came across this great list of 21 tips to be more likeable.
My favorites?
- Be approachable and available
- Speak clearly
- Mirror the other party in the conversation
- Provide tangible value
These are some guidelines that apply to marketing communicatiosn and content writing too. Let’s break these down one by one.
Being approachable and available. Can your website be more user-friendly? When people call your company is it easy to find the person or resource they are looking for? At a tradeshow, are all of your reps on their blackberries or engaging the passerbys? Where do you think you can make improvements? Have new employees call your company or navigate the website. Time them to see how long it takes to find what they are looking for. Now time yourself. If the difference is more the 50% you probably have roo to improve. Are there steps you can leave out. Can you add more consistent visual clues on your website? At a show, nominate someone to work the aisle and stop of many passerbys as possible. Who ever turns the most into suspects wins a prize. I notice that saying hi and asking a couple of neutral questions increases your traffic conversion by at 30%. Give it a try next time!
Speak clearly. In the tech industry, it is really easy to get caught up in industry jargon and marketing speak. I do this all the time. I am trying to cut back. So i recommend you start small. Use marketing-speak or jargon in the longer text elements, but use plain english in you bullet points, sidebars and lists. We gotta start somewhere. Hopefully with more practice, we can all cut down our content to the essence of the message.
Mirror the other person in the conversation. This is a little less clear, but think about your target audience. Do they prefer formal language, or informal communications. How do they want to hear from you: email, RSS, message boards, on the phone or something else. Try to sync up your methods, style and language to what your targets like.
Provide Tangible Value. Our communications have to stand the test of time. at least 5 minutes worth. so think about your 3, or 5, or 7 key takeaways, and make them really obvious. and these need to be pieces of info that people actually want or need. If you don’t have any key takeaways, you might want to reconsider creating that piece of content. 🙂
Check out the original post, there are some great tips!
I'm Jame :) 