Transcript
[00:00:03.560] - Imogen
Hello and welcome to Dear Comms, the podcast where we tackle your biggest corporate comms challenges. My name's Imogen.
[00:00:13.500] - Amanda
I'm Amanda. Together, we're going to give you some practical, no-nonsense advice so you can focus on the things that really matter: influence, engagement, and impact.
[00:00:23.950] - Imogen
Today we have got a topic which I love, which I love— newsletters.
[00:00:29.250] - Amanda
Everybody's favorite channel.
[00:00:31.650] - Imogen
This listener had a familiar problem, something we have dealt with before.
[00:00:36.790] - Amanda
Yeah.
[00:00:37.190] - Imogen
They said, our employees are drowning in newsletters. I've tried to push back, but every team insists theirs is essential. How do I manage this information overload and come up with a solution where everybody's happy? Good question. How many emails do you get a day, Amanda?
[00:00:58.450] - Amanda
50, 100, 200 on a bad day, I guess.
[00:01:03.170] - Imogen
200 on a Friday at 5 PM.
[00:01:06.060] - Amanda
Yeah, that's the one.
[00:01:08.310] - Imogen
How many of those emails would you say you just delete without reading?
[00:01:13.220] - Amanda
Reading properly? Probably about 60%, I would've thought.
[00:01:16.750] - Imogen
Yeah. And I think that's normal. I think that's the same as everyone, because no matter where we work, Information overload is, is a problem. And more often than not, it's newsletters which are causing that problem. It's not just about, about volume. It's that every team in an organization is convinced that their newsletter is essential and is full of information that every employee needs to know. And when everything's important, well, nothing's important.
[00:01:50.040] - Amanda
Yeah, it's that, can you just send? Yeah. And believe it or not, this is a bit of a comms-made problem. I think without a gatekeeping system in place, there's no filter. So, if there's no process or a template to help prioritize the flow of information, you are going to be stuck with that kind of request. And what's the outcome? Well, employees end up ignoring everything. And vital messages are lost in the noise. I think sadly we can't say no to every newsletter request.
[00:02:23.690] - Imogen
No matter how much we want to.
[00:02:25.230] - Amanda
A bit like logos, you know, you can't always say no. But I think we can put in place an approach that helps to turn that chaos into some calm. So here it comes, let's ask some questions. It may sound silly, but do you actually really know people are overloaded, or are we making assumptions? So do a comms audit. How do they want to receive information? From who? On what? Which channels? You know, what do they like, not like, use every day? I think you need this data and feedback when it comes to pushing back.
[00:03:06.270] - Imogen
Absolutely. You need to be able to tell John that the paperclip chronicles, his weekly roundup from office supplies, is probably not going to do what he thinks it is.
[00:03:17.330] - Amanda
And if you're making informed decisions about what employees want and need to hear, that's got to be way more effective and impactful, hasn't it?
[00:03:25.830] - Imogen
Absolutely. I think this idea of process is really important. I know that I love a good plan, I love a good process. Yeah, me too. But I do think it's a really important way of being that gatekeeper that you were talking about. So whenever anyone approaches us wanting comms, be it newsletters, be it presentations, logos, whatever it is, there should be some kind of a process in place. We can't just send everything out. We need to ask some very core, simple questions. The first one has always got to be, what is the objective of this communication? What do we want to achieve? We've then got to say, you know, is it delivering on our business objectives? What does it help us achieve as a company? Then, who's our audience? And our audience is not everybody. Everybody is not an audience. Everybody is a crowd. So who is that audience? And what is the best channel to get them on? How do they receive information? That's where your audit comes in. And is this something we planned for? Is this something we know about? So have a look back to your comms plan that you developed as a result of last week's podcast and see whether it's in there.
[00:04:41.240]
You might want to develop some kind of a framework which outlines what type of comms should go through which channel. So, what goes on your Slack, what goes in face-to-face town halls. If you start thinking more strategically about the information you're pushing out, you will become more strategic in your communications as well.
[00:05:01.480] - Amanda
Yeah, and please, please don't send everything to everyone. So, where possible, I think you've got to try and segment and personalize your communications. Very hard to ignore something when it feels like it's it's been written for you, right? The topics you care about, the people that you know. So you need to be smart, be smart in where you're sending your newsletters. I mean, realistically, do your operations team on the ground need to know about finance's digitalization campaign? Go back to—
[00:05:30.880] - Imogen
Does anyone need to know?
[00:05:32.260] - Amanda
Well, finance, probably finance. But go back and ask another question. Does this information help X audience do their job better? Or make them feel more engaged with the company? If the answer is no, then you know what to do. Don't do it.
[00:05:47.520] - Imogen
That, that really needs to be your barometer, doesn't it?
[00:05:50.630] - Amanda
Yeah, absolutely.
[00:05:52.060] - Imogen
Is it helping them do their job? Is it helping them feel more engaged, more productive, more in line with the company's values? If it doesn't do either of those, what is the objective?
[00:06:04.260] - Amanda
Yeah, and raising awareness is not an answer, by the way. So if they say raising awareness, you need to ask some further questions.
[00:06:11.230] - Imogen
There's no doubt that newsletters are very useful tool in our communications toolbox, but they have to be used in the right way. We need to understand how our employees want to receive information and who from, so we can ensure they stay engaged without feeling overwhelmed. So Zappos, who is a US shoe company, they don't have any newsletters at all in their organization. They've moved it all over to their intranet, and they have blogs for the different departments. And the great thing about that for me is that this means that communication becomes two-way because you can directly interact, engage, discuss things with the author of that blog in one place. Everyone knows where that information sits and they don't have to trawl through emails to find it. You need to make sure that you can back up your new newsletter strategy. So you need to have your vanity metrics. For this one. So what are open rates like? How are people engaging with your content? If you can then add that to your sentiment tracking, how do people feel, behave, think, then you're going to have a great story to tell your leadership and prove to them that your way of doing comms is more effective.
[00:07:31.580] - Amanda
Less is more is the mantra, right?
[00:07:33.730] - Imogen
Absolutely.
[00:07:34.470] - Amanda
So if you want to get started right now, why not try a pilot? Big fan of pilots. Try a digest email and test it with a small group of trusted employees. Get feedback, refine it, think about how you can scale it. Talk to your IT team or whoever manages your intranet and see if you can reskin or adjust that intranet to make it more user-friendly. So, things are easy to find. And you know what? Grab a coffee with some trusted colleagues and see what they like. What do they delete? What do they suggest? You're not going to fix things overnight, but if you've got the facts on your side, you'll have a process and you can show success through small steps. You'll get there.
[00:08:24.160] - Imogen
Eventually.
[00:08:25.300] - Amanda
Eventually. It takes time.
[00:08:27.800] - Imogen
So that's us done for another week. If you try any of our solutions, don't be shy. Do let us know how you get on. If this has sparked a question you'd like to tackle, Again, do get in touch and share it.
[00:08:39.180] - Amanda
When, uh, do give us those 5 stars and all that. Speak to you soon.
[00:08:43.740] - Imogen
Goodbye.
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