You Will Be Rewarded for your Accuracy

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

You Will Be Rewarded for your Accuracy

Client: “It would be great to have some videos added to the site.”

Me: “You can actually do it yourself through the content management system that’s set up. You can login and add a link that is directly from YouTube to play your videos right on your site. It’ll take you just a few minutes to do. This way you won’t have to come to us and pay us for the work because I know you said you have a tight budget.”

Client: “You lost me at ‘actually.’ Nevermind.. “

There is a divide that lies between politicians, marketers, and engineers in this world in the form of communication and relay of information. Engineers understand a great deal of the technical jargon that it takes to make what they design. Marketers try to close the divide by expressing the engineering jargon in normal terms, and politicians try to understand both by creating legislation that makes sense.

“You will be rewarded for your accuracy” a manager once told me. Accuracy especially in the marketing standpoint is so important because people rely on marketing to understand and see value in what is being conveyed to them. In a world where technical platforms such as Content Management Systems dominate the discussion and where those who have never touched one want to use them, as evidenced in the CFH discussion above, the need to communicate technically and communicate well is so useful and necessary to reduce the level of confusion.

K.I.S.S.

Keep it simple, stupid, we’re told at a young age. I couldn’t agree more with the process, and when the topic comes to creating marketing campaigns the approach should be no different. So many marketing campaigns, product launches and platforms are so ridiculously crafted these days that no matter how beautiful and elegant the system, nobody bothers to interact or take a part in the conversation. When the topic comes to things of technical jargon, the approach should be no different.

So short lesson: simplify your approach, communicate well, and you’ll reap the rewards from your clients - the gift of understanding.