Smart Marketing For Small Business

This is the 6th post in my series on Smart Marketing For Small Business. You can find the rest of these in various place on my wall.
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#6 in a series on Smart Marketing for Small Business) Sooner or later. hopefully sooner, you will need 0 communications person to help you So this post i obout the characters tics you would be wise to look for i the person or team you choose (Pardon the gender bios in the syntax everything apphes to both males and females | 1. The Good Communicator Always Tells The Truth Every brand 15 2 world unto sel ht has features and benefits. it has com- pettors and t has a number of people who are its custodans The good communicator learns what the brand 1s all about, how 1t functions in the world. what it really has to offer its target audwence and then tells that story He doesn't embellish the story with a lot of hyperbole, but makes the story interesting, by reflecting hs own fascination with what makes your brand worth talking about in the first piace He never bullshits any one into bebeving that the brand rs something that 1t is not Because he knows that the #1 killer of brands 1s fadure to debver on a brand promise 2. The Good Communicator Always Sticks To The Strategy You have hopefully spent a lot of me and energy developng a strategy for your brand The good communicator has a great deal of respect for thes strategy and everything he does 1 designed to bring it to Ife in whatever form of communication he 1s executing aganst The good communicator never creates an dea that defines 3 strategy He only creates eas that reflect it 3. The Good Communicator Understands That The Medium Is Not The Message Contrary to what Marshall McLuhan hypothesized many years ago. the £004 communicator bekeves that the message 1s the message. and that the medium which transmits the message 1s nothing more or less and 2 condurt that takes the message from one place to another There are many more condurts than there used to be back mn the day before digital communications came along And the good commurscator always makes sure he understands how the message needs to be ‘contoured for the medium in which 13 sent 4. The Good Communicator Is Only As Good As The Information He Has To Work With The reason that a good communicator will not create workable eas has Ide to do with hrs ea creavon and execubonal skils and more to do with the information and nsight he 1s given to work with The ‘crap in/ crap out’ equabon tends to apply here. more often then not However. the £00d communicator also has insuncs and ‘crap radar” that tell ham when something 5 not right and he will be the first to raise the red flag before things spin off kalter 5. The Good Communicator Understands That All Opinions Count Before the good communicator does anything, he listens. Listening 1s the key to developing an accurate pont of view The accurate pont of view 13 the key to developing insights Developmg insights 1s the key to creaung wdeas that wil reflect and benefic the brand And so 1t goes A good communicator may not agree with everybody's opinion. but he will respect that opinion and always weigh its relative pros and cons before he moves forward 6. The Good Communicator Is Always A Team Player. Up To A Point The good communicator understands that nothing good 1s ever created m vacuum He seeks mput and opineon constantly What he doesn't need 1s help with what he does And thes 13 2 good thing because chents who get 100 mvolved in the process of creating wdeas tend to lose ther obrectivity. which 15 2 key element in pdging what the communscator does Its also another set of fingerprints on the project that. often umes. proves to be one 100 many sets. and can damage the purity of the thinking, Everything | hove pst written 5 whot | bebeve being o good professional communicator ts off about I'm sure many of you will think of other things that are relevant to your own experience. And that's as it should be | hope my insights will prove usefid to you, even if it's just in the area of food for thought">