When I was Cubmaster of Pack 12 Hubbardston, I needed to communicate a lot of information to the Scouts and their families. They needed to know when we were meeting, what they needed to bring, where we were going to be, and how they should prepare. Here’s a list of the ways I got the word out:
- Text messaging
- Facebook Messenger
- Google calendar listings
- Printed flyers
- Phone calls
- Face-to-face meetings
Despite the fact that I used these 8 communication tools (!) to suit everybody’s needs, invariably there’d be at least one person who would tell me after a meeting that this was the “first she’d heard about [enter subject here].” Thankfully, though, most people got the message.
Are you getting this?
The only person who sees all of your communications is you. The people you’re trying to reach will only be aware of a few of them, or even just one. They’re more likely to pay attention to their preferred type and to ignore the rest.
Not every form of communication is going to reach everybody you want to communicate with. The trick is finding out how the people you want to reach prefer to receive messages from you. Some people respond better to electronic communication like social media posts and newsletters, while others act on phone calls, direct mail, radio and TV advertisements, print ads, and billboards.
By sending your messages in different formats and tracking the results from each, you’ll see patterns develop and learn which media tend to work best to reach your target market.
Cheap and easy isn’t always better
Because social media and electronic communications can be easy to create and often can be done at little or no cost, you might think it’s the best way for you to reach your target market. And you’d be right: it’s the best way for you to reach your target market. But maybe not the best way for your target market to receive the message.
Consider this: How well do you think social media and electronic communication work for a senior center? My town’s Council on Aging has a Facebook page, where they post regularly. They also rely on older forms of communication. On their Facebook page, they urge people interested in volunteering to call them on the phone. Their monthly newsletter is printed on paper. Does this make them old fashioned? Maybe. But phone calls and paper newsletters are how the senior citizens they serve prefer to communicate. And it’s working out just fine for them.
Balance your marketing mix
It all comes down to balancing the marketing mix and not relying solely on one form of communication. That will mean more work for you, since you’ll need to spread the same message across many different channels and media.
The good news is that you can broadcast the same message across different formats. Since nobody except you sees all of the communications, it won’t seem repetitive. In fact, it’s a good thing, since some people could receive your message in different ways, reinforcing it because it’s the same one over and over.
A 100% effective communication style doesn’t exist
Wouldn’t it be great if a single form of communication were effective in reaching everyone at once? It sure would. You know what else would be great? Unicorns.
The best we can do is to get our messages out there in multiple formats, repeatedly, in the hope that most people will receive them. Sure, there will always be that one parent who never got the message about the Pack meeting. But that shouldn’t stop you from trying.