By: Tony Barlow | tbarlow@barlowmccarthy.com
Innovation is really about adding value, starting with today and considering how to continuously make changes to improve your connectivity and value. Whether a part of a relations team or a recruitment team, there is value in the words we type, print, email and write every day. This certainly applies to our daily conversations within the office but for this conversation let’s consider the words we use to communicate with prospective referral sources, leads and recruits.
Life’s pace can create a frenzied feeling to just get the message out there. Yet the words we use make a difference in every individual email, email blast, job posting and marketing document. Your words are how you differentiate yourself and your opportunities from the rest. Here are a few suggestions to get the most out of your writing.
- Take Your Time – Everyone is busy. We all have too much to do and too little time to do it. Often we end up prioritizing some parts of our job while others get the short end of the stick. The emails, job postings and documents you write might be the only chance you get to communicate with a prospect or new lead. Set aside time to be creative, find ways to differentiate and consider tone – intended or not!
- Throw Out the Templates – While in some cases a template can serve an important role, in most cases a template is a shortcut you just don’t need. Using a template and then just swapping in new elements is not going to produce strong writing. Templates can help you get organized and get you started but they are better when heavily customized to tap into the specific needs of the position or offer you are sharing.
- Get Creative – There is a widely held belief that because we are communicating with physicians, we need to be bland and boring. That’s just not accurate. Get creative with your communication to make sure it is interesting. Write in a conversational tone instead of just giving them facts and bullets. There is a place for bullets but at the onset, we need to get their attention!
- One and Done Just Isn’t Enough – Repetition is necessary to cut through the clutter and finding the right cadence is super important. After writing and sending thousands of emails to physicians I can tell you, plan on writing more than one message. Consider three to five emails in your campaign as a good place to start. Each one needs to feel the same but offer new details. As far as timing, I like a couple of weeks between large messages. If you are doing brief follow-up messages, do those about a week later. The key is staying active without being annoying. I will quickly touch on follow up emails after receiving a warm lead, maybe you get a reply to an email or job posting. Once the physician has expressed interest in learning more you need to stay active with your messages in reply. It might take you six messages before they finally reply again and want to set up a call or the next steps. Don’t give up after just one or two messages. Their inboxes are incredibly busy, we need to stay near the top of the stack.
If you are looking for a takeaway from this article, I would suggest this: Your words are important and deserve your attention and time. Put in the work to improve your writing style, take a class or do some online education. There is a definite sales angle to a lot of this and there is a ton of education available to help. With the right effort and attention, you will begin to notice more successful outcomes from your communication.
At Barlow/McCarthy we specialize in all things communications and sales. Does your sales team need a refresher? Check out our Sales Training offerings. And if you are needing someone to come in and help you with your writing we would love to help. We can step in and do some fresh writing or rewriting of your materials. Just reach out to info@barlowmccarthy.com for details.