PR 101

Several years ago I had an insurance company as a client. The company sold various types of business insurance through about 3,000 independent agents. Its management worked hard to get the right messages to those agents; ones that made the agents feel like part of the team.

The insurance company knew that communicating with the people who sold their products was probably the most important kind of communication they did. People who make or sell a company’s products are the most important ambassadors. If they receive little or no information, or the information is delivered in a way in which they aren’t going to pay attention, there’s a problem. The insurance hit that problem head on.

Companies spend lots of time carefully crafting messages designed to make employees feel part of the effort. And then those companies fall flat on their faces. Why? They forget the second half of the communications equation, one that is as equally important as the message.

What don’t they do? They don’t use a delivery system that ensures their employees will pay attention to the message.

Think how much information you receive on a normal day. It comes at you from everywhere – television, radio, newspapers, emails, websites, social networks and talk around the water cooler. It comes from family, friends, employers, advertisers and a lot of other places. How much of it really stands out? How much do you retain? There is so much noise today that is very hard to stand out.

This insurance company used two primary ways to communicate with its agents and employees: a printed newsletter and email. Company executives thought those were more than adequate. The feedback from agents on the two methods was good – when they heard from the agents. The assumption was that since not much was being heard, things must be okay.

That bubble burst when the company sent out an email detailing changes in the way agents were compensated. Of the 3,000 messages sent, approximately 10 percent were opened. The company was shocked that a message on such an important topic received so little attention. The email got lost in the noise.

So the insurance company’s management came to the agency. They didn’t know what to do. To be honest I didn’t either. So I called a couple of friends who are insurance agents – neither of them handled this company’s products – and asked what the problem was with the company’s methods.

They both told me what I suspected about too many emails. So, I asked what would be a format that would work – how could someone an agent’s attention? One of them had just bought an IPod. He was talking about how cool it was. He then told me how he was downloading things from ITunes called podcasts. I went to ITunes and listened to a few. The light bulb went on.

We did a series of podcasts for the company on a variety of topics. The download rare exceeded 95 percent. We did a survey to ascertain how many people were actually listening. It was around 75 percent. The insurance company said it was the highest rate of communication they ever had.

What about that 25 percent who didn’t download or listen? We reached them through the printed newsletter. That’s an equally valid method.

The takeaway from this is simple: when you want to reach your employees, really reach them, you need to find a method that works. You need to use multiple methods. No one method is perfect.

Let me cover the methods I suggest to clients:

* Face-to-face communication. This is still one of the most effective, and surprisingly, underused methods. People like to hear news and information from another human being. There is also a lot more credibility when it is coming from trusted manager. With today’s technology, the speaker and the listeners can be 10,000 miles apart. It is still face-to-face. One thing about that – if your company has multiple offices, make sure employees can “talk back” and ask questions. It is not that hard, there are many websites that provide the software for that. I think it is underused because many managers don’t want to face tough questions.
* As I just showed, a podcast or a video podcast, called a Vlog. The advantage of that is people can download and listen at their leisure. But again, have some way people can ask questions. It is pretty simple to put a Q & A forum on a website.
* A printed newsletter. Many employees still like to receive something they can hold in their hands.
* A blog written by senior management. If possible, the CEO should write it. There are CEOs that already do that, most notably Jonathan Schwartz,  president and CEO, Sun Microsystems; Craig Newmarkk, CEO, Craig’s List, and Mark Cuban, chairman, HDNet and owner Dallas Mavericks owner. Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh is particularly famous for his blog. They have all said is good way to talk to their people.
* A company Wiki. Employees can post information about experiences or problems they’ve had and how they dealt with them. That saves a lot of time and trouble.

There is one more method I am going to blog out next week – social media. It is starting to trump every other form of communication. But you are going to have to wait on that one.

I post this every Monday. As a new feature, if you have questions you would like me to answer, please email me. I am always looking for topics and input. My email address is in the next paragraph.

My background: I worked as a reporter for 25 years in central Illinois, upstate New York, suburban Detroit and Milwaukee. I now help clients with marketing communications through my company – JJC Communications LLC. If you want to know more about my company, and myself, click the link. It’s a cliché, but it’s true for me: no job is too big, no job is too small. I have worked with companies on the Fortune 500 list and I have worked with companies that have one employee. The service I provide is the same for all.