Imagine if your customer could see you through the words you write. Routine business communication need not be always perfunctory. Even a short note is an opportunity to deliver messages that paint a picture in the reader’s mind.

Last week I received an email from a holiday card website about my recent order. Typically I’d scan such an email and then file it quickly for future reference if needed.  This time I did a double take. Here’s the message with a few thoughts on why it worked:

Create great expectations with just the right words

“This is just a quick little note to let you know that I have completed your order and submitted it for printing. As you may know, our designers work on every single order with care instead of sending them straight from the computer to our presses.”

This company packs a punch within two sentences to set the tone of our relationship. The familiar voice caught my attention. I didn’t know the designers were so hands-on with the product. That’s a nice reminder, making me wonder about the competitors I had considered before placing the order.

“To help ensure that your finished product looks great, I have reviewed your photo(s) to ensure they will print well, reviewed the layout of the design to best suit your personalized order and proofread the text for grammar and spelling.”

This is where I saw the designer at work, checklist in hand, looking at my photo and layout with genuine care. I could picture people, not machines, processing my order.

“Thank you for entrusting xxx with your special moment. We hope you love the finished product as much as we do!”

With four sentences in a routine yet thoughtfully constructed note, the company built my expectations for a superior product. Upon opening the box I could see they delivered.

I placed another order. I bet they’re not surprised.

In our complex world, it’s far easier to construct a complicated message than a simple one.

There’s no doubt message development is a vital skill in every marketer’s toolkit. Well-constructed messages communicate business strategy, inspire the workforce and drive sales. The process of assembling a strategic message appears simple, yet all too often every brand attribute, solution and market differentiator is bundled into a jumble of words that fails to stick. Another lost opportunity to connect with the intended audience.

LEARN – Law 4. “Knowledge makes everything simpler.”

This year I hit the books to refresh my research on best practices in message development. This body of research is the foundation of a training program I originally created for the marketing communications practice of a global consulting firm. Over the years this training program has been streamlined. The models have become simpler, yet I found the core principles of message development remain unchanged:  Clarity, consistency and credibility are essential if you want your message to be heard.

To update the research I compiled a list of 11 favored references, both old and new, to help address this ongoing dilemma. At the top of the list is:

The Laws of Simplicity (Design, Technology, Business, Life) by John Maeda

The MIT Press, 2006

John Maeda is the founder of the SIMPLICITY Consortium at the MIT Media Lab.  He’s a graphic designer, visual artist and computer scientist who developed a helpful construct for distilling complex concepts into simple imperatives. He offers Ten Laws and Three Keys to achieve Simplicity (otherwise known as Sanity!).

REDUCE – Law 1 – “The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.”

Creating messages is like that trick we use in packing for a trip: Lay out everything you think you need — clothing, shoes, accessories, toiletries. And then pack half.  Or less. Once you’re on the trip, you’ll never miss the rest. So it goes with messages. Strip out all the superfluous words. Keep the essential, memorable phrases. You end up with a stronger message, just enough to get your point across.

How simple is that?

I was listening to Seth Godin’s book The Dip the other day. It’s an oddly encouraging tome about when to quit and when to stick. Instead of mulling over implications for my business I found myself thinking about a recent hike in Yellowstone National Park and what I like to call our Most Magical Moment of the trip.

Conquering The Dip

Seth talks about The Dip involving a long slog between the initial excitement of a new adventure and the mastery required to take advantage of it.  Most people, when they get bogged down in the tedium of becoming a master, simply give up. Our hike was not so different.  We were in search of a petrified forest on an unmarked trail high on an exposed ridge in bear territory.  That’s all the detail we had.  About two thirds of the way through the very vertical hike we were just about ready to quit. A group who had started ahead of us perched on a lookout just off the trail. “We’re not going any further, we have no idea where those petrified trees are.”  We decided to stick it out.  How often do you have a chance to see trees frozen in time for 50 million years?

We pushed on up the next ridge and into an open meadow where I saw a glimmer of fur in the sagebrush. “Wait, I’m not sure what that is but it’s too small for a bear!” It was the most beautiful red fox.  Foxes are common in Yellowstone but rarely seen.  In fact the book I brought home of wildlife in the Tetons and Yellowstone had only one photo of a fox out of the hundreds of creatures featured. We stood watching quietly as the fox scanned the brush, looking for its meal.  She looked at us directly and then looked away, acknowledging that humans were in her presence but that she had no interest and we meant no harm. We were mesmerized.  She then ambled toward us to reach some shade trees to bed down for an afternoon nap.

It was a magical moment. If we had not pressed on and overcome our aggravation with a steep rocky path, we would not have observed this wonderful example of wildness.  I recalled our rare encounter as I listened to Seth, thinking that companies that forge ahead, ask the hard questions, pursue mastery are ultimately the winners.

It’s easy to skip the hard questions, but those very questions give us the answers we need to more effective in communicating with target audiences.  Among the first questions we address when planning a message strategy:

• Who are we really selling to? If we did not have the rapt attention of this audience, would our business survive?

• Who are the top three competitors most likely to steal business from us?  What are they doing better than us?  What customer needs are they failing to address? Stumbling upon that answer is a golden opportunity to communicate your differentiation to customers.

Found the Petrified Forest

And the more elusive Red Fox

Seth notes there’s no shame in quitting when you’re in a hopeless situation.  But if you’ve decided to be the best in your field, you need to stick.  Being committed to what you know to be true, regardless of the apparent obstacles, can indeed reveal a magical moment.

Slogging it out in Yellowstone, we found those petrified trees, but the chance encounter with the Red Fox set that hike stand apart from all others.  It was the defining Magical Moment.