eBook - Silverpop

Personality: An Essential
Ingredient for Engagement
Is data all I really
Q: need to build stronger
relationships with my
subscribers?
Data is a start. But remember the old
A: adage that people buy from people, not
stores or websites. Showing a human, personal
side in email, blogs and other communications
will lead to greater engagement with your
customers and subscribers.
I believe subscribers are coming to expect corporate
or commercial email to reflect this shift
in tone, because they see it happening in other
channels like Twitter and Facebook.
Personality-infused emails are rapidly becoming
the norm. They aren’t just a touchy-feely, nice
thing to do, but a key driver of subscriber engagement
and inbox recognition.
Even if you still think Twitter is little more than a
major time suck, you can’t deny that high-profile
corporate tweeters like Scott Monty of Ford and
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, have raised the communications
bar.
These people bring their personal sides into corporate
communications, using their personalities
– their personal brands – to engage with others.
When you incorporate a human or personal side,
people can internalize it to their own situations
and be driven to share it with their tribes,
whether loose groups of friends or co-workers or
formal networks on Twitter, Facebook or the like.
These people become your buzz agents, the ones
to light the viral fire and keep it going.
Whose Personality Do You Choose?
This can be the hardest part of shifting your corporate
communications from personality-free
to personality-driven. Not every company has, or
needs, a charismatic, articulate CEO at the email
newsletter helm.
You need to know what your human assets are, and
what your corporate personality is perceived to be.
Finding the Right Face and Voice
Your goal is to convey the idea that your company
is run by people, not by machines. How you do that
depends on your own corporate image and personality.
What works for another company might be a
disaster for yours.
Your CEO or a company founder could be the face
or voice of your emails, but you could also build a
cult following out of an insanely dedicated product
manager, customer support person (Frank Eliason
practically launched customer support on Twitter
when he worked for Comcast), buyer, e-commerce
manager or whoever best fits the role.
Sometimes, an iconic image is more appropriate.
Think Betty Crocker, Mr. Goodwrench, or the
AFLAC duck. Now, you can give it a voice that befits
your corporate image, and you don’t have to worry
about replacing it, because it won’t leave your company
for a better offer.
Even if you don’t think your corporate culture lends
itself to personality-driven emails, you can find
ways to make your message less stuffy and formal.
A buttoned-down corporate newsletter for an
investment bank or accounting firm can employ a
simple, direct writing style, using conversational
language instead of academic speech. It doesn’t
have to read like a quarterly report to convey that
a human, not an automatic phrase generator, produced
the message.
Tip: For more on adding personality to your
emails, see Chapter 4, “Content Creativity: Design,
Personality and Copy.”
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