Keep It Simple

By Dana

I like to think of myself as a lifelong learner, and fortunately for someone in the advertising business, I enjoy reading about marketing, presentations, sales, success strategies, and ways to make business grow. Communication strategist and author David Greenberg has a website I peruse regularly, in part because of his emphasis on simple, direct messages, and his belief that laughter and learning can go hand in hand.

That's probably one of the reasons that I actually look forward to writing this blog -- it's an opportunity to provide a quick (hopefully helpful) message, in a short and direct format. No footnotes, no 90 word sentences, and probably no semi-colons ... not that anyone seems to use semi-colons anymore, other than as part of emoticons in email and instant messaging. But I digress.

Simplicity is also the key to a successful On Hold Messaging strategy. You are narrowcasting, or talking directly to one person who has called your business. You've got a 45-60 second window to engage him or her, tops, and you want to provide a single idea that they might not yet have heard about your company and what makes it great. If a caller is holding long enough to hear a second or third message, music "bumpers" provide space for the gearshift into another subject, or maybe some trivia or humor to entertain and maintain interest. Distilled, not diluted -- just the essence of one aspect of your business, conveyed in the infamous "elevator speech" method: a conversation with an individual in a short amount of time.

If all that sounds difficult, then maybe you're just not using the right On Hold company. The best OHM programs are turnkey, with your message provider doing most of the work while you as the customer maintain editorial control.