What's A Missing Spoon Have to do with Marketing?

             WHAT'S A MISSING SPOON HAVE TO DO WITH MARKETING

BY BEV JOHNS 

    Every morning my husband gets up and  makes my coffee and makes us breakfast. He does this even when he is not feeling well and yes, I am spoiled. Some days it is bacon and eggs, sausage and eggs, and some days it's cereal. The other day it was time for bowls of cereal so we got to the table and Lonnie couldn't figure out what had happened to his spoon because he always puts the spoons in the bowls of cereal. We were perplexed but the spoon didn't appear. He got up and got another spoon. As we are enjoying our cereal and are almost finished with it, alas the spoon appeared at the bottom of the bowl. It had gotten lost in the cereal. 

    So what is my point in telling you this story? Sometimes we bury our important message at the bottom of the news. The spoon was critical to eating the cereal but we couldn't find it. That is what happens to us sometimes when we are trying to convey an important message. It gets lost at the bottom of the pile of news.

    Let's look at an example, we might be planning an important meeting and we are including the information in our newsletter bu we bury the particulars of the meeting several pages into the newsletter. People don't read that far and we wonder why they don't show up. Whatever information you want to stress, put it at the beginning. Don't assume people will read several pages to get to the information they need. Everyone is busy and may only skim the information and may miss the critical points. If you want to remind people of dues, put it in the beginning or send a separate notice. If you want people to come to a meeting, put that at the beginning of your news along with all the key information about where and when the meeting is. if you are sending an email, put the critical information first.

    If you have a great deal of information to share, that is fine but think about including and highlighting key takeaways at the beginning of your information. Always think about what is the most important information you want to convey and highlight it so it is easy to find and read.

    Don't allow your critical information, your spoon, to sink to the bottom of the bowl.