Every business finds itself in need of new and creative ways to announce business changes – change being the only constant, as you very well know.
Open your inbox and you’ll come across many newsletters stating something about address changes, feature enhancements, product upgrades, etc. in a very drab way. After going through a few, you will realize that these emails fail to get you excited about the changes, upgrades or whatever they are about.
Here are a few ideas to make business news announcement more creative so that your clients and customers feel more excited towards any oncoming changes you’re about to make.
Build Suspense with Teaser Campaigns
Look at the following “information email” –
This is quite an ironic email because apparently they say they’ve got the “zing” but fail to show it. It is a dull, dry and drab email that states the change in a very serious and unassuming manner. Even the image fails to impress or create a buzz around the change. I think they lost an amazing opportunity to announce their change “with a zing!”
You may argue that no one is probably excited about you moving to another office, other than you and your team. But there is no denying that if you tell clients or customers what’s in it for them in a creative way, it will make them feel positive, possibly even excited about the change!
The best way to announce something is to create a teaser campaign. No business change or improvement happens overnight. There are weeks of deliberation and months of planning before it eventually happens. Take this opportunity to build suspense around the news with a teaser campaign. It might seem like a bit of a work to create two or three emails for a single announcement, but teasers are very effective in creating anticipation in people.
Below is a simple representation of a teaser campaign I created using Canva. It took me altogether 30 minutes to come up with the concept and create the design – and I am not even a designer!
Which example do you think is better?
So the bottom line is everyone can be creative and find unique, exciting and interesting ways to announce changes. Whether you are planning to move to a new office or launching a new product, an irresistible email teaser campaign is a great idea!
Ditch Newsletters for News-Breakers
Most announcements come in form of a simple newsletter. There is no breaking story there, no buzz involved. Look at this example below. For a moment I thought they were removing some good feature instead of introducing one! The thing that should have been the focus of the whole newsletter was mentioned at the end, that too in the post script! Stiff and formal words like “notify” made matters even worse.
When introducing a new feature or announcing a product upgrade, sit down with your team and brainstorm on all the benefits that the new feature brings. It might help users save money, improve productivity or enhance their experience, or do all of it at the same time!
So highlight the main or cumulative benefit and weave a story around it. Even mainstream news organizations are using storytelling to sensationalize news! So it makes sense that your newsletters are also more story-oriented. If you have a good story, you can craft clever subject lines that’ll improve the open rate for your emails.
And don’t give me any nonsense that you have a boring business and you can’t do anything creative in your industry. Let’s take a hypothetical example of WRB or “Waste Recycling Business.” Say you introduce a new technology to make recycling more environment-friendly. So at first glance it looks like some boring technical news.
However, if you sit and think of the end result, you realize you are doing a heroic thing, like saving the planet. Always connect the dots, and you’ll have a great story for your press release, announcement or newsletter. Suddenly, instead of a piece of news, your announcement becomes a news-breaker!
Subject: WRB is Planet Earth’s New Official Superhero
*Bonus tip: A superhero mascot would go nicely with this news
Create Personalized Emails
Social media is the newest and also the most-used platform to share news and announcements. However, how can you forget that oldest digital marketing medium – the humble email!
One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a marketer is to announce a change on your website but fail to email your loyal customers about it.
This can not only alienate your loyal email subscribers but also backfire in other ways. For instance, if you announce a price change on your website and your existing customers are not informed about it, you may come across as not caring for or them or not prioritizing their interests. So always remember to give a heads up about any business changes to your email subscribers, ex-customers and of course existing customers.
For this, you need to create customized email lists, and I suggest an email marketing solution such as GetResponse that helps you import subscriber lists from various platforms, as well as segment them based on their purchase history, location, etc. This way you can ensure you are sending out the right emails to everyone on your list.
Once your email lists are ready, create personalized emails announcing the news. Say, you opened a new branch in a neighborhood. You could email all customers in that area with a message like this:
And don’t forget the basics – the language and content of the message. For instance, use “Jane, you are the first we are telling about price changes!” as opposed to “We are increasing prices on our website.”
Read these yourself and you’ll see that personalized emails sound much better than mass emails.
Make the Change Tangible and Rewarding
Any change to your business, whether it’s small or big, if you make it look rewarding to your customers or stakeholders, the effect will lean towards the direction you want it to. You can amplify a positive message or ease the repercussions of a negative one.
Emails are not the only ways you can announce changes. A lot of people still use direct mailers – and trust me, the touch and feel of having something in your hand works big time in your favor.
Recently a law firm in Australia changed their brand identity, and took to a most innovative way of spreading the news:
No wonder the transition to their new identity happened smoothly, even sweetly!
Etching a change to your business permanently in the minds of your audience is no mean feat, so it’s easy to get carried away. Therefore, before you plan your campaign, set a budget. Then you only have to work out those options that fit into the budget. From cupcakes to matchsticks, balloons to doormats, almost everything has been tried in the history of direct marketing, so don’t be afraid of coming across as cheap.
Over to You
From the local barber’s to multi-billion dollar football clubs, everyone needs to announce major changes to the way they do business.
Have you used teasers or tangible treats to announce business changes? How do you use social media to announce major news? I’d love to discuss your ideas and strategies in the comment section below!
