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In working with one of my clients this week I came to the conclusion that if the only tool you have in your toolbag is a hammer, pretty soon everything starts to look like a nail.
Similarly, if all you believe you have as a communications tool is PowerPoint then pretty soon all you’ll do is reduce every communications opportunity to a PowerPoint presentation. And as any of us who have sat through one too many boring slideshows will attest, “seen one, seen ‘em all”
There are a myriad of ways you can deliver your message–the trick is to use the right one.
Which is the right one?
The one that communicates your message:
- with the greatest accuracy
- with the largest likelihood of audience comprehension
- at the lowest fiscal cost
- at the lowest time cost
Note: it must meet all of these criteria. There’s absolutely no value in spending the least amount of money if the medium you choose doesn’t deliver on any of the other criteria.
So what media are available? You have a choice from any one or combination of the following:
- paper-based memo
- letter
- one-to-one face-to-face presentation
- seminar
- one-to-one phone presentation
- meeting
- one-to-many personal presentation
- plain text email
- one-to-many phone presentation
- text + graphics email
- voice email
- webpage
- webcast/webvideo
- radio broadcast
- television broadcast
- fax broadcast
- press release
- tv/film commercial
- cd-rom/dvd
- vid/podcast
- blog
Choosing the right medium or media is obviously critical, as the fiscal costs of some in the above list are higher than others. Get the media mix wrong and you could end up spending a whole lot of time and money on a very visually attractive business communication that delivers next-to-zero ROI (return on investment).
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