 |
Phone vs. e-mail
In your business communications, do you ever debate whether to shoot someone an e-mail or pick up the phone? How do you determine which method to use?
Here’s what the experts at PR Tactics have to say about when to use phone vs. e-mail:
Technology through e-mail comes in handy when you're working with someone who’s difficult to contact. E-mail gives you a paper trail, documents your conversations, and can be a good way to make quick pitches to the media.
The phone is best when you're creating relationships or when you need extensive feedback. Phone conversations create more personal interaction and allow you to receive immediate feedback.
Here’s what our own experts have to say about it:
Mark Towler of Phase 2: Prefers e-mail
“E-mail requires you to think your message through and make sure that it's efficient. Nine out of 10 of my business contacts are through e-mail.”
Mary Jones of White Fields: Prefers e-mail
“E-mail is quicker and less confrontational. About 75 percent of my business communications occur through e-mail. I typically use the phone when I need an immediate response or clarification.”
Alise Isbell of Write Wise Communications: Prefers phone
"I think direct contact always makes a better impression. Although about 70 percent of my daily communications are through e-mail, I use the phone when working with clients or negotiating. It’s always better to call someone or meet them in person to discuss a sensitive issue."
Danielle Ezell of 20 Hats: Prefers phone
“It is all about what are you working on and who are you working with. E-mail is quick and gives you the power to easily disseminate a message to a mass audience. It is less time consuming, although a response may not be as immediate as when using a phone. However, we should all stive to use the phone more often because it is more personal and helps you establish good business relationships.”
Creative Partnership
With lots of activities in the works by its in-house marketing department, Express Personnel Services needed some relief. The firm turned to 20 Hats for the layout and content redesign of its Children’s Miracle Network fund-raising guidebook.
The Express CMN guidebook is distributed every three years to the firm's 180 franchisees located across North America to encourage them to hold fund-raisers for their local Children's Miracle Network hospitals.
“The original vision was simply to update our old fund-raising guidebook, but we got that and so much more by working with 20 Hats,” said Keri Datillo, Express administrative assistant communications/PR.
20 Hats’ objectives for the guidebook included creating a piece that stood out from the other Express materials its franchisees receive, developing an emotionally appealing design, incorporating personal stories and providing step-by-step instructions on fund-raising.
20 Hats achieved these objectives by using full-bleed images and biographies of five children who have been helped by CMN, a “how-to” guide on planning fund-raisers and a calendar of fund-raiser ideas.
“Now instead of having just a fund-raising guidebook, we have a whole approach that our franchisees can use to create successful fund-raisers in their local markets for Children’s Miracle Network,” said Datillo.
|
|
|
