Create titles that catch the eye
Few people would see a movie if they gave away the ending in the trailer, so leave them wanting more!
Here are two ideas:
- Ask a question in the title.
- Sending a weekly announcement or safety tip? Change the titles up each time to keep things fresh.
Be concise
We are talking about digital communications here. When was the last time you read a three paragraph text message? Hopefully never, that sounds awful.
Keep this in mind when writing your messages to employees … they are reading the message on a mobile screen. Be considerate of their time and interests. You should target topics to the applicable employee groups.
What is the ideal word count? It depends — on the audience and the topic. Be sure to seek feedback from your employees and review your analytics to see which messages are best resonating with employees. You’ll see trends in which messages have the highest read rates.
If you do need to send a lengthy message, try breaking up the long pieces of text with more paragraphs, visuals and formatted text (bold and italics). You can also send a series of messages with one topic each instead of sending all topics in one message.
Three questions to help you formulate your messages — (1) who are you sending it to, (2) what are you talking about, and (3) what kind of message is it.
As a frame of reference, here are the recommended lengths for online communications:
- Twitter: Less than 100 characters
- Facebook: 40 characters
- Subject line: 28-39 characters
- LinkedIn post: 25 words
- YouTube: 3 minutes
As a desk-based employee, you are accustomed to lengthy emails and reading them on a 12 inch+ screen. Your non-desk employees are mostly reliant on mobile communications. To increase your read rates, be mindful of their distractions and preferences.
