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Catch up on past essays
If your crisis comms “tick all the boxes”… why do they still fall flat?
Most companies' crisis comms are written to protect themselves first and reach their audience second. McDonald's egg apology uses the standard corporate playbook differently. Which is why its response is worth paying close attention to.
Apr 235 min read
The Curse of Knowledge: When Your Company Briefs and Announcements Make Perfect Sense to You — and No One Else
The Curse of Knowledge states that the more you know about a subject, the harder it becomes to imagine what it's like not to know it.
Apr 226 min read
Your employees aren't ignoring your messages. They're just not reading them at a desk.
A huge part of your audience doesn’t even have a desk.
They’re on the shop floor.
In a hospital corridor.
Driving between sites.
Standing in a warehouse.
Walking between meetings.
Checking their phone between tasks.
Your message isn’t being read in a quiet moment.
It’s being scanned in the third space. The in-between moments of the workday.
Mar 147 min read
So you got their attention - but didn't get the sale. Here's what went wrong
While Creativity might win you the first reader, messaging designed for amplification determines whether your idea survives the third, fourth, and fifth reader.
Mar 134 min read
Still Writing Feature Lists? Here's the Real Question Your Customer Wants You To Answer
Wooing a customer is like a strange dance. You talk about their problems. You highlight your solution. You pull back just enough to tease them — then, when they're leaning in, you deliver. The mistake most brands make is playing the wrong move at the wrong moment in that dance.
Jan 245 min read
Misalignment -The Elephant in the Room: Your Departments Are Telling Six Different Stories About the Same Company
The Test of Real Alignment
Ask someone from marketing, someone from sales, someone from product, and someone from customer success to answer this question, separately, in writing: "What do we do, for whom, and why does it matter to them?"
Do not show them each other's answers until all four have responded.
Nov 12, 20254 min read
Most B2B Messages Start After the Buying Decision Has Already Begun: How to find your trigger.
Most B2B messaging starts too late.
We start with “Here’s what we do.” and talk about features, workflows, dashboards, ROI. We show the solution, the tool, the product in action.
Our buyers story doesn’t start with your solution.
It starts at “Here’s what went wrong.”
Oct 19, 20255 min read
Stop training people to ignore your message: The Invisible Gorilla in your communication
Every day, organisations produce content in which brilliant ideas, critical updates, and genuinely important information get completely missed simply because the communication environment makes it invisible.
Your job as a communicator isn’t just to have a gorilla—it’s to make sure people can’t miss it.
Aug 27, 20257 min read
Your Biggest Competitor Isn't Brand X. It's the Decision to Do Nothing.
Think Brand X is your biggest competitor? The real challenge is cutting through the noise your audience scrolls past
Apr 2, 20258 min read
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