{4} Things We Learned from the Solar Eclipse
When you work with and service the largest hospitals in the state of South Carolina, you can't shut down for events like the 2017 Solar Eclipse.
That's why, for several weeks, we've been planning and promoting a company-wide catered lunch and eclipse viewing party at our headquarters in Charleston, SC. We sent out several engaging emails with all of the details about our events listed in big, bold lettering.
• Catered Lunch • Free Solar Glasses for you, your family, and your friends • Prizes and More!
And still, we had little response.
Like any other large company, getting employees to open, read, and digest internal emails was a challenge, and with good reason.
Per person, the average number of business emails sent and received each day is expected to grow from 126 in 2015 to 140 by the year 2018. Competition for attention is fierce. And there’s only so much email a person can process in a day.
While some internal communicators try to beat the system by attempting to craft the perfect email subject line, the bigger picture may be getting lost—email may not be your best tool for communicating with employees.
Once we began to share the event on another employee communication tool, workplace digital signage, our employees began to respond. Keep reading to learn why.
1. Repetition:
Madison Avenue confirms that repeat message exposure is crucial to retention. But try repeating your messaging through multiple emails and you’ll only flood inboxes that are already filled to capacity. The fix? Good digital signage software enables you to set up message rotation and scheduling to ensure just the right amount of repeat exposure for optimal effect.
2. Visual Enhancements:
Does this Outlook warning message look familiar?
When you send an email, you hope for the best when it comes to the way it displays within the recipient’s reading pane. Certainly there are best practices for relieving some of this issue, but it’s still one of the biggest challenges when marketing your messages to employees. Why risk having your beautiful messaging look like gobbledygook? This is a problem that workplace digital signage corrects 100% of the time, ensuring that your visuals are presented as intended. It’s more than just a cosmetic nice-to-have. Numerous studies show that message engagement and retention increase when visuals accompany text. It’s a difference between communication failure and success.
3. Trust:
Email spoofing is a serious and growing concern, costing businesses hundreds of millions of dollars. Messages seemingly sent from trusted sources (your company healthcare provider, your CEO, etc.) can actually be attempts to defraud individuals and organizations. This is especially concerning when your legitimate messaging contains a URL with a call to action. Is it safe to click? Allay concerns with digital signage, a venue where content is safe from your standard email spoofing schemes.
4. Shared Viewing Experience:
Email is a very isolating communication tool. It’s meant to be digested by an individual, away from others. Compare this with the shared viewing experience of digital signage. With digital signage, you may get a CEO enjoying a corporate message right next to a warehouse worker or a customer service rep. It’s a conversation starter, a place to encourage discussion about your message—a surefire way to increase engagement and retention.
So stop clogging up employee email inboxes. Instead, engage and inform your entire organization through proven workplace digital signage. Get started today!
