Writing Email, Memos, and Proposals

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Writing Email, Memos, and Proposals

• Chapter 14

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The Challenge of Managing Communication Overload

• The PR writer doesnt always communicate with a
  large, impersonal audience
• In fact, PR people spend a large part of the
  working day engaging in interpersonal
  communications
• He or she also communicates on a more personal
  level through email, memos, letters, phone calls,
  and face-to-face communications

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Typical Day

• Email sending, receiving, reading and replying
• Leaving and answering voice mail messages
• Sending memos to colleagues

• Writing proposals
• Attending meetings and later summarizing meetings
• Preparing position papers (aka white papers or
  briefings)

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Clutter Contributor?

• In many cases, PR people add to the information
  clutter and overload
• Solution is to write smart, simple, and short
• Follow basic guidelines of clarity, completeness,
  conciseness, courtesy, and responsibility in all
  your writing

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5 Points of Smart, Simple, Short Writing

• Completeness- Why are you writing and what do
  readers want/need to know? Dont use irrelevant
  material
• Conciseness- Less is better. Respect that people
  are busy
• Correctness- Be accurate in everything you write.
  Errors in personalized communication reflect
  solely on you and your abilities
• Courtesy- Use personal names and be polite but
  not effusive/gushy personal but not overly
  familiar
• Responsibility- Think how your communication will
  be perceived by the recipient. Be careful to set
  the right tone. You dont want to come across as
  flippant, arrogant, or defensive. Better to come
  across as helpful, sympathetic, and concerned

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The Email Monster

• Inboxes today-backed up at an astounding rate
• 2007 research- the average number of corporate
  emails sent and received per person on a daily
  basis was 142. Expected-228 by 2012
• Workers in 2006 spent 26 percent of their time on
  email, and that was expected to grow to 41
  percent by 2009
• Typical information worker (or communicator)
  turns to email more than 50 times and a day and
  uses instant messaging 77 times
• Constant interruptions fracture the workday
• Loss of productivity-est. 650 million annually

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Colleague Spam

• Traditional email spam-tamed (somewhat) by
  filtering software
• Bulging inboxes today caused more by colleague
  spam- friends sending you latest jokes, viral
  YouTube videos, Facebook messages, etc. (Cargill
  fired 90 workers for inappropriate use of company
  computers/time)
• Professional communicators need to recognize
  limitations of email and figure ways to use it
  efficiently to get through the forest of
  information clutter
• Maybe better way to go- voice and text messaging,
  Twitter, wikis, and RSS feeds

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Email Advantages

• Reduces cost of employee communications
• Increases the distribution of messages to more
  employees
• Flattens the corporate hierarchy
• Speeds decision making
• But there are often situations when face-to-face
  communication is better and when formal letters
  on nice stationary are better than informal, less
  permanent email

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Mind Your Email Manners- p. 391

• Avoid the Reply to All button
• Skip the ALL CAPITAL letters- dont shout!
• Save the fancy stationery
• Give your reply first when responding to a
  question
• Keep forwards to a minimum

• Dont be a cyber-coward- say something critical,
  angry, sad in person
• Keep the large image file to yourself
• Fill out the subject line
• Count to 10 before hitting the Send button- a
  flaming email often starts more fires than you
  can put out

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Voice Mail Pros/Cons

• A phone call is still quicker than a memo
  delivered by interoffice mail and it avoids the
  problem of unopened email in a crowded inbox
• It can eliminate phone tag if you leave a
  detailed message in someones voice mailbox, and
  that person leaves a response in yours
• Group conference calls can eliminate the need for
  meetings

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Voice Mail Negatives

• Telephone Tree Hell- frustrates people outside
  an organization who may call a general number
  trying to reach a specific person and then have
  to go through a series of prompts- better systems
  have O out options to reach a live person

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Business Letters, Memos, Proposals and Position
Papers

• Business letters are personalized communication
  that should be well organized, concise. They can
  prevent misunderstandings and provide a record of
  an agreement or transaction
• Memos should be one page or less and state key
  message immediately
• Memos five components Date, To, From, Subject,
  Message (use in email and hard copy memos)

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XYZ Widget CompanyMemo

• Wednesday, April 6, 2011
• To Public Relations Committee
• From Patrick Harwood
• Subject Meeting on Friday, April 8
• We will meet in the conference room from 3-4
  p.m. to discuss how to publicize and promote the
  companys annual employee picnic. The president
  wants to encourage the families of all employees
  to attend, so please come prepared to offer your
  ideas and suggestions on activities and
  organization.

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Proposals

• PR firms usually get new business through the
  preparation of a proposal offering services to an
  organization
• In many cases, a potential client will issue a
  Request for Proposal (RFP) and circulate it to
  various public relations firms to recommend a
  course of action
• In most situations, the PR firm will prepare a
  written proposal that will be part of a
  presentation to the prospective client
• Proposals must follow a logical, well-organized
  format

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Typical PR Proposal Sections

• Background and capabilities of the firm
• The clients situation
• Goals and objectives of the proposed program
• Key messages
• Basic strategies and tactics
• General timeline of activities

• Proposed budget
• How success will be measured
• Description of the team that will handle the
  account
• Summary of the why the firm should be selected to
  implement the program