Over-communicate to be heard.

Over-communicate.

Today my son had his first day back at school, the beginning of a very different year than any child or parent there has experienced. I came with questions that I kept meaning to ask in the last few weeks but was never able to meet with the teacher to do so. Yes, I also could’ve used email, I suppose. I just didn’t think of it.

I asked my questions and the teacher said, “Sorry. I probably could’ve made things more clear. These are things we would’ve gone over in the open house.” It’s tough to remember everything when the people with whom we need to collaborate/talk/etc. aren’t in front of us.

There are no more in-person open houses. There are virtual meetings or videos or email or phone calls, but those are different. Now we need to make more of an effort to communicate because there’s no running into the person. It’s harder to make a real-life impression.

We may be just realizing this now in life and work, but marketing has been like that for a while. Over communicate, because our messages aren’t sticky enough for one pass through a person’s busy day. Over communicate, because they may not have a need for your message now but they will in a week or a month or three years. Don’t push out your message or promote your brand in an annoying way, but definitely make sure you’re seen and heard often.