Why Memorizing Phone Numbers Is Still Relevant in the Digital Age

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StrategyDriven Business Communications Article | Why Memorizing Phone Numbers Is Still Relevant in the Digital Age

Important numbers should be memorized to contact the people who matter most. That includes your spouse, significant other, children, and mercy contacts.

Memorizing long, complicated numbers takes time and practice. But there are tricks you can use to make the process easier.

They’re Easy to Recall

There are a lot of numbers to remember these days: phone numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, PINs, and more. It is easy to get overwhelmed with the number of things we need to keep track of, which can cause us to forget essential numbers occasionally. The good thing is there are effective ways how to remember phone numbers.

Telephone numbers are easier to remember when they are broken down into chunks of digits or “chunking.” They’re also easier to recall when they have some meaning associated with them, such as the word 1-800-CUPCAKE or the name of a popular flower, 1-800-FLOWERS. Mnemonics, which are memory aids that associate a visual or conceptual image with the digits, are useful in this process. When used regularly, these techniques can significantly boost your ability to recall phone numbers without reference.

They’re Easy to Type

Knowing your family, friends, and emergency contacts’ phone numbers is important if you lose your mobile device. This is especially true for business owners who may need to call a repairman, a delivery driver, or a customer service representative.

When attempting to memorize a phone number, repetition is key. Repeating it out loud or writing it down multiple times helps you establish neural pathways in your brain, making it easier to recall the number when needed.

Another effective strategy is to use mnemonics. Mnemonics are memory aids that help you associate digits with visual images. This method is easy to learn and helps you remember phone numbers more easily. For example, if you want to recall the phone number 732-SWAN, think of a creative story that connects the individual digits. For instance, you could visualize a basketball-playing swan with a pencil in its beak. This technique takes time and effort to master, but it’s an effective way to memorize phone numbers.

They’re Easy to Store

A phone number contains multiple components — an area code, the prefix, the actual number itself, or even an exit code for international calls. While all these pieces have their purpose, they work together to magically connect you with the person on the other end of the line.

Memorizing a phone number requires repetition and mnemonics, such as creating a story or associating digits with a memorable visual image. Repeating a phone number and reviewing it frequently helps to solidify its association in the brain, making it easier to recall on demand. A vanity phone number is a good way to help people easily recall your business’s contact information. Vanity numbers can also be more effective for marketing as they are instantly recognizable and aligned with your brand messaging and personality. In addition, your company’s vanity number will be visible across all of your physical and digital marketing assets, giving your business a consistent point of contact.

They’re Easy to Access

In our busy lives, relying on your smartphone to store significant numbers can be easy. But, as we all know, life happens. Maybe your phone slipped into the laundry basket and got scummy, or you fell asleep and forgot to charge it before an important call. Whatever the case, having a way to recall a phone number can save you in a pinch.

Aside from serving as a means of contact, phone numbers are also an important digital identifier that can be used to verify your identity on many online platforms and services. Having a memorable toll-free or vanity number can boost brand recognition and make your business easier for customers to recall and reach.

The different parts of a phone number (such as the exit code, country code, area code, and telephone prefix) function much like an address and help to uniquely identify your device among millions of other devices connected to a telecommunication network. By using mnemonics, breaking the digits into smaller chunks, creating associations, practicing repetition, and utilizing various other strategies, you can improve your ability to memorize phone numbers.

Every Business Needs Professional Photos, Here Is Why

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StrategyDriven Business Communications Article |Professional Photos|Every Business Needs Professional Photos, Here Is WhyEveryone loves a stock photo – they are easy, relatively cheap or free, and can illustrate a point well. But, the same images appear across multiple websites, and over time your business is blended in with the rest of them – even if you are better.

Often, new businesses will focus on putting their money in other areas, assuming that so long as they have some photos, that is enough when your images can be your differentiator in reality.

Assets

Content is one of the most powerful things your business will put on the internet, and your photographs will be part of those assets. Corporate Photography will give you a range of assets that can be used across your media. Once that has been taken, unless they are campaign specific or seasonal – they can be used repeatedly.

SEO

Your business website will need some SEO work, and your images will be one of the driving forces behind being found.

But how do you optimize your photos?

  • Unique images
  • Captions
  • ALT text
  • Resizing images
  • File Names

Professional photos will be delivered with most of the heavy work done.

Authenticity

While stock photos can be used in a lot of ways, they don’t give people much of an impression about your company and who you are. People like to know the organizations they buy from and work with.

Photos of you, your team, and how you do things are more likely to give people the impression that you want. Authenticity isn’t possible when all people can find stock photos.

Professional photos will complement your tone of voice in the text and give more to your story.


Representative

Does a stock photo represent what you are trying to achieve? Are those photos that you want to be associated with? Your images represent your brand. You should strive for high-quality photos that have your brand’s personality and support the story that your brand is telling.

Remember that the images you have will be one of the first things a customer will see, representing your brand.

Quality

Stock photos are not taken for anyone specifically, and the quality, while it can be good, isn’t going to be for your specific needs. It is going to be one standard. Professional photographers will head to your business location with everything they need to give you the highest-quality, stunning images and work with you to create.

You’ll get images that work for your website – sure, but you’ll also have them the right size for your social media profiles. Each photo will be perfect for you.

Competitive Edge

Your images will help you stand out from the sea of stock photos and make you more recognizable. Make-up brands and sports brands are great examples – while the colors and styles of clothing might be the same, their images are true to their brand, and you can tell them apart just from those.

Professional images will give you a strong competitive edge. Professional Photography will be part of your branding story, and here are some other tips that will help: The Basics Of Good Branding – StrategyDriven.

Why Your Business Should Use Less Jargon

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StrategyDriven Business Communications Article |Jargon|Why Your Business Should Use Less JargonJargon is not an uncommon sight in business materials, sales calls, and things of that nature. There are certain terms that are associated with certain business practices and most of us use them in the course of running our companies.

However, jargon that may be totally natural to us is not always so natural for our customers and clients to understand. If you use a lot of jargon in your interactions with customers, whether online or in person, you should definitely think about changing that. Here’s why:

It is alienating

If your customer does not know what various words mean, then they will find it difficult to understand what it is your product can actually do and why they might want to buy it. They will end up feeling confused and this will alienate them from your company. They will end up buying the same thing from a company that explains what their product does in plain English instead.


It’s not ideal for SEO

Search engine optimization is an important part of any modern company’s marketing strategy. Good SEO will ensure that you maximize the number of visitors to your website, and that means higher sales too.

Talk to any good SEO company and they will tell you that jargon typically does not rank well. Customers do not typically use jargon when searching for products and services, so if you do use jargon in your content, it will end up getting buried and customers will not easily be able to find you.

It’s not uniform

The jargon you use in your company may not be the same jargon another company uses in your sector, which means the customers may be used to a whole different set of jargon, and they might find it hard to see what you are talking about. By stripping out the jargon and using plain English, then, you make it easier to get your point across, whatever that point may be. It enables you to be more consistent and that is a big plus point when it comes to marketing and selling just about anything you can think of.

It can feel like a hard sell

Rightly or wrongly, when you use jargon, it can come across like you are trying to confuse and baffle your audience with big words and complicated sentences, and it can make them feel like you are going in for the hard sell by trying to impress them while also obscuring the meaning of what you are saying. Lots of customers do not like jargon, for this reason, and it is just another reason why you should think about removing it from your customer interactions more often too.

Using jargon is not necessarily something you need to eliminate completely in your customer interactions, and in some industries, especially if you are selling B2B, keeping it may be more appropriate, but it is definitely something you should think about using less for all of the reasons above if you want to maximize your sales potential.

The Importance of Effective Communication: 3 Ways to Keep Contact With Your Suppliers

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StrategyDriven Business Communications Article |Effective Communication|The Importance of Effective Communication: 3 Ways to Keep Contact With Your SuppliersEffective communication is one of the most critical factors in any business relationship. It can make or break a partnership, and it’s especially vital in manufacturing. Keeping track of details, sharing files, and staying organized is essential to maintaining a solid working relationship with your suppliers. If you’re thinking about establishing new partnerships with your suppliers or want to strengthen your existing ones, read on to learn more about effective communication.

Communicate with your suppliers from the beginning

Communication is key at all stages of business, but it’s even more crucial when working with overseas suppliers. Therefore, it’s important to communicate your expectations and requirements from the beginning of your relationship. This way, you should reduce the likelihood of miscommunication later down the line.

The best way to communicate is in-person, but this is often not an option for many businesses. Whether due to time issues, distance issues, or other problems – as we found in recent times with the coronavirus pandemic – meeting in person isn’t always an option.

Try video calling or speaking on the phone. Email can work too. These forms of written communication should be drawn up carefully to ensure everything is clear.

Stay on top of updates and changes

Communication is what holds your business relationships together. It helps partners stay informed, collaborate more effectively, and make smart decisions. While that initial communication is key, continuing to communicate with each other throughout your partnership is the only way to ensure your work goes smoothly.

However, communication can only be effective if it’s two-way. Make sure you’re staying on top of updates and changes. If you’re working with a supplier, they should keep you informed of any changes, too.

When managing a large, global operation, you’re bound to have unplanned changes and updates. So make sure everyone involved in your supply chain knows about these changes as soon as they happen.

Sending regular B2B emails can effectively ensure everyone is aware of any updates or changes. Finding good B2B email ideas can be difficult – especially when there aren’t many changes to update on, but keeping these emails regular will create trust in your suppliers that, when there are changes, they will be made aware.

Keep track of your suppliers’ communication patterns, too. If you notice an increase in a supplier’s communication, it could indicate a problem. This could be anything from a miscommunication to an issue with their operation.

Use cloud-based file storage

Cloud-based file storage is an integral part of effective communication when working with suppliers. You and your partners will likely be sharing files, but you don’t want to put sensitive information on someone else’s server. Cloud storage offers security and privacy that a physical server doesn’t.

It also makes sharing files more straightforward for everyone involved—without compromising security. Use a cloud-based file storage system as soon as you start collaborating with suppliers. This will help you keep track of all the files you’re sharing, make them easily accessible, and keep them safe.

For example, Dropbox is an excellent option for B2B manufacturers who want to streamline their communication, collaborate more effectively, and stay organized. It’s secure and simple to use, making it easy to share files—and track what’s being shared.

Lower Comms Costs Don’t Have To Mean Worse Communication

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StrategyDriven Business Communications Article |Comms Costs|Lower Comms Costs Don't Have To Mean Worse CommunicationThe old saying goes that time is money and, in business, you need to make sure that you’re managing that well. As such, effective and efficient communication are vital. However, the tech that it takes to manage that communication can start to get costly. Here, we’re going to look at how you can manage those costs before they loom too large, without cutting back on your ability to communicate both internally and externally.

Collaboration is happening in the Cloud

One of the most crucial parts of internal communication is your ability to share the resources that your colleagues might need. Any sticking or slowness when it comes to either sending or receiving those resources can reduce profitability which, in turn, reduces profitability. As such, you should look into options like using Cloud storage instead of having to rely on personal storage on local drives as often. First of all, small businesses can benefit from that Cloud storage at a very low cost, sometimes even for free depending on your needs. It can also allow you to reduce your reliance on costly hardware such as hard drives. What’s more, when you store files on the Cloud, others are able to access it instantaneously, so long as you give them permission and the link.

Taking your phones digital

It should be no surprise that the online world is helping a lot of companies manage both their internal and external communication much more effectively. There is plenty of free and low-cost software that allows you to communicate with people in a variety of ways. However, you might not immediately think of going digital when it comes to how you make phone calls. However, unified phone systems that make use of VoIP solutions like Agencybloc integrations can help you manage a whole network of phones using the internet. This way, you might be able to save on the costs of setting up traditional phone lines throughout the business and you might not even need physical phones, just the headsets that your team uses to manage their calls.

Make your meetings remote

We’ve all likely gotten very much used to doing things remotely and now that restrictions are easing, the temptation is to go back to meeting in person. Sometimes, that can work just fine but, in other cases, the costs of traveling and eating out can add up to a lot, especially if you have to go far. To that end, options like Zoom video conference software can be a lot less costly. You still get that all-important face-to-face time which can be crucial for selling a pitch, but you don’t have to take a huge chunk out of your day to maintain those same standards of communication.

Communication truly is vital, but like anything, it can start to become unmanageable if you let the costs run away from you. Hopefully, the tips above can help you better manage both aspects of the communication question without too much trouble.