Dogs Can’t Read

This message is lost.

You’re probably pretty smart. You probably know your industry and your business pretty well. You may even have lots of letters after your last name in your signature. Yet, all those things could be working against you and getting your message out.

Every sector I’ve worked in has its own lingo, its own shortcuts. There are abbreviations, legal terms, inside baseball talk. My favorites are “HIPAA” (often misspelled “HIPPA”) for Health Insurance Portability and Privacy Act and “ARF” for Acute Respiratory Failure. So dogs can’t read, but they can diagnose, evidently.

That’s not all. Brands often lose customers and clients because they fail to make information accessible to even key audience groups. Campaigns and policy issues lose votes when the candidate or the cause doesn’t resonate. For years, “Complete Streets” failed to gain favor with lawmakers with its mission to redesign neighborhoods so folks could walk or bike safely alongside cars and buses. It’s a measure to curb climate pollution, and it’s a gamechanger. Yet, reframed it’s a winner. For folks who aren’t concerned about the climate (and there’s still lots of those), the winning messages are that street designs will slow down traffic and make them safer (a winner for parents) or allow cities, not state transportation departments, to design streets (a winner for local governments, self-determinant champions). That’s what made it the law of the land in Minnesota.

Messages also fail to land when they’re in an unfriendly format. Ever gotten an email with a QR code to sign up? Pretty hard to scan those with your phone when you’re holding your phone to read the email (as 80% of people do).

Whatever the business objective or the ask is, accessibility is key. Language, delivery, and frame matter. Otherwise, it’s just another yard sign to poop on.