The echo chamber

Why writing your own comms can be limiting

“We know our business inside out, so we’ll write it ourselves.”

At first thought, this might seem like the smart choice. After all, no one knows your brand better than you. Plus, on the surface, writing your own communications promises to save money and time.

But there’s a catch – the echo chamber.

This is a form of confirmation bias… when the internal impressions of your brand are repeated so much they become hard facts. But these ‘facts’ aren’t necessarily the things your customers see in (or want from) your brand.

Essentially, the echo chamber means seeing things your way and not through the eyes of your customers.

Inward thinking

It’s natural to think your perspective aligns with your audience’s. But this isn’t always the case. Often, in-house teams will focus on what they know best – whether that’s clever technical details or features rather than benefits.

While this depth of knowledge is a huge asset, it can easily lead to homing in on the wrong things – and ignoring what customers think, feel and need from your brand. In the echo chamber, you’ll just hear your own thoughts played back to you.

Too many cooks

When communications are crafted internally, they also tend to become a collaborative effort.

Different internal perspectives can definitely help. But they can also hinder – especially if they spiral into an on-ongoing feedback loop.

When this happens, the single-minded message you may have started with often gets diluted. And deadlines get delayed.

Bring the outside in

So what’s the trick to getting out of the echo chamber? Brands need to balance their own know-how with an objective perspective.

Fresh eyes and minds from a well-chosen agency will look at your brand, products and services from your customers’ perspectives. They will cut through the excellent but possibly less-important features to understand what really matters and what really appeals.

This doesn’t mean handing over control. Not at all. It’s about complementing your knowledge with their objectivity.

Or, to borrow from Shakespeare, to ‘see the wood from the trees’. And that, in turn, will lead to communications that are clear, focussed and impactful.

Time to bring in some fresh perspective? We can help.