If you think a press release like the one from Amazon below is a good example of “communications” you’re right, AND you’re probably missing the boat on what your company really needs from you.

The problem isn’t you. It’s systemic, deeply entrenched, and it’s time we blew it up.

I think it’s time to redefine what “Communications” is and bring it much more in line with both reality and what your company actually needs from your communication team.

Communication isn’t:

• Press releases
• Corporate comms
• Internal comms
• Public relations
• Media relations

It’s all of those things—and so much more.

Communication That Matters Most

In the example below I walk readers through the most brutal customer experience that is known as Amazon Seller Central.  I chose one of many examples I could have picked to try and illustrate just how painful selling through their site is.

It’s clearly created by programmers and not by anyone with any expertise in UX or communications.  Why would it be?  After all the “Communications team” doesn’t handle UX or product.  Talk to the Product team.

And this is the problem.

The Real Problem

• It’s not actually how bad this one example from Amazon is.
• It’s not that I could give you 5 more examples just like it from within the Amazon sellers page.

It’s that Amazon, along with every other company, including yours, thinks Communications is just press releases, media relations, corporate comms, and a dozen other messaging-related functions, while the real communications that actually matter most in terms of customer and employee experience goes on ignored.

No. Actually what’s worse than all that is the actual root problem, which is that communications professionals themselves don’t appreciate what communication really is. I’m sorry to say this so bluntly, but I really think it’s true and important to say quite directly.  That’s not to say I don’t highly respect communications professionals or think they don’t do important work.  On the contrary, I think the work they do is very important and they have the most appreciation for the power of communication in a company –just not nearly enough.

Communication Isn’t Messaging

To reduce all the vastness of communication to simply messaging is to do an incredible disservice to the very nature of business itself –yes, business itself.

It would be like reducing sales to prospecting or marketing to advertising. That wouldn’t just be incomplete—it would be entirely detrimental to the business!

Those who are brilliant at prospecting and advertising may be absolute wizards at their craft, but they wouldn’t be doing their companies any favours if they went around treating prospecting and advertising as the be all end all of sales and marketing.  Prospecting in all its forms is not sales.  Advertising in all it’s forms is not marketing.  It’s the same with calling messaging communications.

Communication Is Everything

Communication is vast. It’s the most primary most critical building block in business.

Sales, Marketing, Operations, HR, Support, Customer Service, Customer Experience, and Employee Experience, are all essentially communication.

Communication is everything – and it’s time to start treating it as such.

When we take all that communications is and reduce it to messaging, we end up failing our businesses in profound ways that have dramatic consequences for employee and customer happiness –which is the very essence of business itself.

A Wake-Up Call for Communications Professionals

Communications leaders have two choices:

1. Own communication across the entire company (like a CFO owns finance).
2. Rebrand as “Messaging Leaders” and make space for someone who’ll take on the masisve challenges in communication across the company.

The opportunity is massive. Communication challenges are increasing, and messaging expertise alone won’t cut it anymore.

This isn’t just critique. It’s a complete revolution in how we think about the most critical aspect of business itself.

How We Can Help

As the first of its kind wholistic communications commtech brokerage, we can help you ensure your company is truly capitalizing on the power of Communication.

We do this in two ways:

• First with an audit to surface up your largest communication gaps, frictions, and challenges across your organization;
• Second by bringing you the best technology, service, and enablement partners to help fill the gaps.

We work with more than 250 of the top communications and customer experience leaders to help you find and solve the largest gaps, frictions, and challenges in your companies communications.

You can learn more about our services here, or by clicking the blue chat button in the bottom corner.

Example:  Trying to Offer a Discount on Amazon Seller Central

I sell a product on Amazon and in all honesty, I’ve never come across a company that has worse communication than Amazon’s Seller Central. It’s 💥 B R U T A L 💥.

Let’s take a look.

It’s Christmas shopping season and I want to offer a discount to spur sales.  No problem, i’ll just go into my seller page and add a discount right?  Not so easy.

First you have to find the seemingly hidden spot where you can do that.  If you’re thinking it’s right there where it shows the price, that’s incorrect.  I want to offer limited time discount, not change the standard price.

Watch the 7 minute video if you want to get a better sense of how painful this is, but in summary, once you finally find the place where you can discount your price, you realize there are a bunch of other pricing fields that make no sense to the average person and the help definitions are all but useless.

Aside from the Sale Price and accompanying start and end dates; there are also 3 other price fields 2 of which are very confusing and no clear help is provided.

My personal favorite? The help text that defines “Minimum Advertised Price” as… the minimum advertised price. Genius.

What’s even better though is how they ask you if that’s helpful, and then even go on to give you the option of reporting this as an “irrelevant attribute” –and I honestly don’t even know which attribute they’re asking about –the field itself, the field label, or the help text.  It’s almost as if the folks at Amazon are just as confused about all this too and they’re really hoping one of us can help them.  It’s almost adorable.