Over the years, I have learned the hard way that marketers who survive at one level of an organization have zero interest in corralling a senior executive to approve "his" or "her" email message. The approval process is too time-consuming and not very pleasant. This strikes most marketers as an exercise in how to shorten one's career. Sound familiar?

On the other hand, we writers and marketers in the agency sphere are not in a good position to deliver a credible imitation of one of your company's most senior executives. At worst (or best, depending upon your point of view), we try to channel your company's "branding guidelines" bland-speak, churning out sentence after sentence that is somewhat well crafted but utterly meaningless. At best (worst?), we follow our own hearts and ideas about what leadership is and about the issues we think that your customers would want an executive to address. In other words, we commit that cardinal sin of trying to say something. I'm not saying that what we say is right. But, we try to deliver some meat rather than just fluffy buns.

My advice is to figure out a way, by hook or by crook, to say something.

Often, corporate leaders have what could be called "meta-skills" that work pretty much in any situation. They know how to sell an idea or a product, just about any idea or product. They know how to listen or how to appear to listen. They know how to rally the troops and how to inspire greater effort. And they often know how to tell wonderful customer stories, albeit the same ones time and time again.

But, when it comes to effectively putting into written words what a company truly stands for and believes in—and how that company is championing the interests of its clients and all of its stakeholders—meta-skills can only take you so far. You need a specific, passionate knowledge and curiosity about the world; and you also need excellent peripheral vision: the natural ability to recognize and draw upon useful analogies from ordinary life, history, literature, and other industries.

This last capacity is what one client CEO—who is a certified genius—describes as the ability to deliver "a little educational uplift." He went on to add, "Top corporate officers appreciate a sprinkling of sweet education with their cereal."

But, how do you make this counsel operational? You are in no position to remake the souls and intellects of your senior executives. Their egos too often bar the door. Their schedules are ghastly. What can you do? You're just trying to get your email campaign done so that you can go on to the next item in the annual marketing editorial calendar.

I don't know the whole answer. The best corporate leaders are connected (at the hip) to the successes and challenges of their customers. They are fierce and unrelenting customer champions. Ask your CXO what he or she sees and hears when visiting customers. If you begin a peer-to-peer email campaign—regardless of its ultimate call to action—with real stories from the field that capture a common challenge, you are off to a strong, reality-based start.

A further thought: Were I you, I would begin asking an incendiary question within the corridors of your company. Here's how I framed it two years ago when I was visiting the VP of one of the world's largest software companies (a client), "Everyone knows what your company does. But, I think what's more important—and what will prove valuable in the future—is figuring out the answer to this: What does your company know?"

(In this specific situation, the answer was fairly obvious: the company understood industry-specific business processes better than any other software provider.)

So what does your company know?

Obviously, that knowledge, illustrated with examples and augmented with third-party research, becomes the basis for "thought leadership" and interesting executive marketing communications.

Here are some basic items for the body of the email text

• A little separation is good: Begin a little bit out in left field with an interesting quote or some thought that challenges conventional wisdom. This is what I would call "separation." It builds dynamic tension into the communication. Good speakers also understand the power of this technique. The key, though, when speaking or when writing in the medium of email, is to not stray too far or linger too long.
  
  
• Honor the recipient's time: Quickly move to the unvarnished purpose of the email. "I realize that you're swamped, so here's why I'm sending you this note today: I want you to join me in Chicago for our upcoming Business Forum, October 11th, at the Westin Hotel." We sometimes put this at the very top of the email, just as a way of honoring the recipient's time.
  
  
• The first link: Add your first call to action link at the end of the unvarnished statement of purpose. Put this first call to action—and there will be second in the last paragraph—in parentheses to create some distance from the personal text. Example: (Already intrigued? Visit www.youknowyouwannagetoutoftheoffice.com to review the agenda and register for this exclusive executive event. The event is being restricted to only 500 senior executives.)
  
  
• If they can't scan you, they won't read you: Deliver well-aimed bullets. Have no more than three key points and make sure that they are in bullet form, meaning that they can be easily scanned.
  
  
• The second link: Wrap up with some reference to the introductory thought, a call to action and the second link.

Maher's Mercifully Brief Jeremiad About Communication

What passes for communication these days is an endless repackaging and recycling of the obvious. (And, by "obvious" I don't mean those things that we don't notice enough: those features of ordinary life that sit like the red ball of the summer sun right on the edges of our eyes.)

Is business nowadays filled only with "accommodationistas" and terminally bland appeasers? I don't think so.

But the bulk of marketing communications seems written by someone who is afraid of their own shadow and for someone who is a cipher, a shadow in this world. No stands are taken. No principles defended or defined. You can hear no human voice reading these words.

As marketers—as effective communicators—we should not be pelting prospects, much less customers, with an endless hail of messages that say nothing, for to do so is self-defeating. Our audiences become wary, then calloused, and finally just tune us out.

Oh, I hear the business marketing pragmatists groaning. "Chris, we're not in the business of risking offense. Our role is only to serve our customers, not to potentially put them off. If that means we put the bland back in blandishment, so be it. We don't have time for either truth or beauty."

Good arguments. But, specifically in the arena of executive-to-executive communications, I do not believe that business people trust an "accomodationista." The squishy, the ill-defined, the too-happy-and-hollow inspire no loyalty. They do not make us better. In fact, like cheap candy, they make us feel worse. On the other hand, even if you disagree with an executive's strong, principled stand, you respect the fact that a stand has been taken at all.

I believe that the companies that will define their industries for years to come are those that will adopt a new mandate: to recast themselves as educators and strong, creative customer advocates. They will become efficient producers or distributors of timely, relevant information. Such companies will explore new ground in their communications, take principled stands that are not convenient, and offer even provisional insights through blogs and innovative customer forums.

Their marketing schedules will come to resemble editorial calendars, with customer issues and challenges (not products or services) mapped out and communicated in advance.

It is these companies that will animate their core principles (and reasons for being), and bring the pulse of life to their words.