The 5 Key Messages in Crowdsourced Innovation Engagement
Many companies are fanning the flames of innovation at their company by launching a crowdsourced innovation community. It’s a great way to improve your innovation program health, because suddenly everyone can contribute to the top of the innovation funnel by sharing ideas and building on the ideas of others.
However, this means that innovation teams need to develop a new skill set: communications. It’s not just about ideas anymore, but how to let people know about the community that they are a part of, about the value of sharing their thoughts, about maintaining an ongoing dialogue where everyone can see the movement from the moment of inspiration to the launch of a completed concept.
Obviously, this is a subject near and dear to my heart as a marketer, which is why we’re constantly trying to share helpful resources about successful communications strategy (like our communications infographic). But recently, the innovation strategy team put together some best practices that successful innovation communications teams are using and they pointed out the five key messages that need to be communicated to the crowd. Not all of these key messages need be in each communication (but you should be sure to hit all of them throughout the lifespan of your innovation campaign). And remember – it’s not about one message, but about an ongoing set of messages that resonate with your audience – and you shouldn’t rely solely on email for people to hear from you. So – here are the five key messages to hit:
1. THE HOOK. Why you? Why now? Leverage one of the intrinsic motivators.
2. THE WHAT or Call to action. This can vary from a call for submissions to a call for comments, votes, or participation in an evaluation. But it’s a good idea to make clear at some point how and why ideas will be selected so that participants know to trust the process.
3. WHO. Who’s asking? Does this person have some credibility or legitimacy in the eyes of the crowd to make this ask or to follow up on their contribution? Do I know that my contribution will mean something?
4. WHERE. Where do I take this action? Direct them to the IdeaScale URL, or use a widget or webhook to collect ideas from the portal that is most convenient for your crowd.
5. WHEN. Are there any time constraints on your campaign? A deadline is a great friend – it creates urgency in the eyes of your ideators.
Learn more about how to run a successful innovation engagement campaign. Download IdeaScale’s set of outreach best practices, which includes examples from successful innovation engagement email campaigns.
