Got an email message today from what was clearly a mobile number account/text message (based on the phone number email address). Text as follows:Mobile. Can you meet today @ 4?One problem. I didn’t recognize the number, and thus, who was requesting my time. I had a hunch, but I’m not likely to accept such requests from strangers. I did reply, got an “Oops!”, hunch was actually right, and we scheduled the appointment, which was of value and interest to me. But so was who I was meeting with.The lesson? You better make sure that your audience knows the things you assume. If you’re giving a product introduction on “Version 3.1”, then they better know what 3.0 represents; if your company tagline is “specializing in 128-bit data encryption”, then you’ve limited your market to those who understand what that means; if you are banking on a joke with a punchline based on a TV show, you might be surprised if you don’t get the whole audience laughing.It’s never a bad idea to run such things past someone representative of your audience before you assume they know.
Make sure your audience knows what you think is given. Otherwise, give it to them.
