GoldMail’s Blog

One of the great things about GoldMail is its versatility.

Yes, you can create a polished presentation, importing PowerPoint slides and using your 10 minutes of recording time. However, GoldMail is even more powerful as an ad hoc messaging system. Just follow these tips, and you’ll be quickly on your way to making personal and powerful GoldMail messages in minutes.

1. Shorter is Better - We’ve found that shorter GoldMail messages tend to be more powerful messages. So, while you can record for up to 10 minutes, we recommend you try and keep it to 2 minutes or less.

2. Face First - Use your business card as your first slide. As the first slide they see, even before they click PLAY, it reassures the viewer it’s from you and helps them connect / re-connect your face, name and voice.

3. Rule of 7 - Studies have shown that our minds begin to wander after about 7 seconds of looking at an image, so try and change slides every 7 seconds or so OR redirect their attention to something else on the same slide, e.g. “And as you see in point #3 …”

4. No Reading – One of the Death by PowerPoint DON’Ts is to read your slides to the audience, in this case the viewer of your GoldMail message. Don’t do it. We can read something faster than someone can say it and you want them focused on what you’re saying and not be engrossed in reading the slides.

5. Less is More – Also known as “white space is our friend,” means don’t pack your slides full of text and other content. It won’t engage the viewer, actually just the opposite, and in the GoldMail player it may be illegible.

6. Don’t Be Perfect – Even professional speakers aren’t perfect. They call it “wrecking the speech.” They actually perfect their speech and then put BACK “ums” “uhs” and other imperfections that make them and their talk more approachable and human. Just be yourself and speak the way you normally would – no news reporter voices please!

7. Face Last – Thank the viewer for listening and give them specific direction on what to do at the end of the message if you’ve defined a button on the Final Slide that you want them to click, e.g. “Thanks for listening. Click the button at the end of this message to…”

of course, not following these tips won’t mean your message is bad – there are many ways of making effective GoldMail messages.

We’d love to hear what’s working for you – leave us a comment, or send us your feedback to gmsuggestions@goldmail.com