What is the best way to deliver bad news? When it comes to brand communication, the way a brand uses language to share important information matters. So, what goes into crafting the perfect combination of language and sentiment? It’s a delicate balance, especially when the message isn’t what the consumer wants to hear.

In the past two years, brands have had to step out of their comfort zone and into a challenging world of change. Sound familiar? During the pandemic, brands had to adapt quickly and shift with the ever-changing ebbs and flows of daily coronavirus news.

Companies needed to shift their messaging strategies to empathize with customers and connect on a deeper level. Brands sought to understand how their customers and prospects were feeling, instead of trying to drive action. It became apparent that contextual, sensitive language was necessary to make meaningful and authentic connections.

The trend of mindful narratives

Persado classifies language into emotional categories. We run experiments on the performance of these emotions to determine which language drives the most customer response in various scenarios.

During the early stages of the pandemic, our data showed that emotional language alone was lacking the context needed to connect with customers. This need gave rise to the development of mindful narratives, language that supported the evolving needs of people throughout the pandemic.

In the beginning of the pandemic, our clients relied heavily on mindful narratives. In 2020, Persado’s AI helped clients test over 120,000 messages for 180 context sensitive campaigns. Some examples of this include:

• You deserve a break
• Rest assured, your safety is important to us
• We’re in this together!
• Your WFH setup just got a major upgrade

In 2021, the trend shifted. Persado clients only sent 2% of mindful narratives, accumulating 2,000 messages for approximately 14 of the same types of campaigns. That’s not to say that we no longer relied on mindful narratives. However, the reliance was different.

As people became used to a “new normal” (can we all agree we hate this term?), brands became more and more comfortable incorporating this type of language into their usual campaigns.

Instead of referring to this context-sensitive language as the language of bad news, we found that our clients are shifting to see this messaging as an opportunity for transparency and solidarity with their own customers.

The balance of communicating customer service issues

In recent months, supply chain issues and inflation have impacted brands globally, slowing down production and increasing material costs. Meanwhile, customers still expect the same quality of services and shipping speeds they’ve become accustomed to.

Supply chain and inflation are also met with the impact of the pandemic as a whole, adding new obstacles like cleaning protocols and staffing issues. Persado’s data showcases some real-world examples of how brands are communicating the “language of bad news.” We analyzed them in the context of motivator categories including:

• Achievement: praising or rewarding the customer for an accomplishment
• Attention: alerting the customer to the importance of the message
• Safety: language that eliminates worries or doubts
• Excitement: delivery of good news
• Gratification: incentivizing by highlighting the value the customer receives
• Fascination: language that stimulates excitement around the newness of an item

Key themes in an era of change

When it comes to delivering news of any kind, attention is the primary motivator. However, as we’ve just seen, that motivation looks a little different these days. Let’s break down why and how brands can adjust to meet this need. Take the following email copy from a hospitality brand:

Important Information About Your Stay

In response to the current travel advisories, this hotel may have modified hours or limitations on certain services or amenities. Learn more >

Due to COVID-19, some hotel facilities or services may not be available to guests for a period of time. See our safety protocols >

Customers should review government travel guidance to confirm requirements for travel to their destination. View travel guide >

Language breakdown: The emotion the brand uses throughout this message is attention, which ranked as the No. 1 overall performing emotion across industries in the last quarter of 2021. Some subject line examples of this include:

• Important information enclosed
• We wanted to notify you of these changes

These messages appropriate an authoritative and transparent tone that readers can trust and shows that the company is taking customer satisfaction seriously.

Next, we have the body of another email:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for being a valued member of our [brand] community—you are the reason we are passionately committed to delivering extraordinary fabric care products and cleaning expertise.

Language breakdown: Within this email, this large retailer shares that it is increasing its prices. We see the use of the emotion gratitude and the story of community (feeling a part of the brand family) to begin this narrative. Community has been in the top five performing motivations, or language that illustrates a story, and is a good choice by the retailer as both a story that will resonate with customers in this context.

Additionally, gratitude was a top three high-performing emotion in the context of customer experience or messages relating to information that might impact the customer directly, such as this price increase. In the context of increasing prices, community and gratitude as a combination were overall a good choice in the delivery of this news given that community and gratitude often go hand in hand.

Reinforcing the customer as a valued member of the brands’ family and thanking them for their loyalty is a good precursor when delivering news that could affect their experience with the brand going forward such as a price increase. Acknowledging the customer and framing the language in this way has a higher likelihood of ensuring customer loyalty going forward when dealing with inflation and service issues.

Top performing motivations

According to our data, the top three performing motivations in the context of restock notifications usually contain the emotions of attention, safety and fascination. Our data around the context of stock-related issues shows that attention, safety and fascination are alternatives that have the potential to perform better in the context of in-stock updates. The performance of these emotions suggests that customers respond well to directness and transparency when it comes to information about a brand.

Additionally, the concept of new and fresh items in stock (fascination) as well as reassurance that items will be in stock (safety) can effectively drive action when framed in this way. Some examples of language used in this way include:

Attention

• Supply chain update: How we’re preparing
• Restock notification
• FYI, we’re fully stocked and prepared in advance of the holidays

Safety

• We’re officially ready for your shopping needs this season
• Confirmed: The Supply Chain problem has nothing on us
• No worries, we’re totally prepared this holiday season

Fascination

• Just arrived—all our styles are fully stocked
• Check out all this new we have in stock. Take that, supply chain!
• Your favorites are totally in stock this holiday

In all cases, the common thread is attention. Attention remains the most appropriate and relevant motivator when it comes to delivering updates and important information. Having said that, we are all facing these issues together, so these messages are no longer “news” from the brand. Rather, updates from the brand are acknowledgements of issues, plans of action and preparedness, or check-ins to ensure that the brand is thinking of the customer always.

When it comes to delivering news of any kind, brands should take it as an opportunity to connect with customers and share a common understanding of their pain points. In today’s unpredictable world, we are all trying to get by. The more that a brand can connect with consumers by sharing this human experience, the more successful the brand will be in the end.