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Earlier this week I wrote about how it can be important to communicate the same message different ways when it comes to pre-recorded messages via predictive dialer. Sometimes it is necessary to say the same thing twice because the audience may not have been ready for it before. But using the same message twice can become an annoyance to those who have already seen it, hence the need to record a new and slightly different message.

But it’s also important to discuss ways to mix up a recording that basically is the same as an older recording in terms of the message being communicated.

There are several ways to make a recording sound fresh when it essentially is the same as an earlier recording.

One of the simplest ways is to use a different voice. If the first recording had a man’s voice, perhaps the second recording can use a woman’s. Even if the message is identical, the different voice will signal that the message is not the same. This is one of the single largest adjustments that can be made to keep the message sounding fresh.

A second way to make a recording different than the first one is to break down the message and rewrite it paragraph by paragraph. Each paragraph of the recorded message can effectively be the same, but rewriting it with different word and sentence choices will make it sound new. When combined with a different voice on a recording, this can be the simplest way to make an existing message sound fresh.

A slightly more involved method is to not only rewrite the script for the recording, but to analyze its central points and communicate them in a different order. Maybe one recording leads with the reason to choose a certain political candidate over another, for instance, but the second could start with the value proposition of the candidate. Later in the recording, the reasons to choose one candidate over another then can be addressed. Same message, but different order.

There also might be several things to emphasize in a message, and a call script can be rewritten to emphasize certain points and downplay others in a different way than the first recording. This can effectively communicate the same message, but do it in a new way.

As I wrote previously, sometimes it is necessary to say the same message twice to reach an audience. If it is done in a different way than the first communication, it will be appreciated. But if it is a literal redo of the first recording, it will seem tedious to those who already have listened. So adjusting the message the second time around is important.