Communication

As an SME owner or director, one of your biggest challenges is to manage your time and budget between the running of the business and the brand-building requirements needed to grow the company. When you don’t have the budget of a large corporate, that can be very difficult. 

This newsletter, should you choose to stay subscribed, is aimed at helping you with the basics, the building blocks you need to get right before you waste money on advertising that doesn’t deliver the results you expect.

I’ve had to put a lot of thought into what topic to start with. After all, there are so many brand-related areas that need urgent attention in most smaller businesses.

Some that spring to mind straight away from paging through various company social feeds are issues like shockingly poor photo and video quality, multiple logo variations and inconsistencies, unclear or badly worded messages, boring and irrelevant content, and incorrect choices of media platforms. 

However, there is one area that so many businesses get wrong and one that every company should focus on first…

PR and communication

Public Relations is not a fancy term reserved only for companies who employ PR firms, hold press conferences and disseminate professional press releases daily. More than ever before, PR has become a critically important area and every single organization has to, at the very least, implement some basic communication principles if they want to avoid nasty social media feuds and public embarrassment.
 
Marketing campaigns are also only as effective as the weakest link in your company chain. You wouldn’t buy an expensive new low-profile sports car if you lived on a bumpy dirt road, would you?  By the same logic, would you spend money on expensive advertising and leave the incoming responses to be answered by uninformed and unprepared staff? You need to pave the way before you spend the money!

Your staff, almost all of them, will have at least some interaction with existing, and potentially new customers and they need to be adequately equipped to give greetings, comments, and responses to the public. Unfortunately, most people have never been taught any form of corporate communication, it’s not a subject covered in any real detail by the education system, or at least it wasn’t at my school. So it’s up to the business owners to ensure the right message is clearly defined and delivered to its audience.

Your business must have a  PR plan, a list of rules of what can and can’t be said, a guide of answers to likely questions, a response to questions that they don’t have an answer to, and a list of appropriate responses to comments on social channels from the public.

You should have, as a minimum, a basic email format laying out the professional and friendly intro and conclusion text blocks to be included in all communications… “Dear Sir/Madam/Mr/Ms…………Thank you for the opportunity……….. We look forward to being of service…
The basics…

Leaders who have had years if not decades of experience in high-level business forget how terrible their communications were when they started, some may have even risen to where they are without great business etiquette, but at one point or another, if your business is to continue to grow you will need a slick and professional image that communicates at a higher standard.

So where do you start?

1. Define the overall message your brand needs to communicate and share your story and vision with your team.
2. In general, avoid political opinions and religion.
3. Chose your statements on ethics and social issues very carefully, this is a potential minefield, and no matter what your views, remember there are always people who don’t agree with your side of the argument. Even friendly mentions of some subjects can trigger a spat. 
4. Avoid comedy in official communications, unless you are Barry Hilton or can afford to hire him. There are only a handful of brands that have managed to successfully use comedy in their ad campaigns and communications and if you don’t get it right you are likely to offend someone!
5. Give your team a list of appropriate answers and responses.
6. Define your letter and email composition structure.
7. And always respond to every comment, review, and inquiry on every platform your business has a presence. There are few things more annoying than not being responded to.