Six tips for impactful communications
As always, the summer was a great time for resetting and working to set clients up for success come autumn and beyond. From recent conversations, I've jotted down six tips for building communications from the ground up, and thought I’d share them.
So, here goes:
Understand your audience. Who are they (buyers, users, influencers)? What are their pain points and needs, how do you solve them, what language do they use? Where are they looking for solutions, what are they reading, where do they meet, how do they build trust in a brand or solution? What are your objectives for them?
Get your key messages sorted. They should be the foundation for all of your comms, but are often overlooked. Craft them for your audience(s), based on the work you did for point 1 above. Have different messages for different audiences. Then, align your materials to them so you're consistent and effective. Build your messages over time as you find out what works and what doesn't: more knowledge is good.
You probably should have a multichannel communications strategy. Multiple opportunities for stakeholders to come into contact with your brand over time will build awareness and credibility, which will influence the likelihood of them taking action - from website clicks to contacting you. Your stakeholders use lots of different channels, and need more than one opportunity to hear about you and feel familiarity. Learn about them and tailor your strategy accordingly.
Strategy is nothing without execution. Whilst guiding principles are essential to help prioritise incoming opportunities (this event vs that event, this podcast vs that one, etc), you need to think about outgoing effort too. Regular and proactive communications and outreach are essential to growing your business.
Have a plan so you know what you actually need to do from your strategy!
Don't just do events and awards. Yes, big splash moments are helpful in building awareness and credibility, but the "softer" work does a lot of the legwork in building dependable credibility over time. You need a regular drumbeat of credibility building material. Do both (and prioritise, because you probably can't do it all if you're a small startup with limited funds... refer to point 3).
I absolutely believe and know that communications are vital in driving forward business success, and an an earlier stage where you might have no or few customers or reference sites, having sharp communications can be one of the only things that helps you build credibility with your audiences.
Please, I beg of you, don’t neglect this (and contact me for help)!
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