NEW blog post: Silence isn't golden
It’s often said that when things get difficult, the first thing facing the axe is the marketing budget. Granted, cost savings are an important part of good business stewardship but remember not to cut off your information pipeline to the outside world and critically, your target audiences. Silence is most certainly not golden when it comes to business !
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, was quoted as saying “If I was down to my last dollar, I’d spend it on PR.”
Maintaining and developing a company’s profile is inextricably linked to its long term success and should be a fundamental part of any business plan. Each and every member of the team should be familiar with the key messages of the business and these should be reflected in your communications strategy. Yes, you need a strategy !
Knowing what to say, when to say it, how to say it and who to say it to will play a valuable role in steering a business through the bad times, as well as the good. Time spent thinking of innovative and complementary ways of raising your profile and standing out from the rest will help you develop and strengthen your market position.
Do you know where your customers come from? Are you aware of what’s being said about you? In this digital age, having a credible and positive reputation online is just as important as having good links with your local paper or trade press. PR organisations and the media have a symbiotic relationship. Each needs the other and it’s the responsibility of PR professionals both in-house and in consultancy to secure media coverage but in a way that upholds the reputation of the business they represent.
By following a few simple guidelines in communicating your messages via the media, this relationship can be a harmonious and rewarding one but incurring the wrath of editors is to be avoided as it can be very difficult to retrieve. In other words, do not simply spam people’s inboxes with irrelevant material.
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