Warren Buffet notably said that one way to increase your worth by at least 50% is to hone your communication skills. And the same may well be true for organizations — from start-ups to SMBs to large enterprises. Here are 10 ways to help build your brand and bottom line through effective content and comms.
- Develop a singular voice. Ideally, your comms and content should be as unique as your business and the products and services it offers. If you achieve this, all your communications (not just marketing) have the potential to become de facto brand building tools.
- Develop style and messaging guides. Benchmark the comms of leading players in your space, then create a guide that specifies every aspect of your communication style: terminology, voice, tone, formatting, fonts — everything. Create departmental guides for sales, marketing, HR, customer service, management and even your C-suite with examples for all types of content.
- Consider corporate culture. Find ways to infuse your communication style and messaging into your corporate culture. Disney referring to its employees as “cast members” affects perceptions and attitudes of both workers and visitors to its theme parks. What can your company do to help define the customer and employee experience through how it communicates?
- Recognize every comm counts. From your annual report to investor updates to how customers are greeted — all internal and external comms can influence buyer behavior, productivity and the customer experience. Look at them all.
- Establish oversight processes. Establish an approval process for all important/public communications that always includes at least two people. Have written instructions and guidelines for social media managers.
- Offer feedback and guidance. Make communications part of your employee annual review process. Evaluate performance and provide resources and training as needed.
- Bring in a specialist. Include a content/communications expert on your team. Consider enlisting the services of a consultant to establish guidelines, provide targeted training or evaluate your content/communications.
- Publish or perish. Distribute content regularly — for all the reasons commonly cited. Organizations that are really good at content tend to do more of it.
- Boost sales and marketing. Ads, landing pages, investor comms, social media content, web pages, blogs/SEO, press releases, product descriptions, customer communications, newsletters, videos, LinkedIn posts, white papers, lead magnets … are you doing enough? Are they effective?
- Regularly review your comms and content. Organizations should undertake a regular review of their communication output, whether annually, bi-annually or quarterly.
You can build your business through more impactful communications. Reach out if you need assistance.