It’s January. Time for new beginnings. New healthy eating regimes. New gym memberships. Every year the magazines are full of new things to learn, new diets, new habits to take up and old ones to break.
Do they stick? Rarely. Do they provoke useful thought and analysis? Sometimes.
In the business world, January can be a time for strategic planning, revision of budgets and looking ahead to what the targets are going to be for the next financial year. Within that, it can be beneficial to consider your company’s reputation and what it is worth.
What does your company stand for and is that clear – both internally to your employees but also externally to your customers and other stakeholders? How is your business viewed? How do your people think about you? How do you want to be seen? And – critically – are you achieving this last aim?
If so, wonderful, carry on. If not, then the recently arrived ’Year of the Rabbit’ could give you the opportunity to do more than resolve to eat more lettuce. This could be the time to sit down, take stock and start to create and implement a coherent communication strategy that complements and supports your business objectives.
To do this you may want to focus more on finding media opportunities, building relationships with journalists, shouting your news from the rooftops and demonstrating your expertise through articles and interviews. Before all this, though, you need to plan. The most effective corporate communications campaigns are carefully considered, well-co-ordinated, and aligned to clear corporate goals,
You may have all the resources you need to plan and implement these objectives already. But if you don’t, assembling or enhancing either an internal team or an external set of advisers will be a vital part of how you approach your communication planning.
At Haggie Partners, we believe that when you communicate effectively, it is powerful – it is an enabler. Needless to say, we would be delighted to help if you are looking for advice.