Communication Strategy That Works

A recent report from Muckrack on PR measurement stated that more than 94% of PR Pros agree that media placements were a top priority in 2021—and that will remain largely unchanged in 2022

The report from the global media platform unveils how PR pros measured success in 2021, plus their plans and predictions for 2022. Disappointingly, for me, there is a huge focus on media placements. Those of you that have listened to the podcast before will know this, but PR is not all about media placements!

So today I wanted to share with you how you can measure the success, or failure, of your PR plan so you can invest in the right team, activities and resources to reach your business goals and not be fixed in the groove of placing media stories. Spoiler alert - it's not all about getting in the press.

You will learn:

Three reasons why you should measure your PR activity, top tips for getting started and why quality, not quantity, should be your driver.

Links mentioned in the episode:

My Activity Tracker: https://bit.ly/TrackActivity

MucRack's report: https://info.muckrack.com/state-of-pr-measurement-2021-research

Further listening: Episode 05 https://henbe.co.uk/2020/12/17/ep-05-how-and-when-to-use-public-relations-in-your-business/

Get in touch

Follow/DM me on LinkedIn : https://bit.ly/FollowMeLinkedIn

PS – Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot.

As COP26 draws to a close this week, I'm reflecting today on what this means for you as communicators. Clearly, there is a big stick as well as carrot coming down the line and planning for supporting reputation issues around greenwashing, having difficult conversations with people and working out who's culpable for information shared should be high on the list for all businesses, large or small in the wake of COP26.

Today I share some insights into what I think companies need to think about and what communicators need to think about. I cover 3 big questions in this podcast episode and share some further thoughts, next steps you can adopt, and things to look out for.

Let's dive in!

Useful links from this episode:

First published on LinkedIn live event 'It's a B2B comms thing' watch it here: https://www.linkedin.com/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6860905845253779456/

https://greenclaims.campaign.gov.uk/

https://www.cpicode.org.uk/news/code-for-construction-product-information-and-guidance-published/

Further listening: Episode 43. 6 steps to manage potential reputation issues

Grab your FREE 6-step guide to reputation issues management (also here: https://bit.ly/6StepGuideIssuesNoTissues)

You can also:

Follow me on LinkedIn

PS – Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot.

Attracting investors can be a challenging, time consuming and often relentless task. Moreover, It can be tricky to know what to say and how. Today, I explore what to look for in this deep dive episode when pitching to investors as an audience. This fundamentally takes a strategic communication approach and a very specialist one. However, at its heart, it's still about connecting with an audience and making them act.

I wanted to bring someone onto the podcast who knows all about this, so I am thrilled to be joined by Andrea Cockerton, award-winning social entrepreneur, founder of DIUO (the new Smart TV platform for musicians just closing its first investment round), and - under her Mudhut brand - a pitch consultant for more than 15 years to a staggering 2000 plus entrepreneurs & CEOs delivering investor & business-critical pitches, including Dragon's Den record breakers The Wand Company, and direct pitches to Bill Gates.

We cover what to say, how to create 'magic moments' and what investors are now looking for post-pandemic.

So let's dive in!

Useful links:

Discover more about Andrea:

• www.mudhut-communications.com
• www.diuo.info
• www.linkedin.com/in/andreacockerton

• No warm intro list: https://airtable.com/shrsDIW1FMuA5cI9P/tblaahhCCc2v0065Q/viwdm9nLc4Aj3sHJO?blocks=hide
• Useful London lists: https://medium.com/@jennyjudova/list-of-seed-investors-in-london-3da42d7de9f4
• Massive, slightly overwhelming list: https://airtable.com/shrd9SJKaophxf6Tm/tblpObRZstC5uBDhs?backgroundColor=cyan&viewControls=on
• Most active EIS funds in the UK: https://seedlegals.com/resources/17-most-active-eis-investment-funds-in-the-uk/
• Best 100 early stage investors: https://www.businessinsider.com/seed-100-top-early-stage-vc-investors-2021-4?r=US&IR=T
• The 25 best early stage female investors: https://www.businessinsider.com/seed-25-best-female-early-stage-investors-2021-4?r=US&IR=T
• Diverse investors list: https://www.foundersforchange.org/diverse-investors-list/
• Impact investment directory: https://techforgood.global/impact-investing

What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business (also here: https://bit.ly/SevenSteps2Success )

If you're new to marketing your business or need a refresher on audience insight, checkout How to find customers and help them buy from you'

Follow me on LinkedIn

PS – Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot.

Making a strategic choice in terms of who you put forward as a spokesperson is really important if you are going to be engaging with the media of making B2B content of any kind.

Today I cover 5 key things to look for in a topic expert for your campaign.

We all want to raise the visibility of our businesses, products or services, and one way to do that is by choosing a topic expert or influencer to sell your story for you. This can be an excellent strategy, I've used it myself, but you might be wondering what to look for.

There's lots of talk of influencers these days. You might know exactly who is influential in your industry right now, especially if you are in B2B or you might be trying to figure out who really is an influencer and who is giving an impression of being one.

Let's dive in!

What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business (also here: https://bit.ly/SevenSteps2Success )

If you're new to marketing your business or need a refresher on audience insight, checkout How to find customers and help them buy from you'

Follow me on LinkedIn

PS – Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot.

I recently spoke at an event for property marketers where I joined two other experts to discuss what has changed for property marketing in a post-pandemic world. I thought I would share these insights with you today as the points around audience, community cohesion and the use of technology are relevant to any industry and provide some food for thought around where your communication strategy is now, and what you could do to improve it.

Let's dive in!

You can watch the webinar event that was the inspiration for this episode HERE

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business (also here: https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/n8xnx5bjj3 )

If you're new to marketing your business or need a refresher on audience insight, checkout How to find customers and help them buy from you'

Follow me on LinkedIn

PS – Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot.

This week in the UK is national Work-life week promoted by Working Families - the UK's work-life balance charity. Work-life balance is a tricky subject, right? I think it is a modern dilemma where we need to balance life and work as more parents have working households, not just one person bringing in a salary. The 'life' part doesn't have to include kids. It can also mean creating a balance and space from a job.

I wanted to raise some awareness of this today for communications people out there and share my thoughts and experiences on this topic spurred on by this charity's work and some recent feedback from my network about how they create work-life balance. I wanted to raise the topic from a certain angle, mine, and provide you with some tips and advice based on getting it wrong over many years!

I have also created a 'productivity stack' for you.

Let's dive in!

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business (also here: https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/n8xnx5bjj3 )

If you're new to marketing your business or need a refresher, checkout my bite-sized digital course on my learning platform 'Comms That Works'; How to find customers and help them buy from you'

Follow me on LinkedIn

PS – Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot.

I wanted to talk to you today about how to manage potential reputation issues without being overwhelmed, and how this can quickly form part of your daily or monthly planning.

The recent Facebook outage had some online businesses shifting in their seats uncomfortably whilst secretly panicking about when it would come back on. I have also seen more and more 'automation gone wrong' and businesses creak and groan that rely heavily on automation, software and Facebook.

So building on a recent episode around making sure your marketing promise meets your customer experience, I am sharing six simple steps you can follow to make this part of your regular comms planning.

So let's dive in!

Links mentioned in this episode:

Why customer service is your biggest PR tool

(also here https://henbe.co.uk/2021/09/23/ep-41-why-customer-service-is-your-biggest-pr-tool/)

Grab my 'No tissues' reputation issues management guide :

(also here: https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/6gveu61kn5)

You can also;

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business (also here: https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/n8xnx5bjj3 )

Checkout my bite-sized digital course on my learning platform 'Comms That Works'; How to find customers and help them buy from you'

Follow my Facebook page for daily tips.

PS – Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot.

Things have changed since the phrase 'Content is King' was coined and I have also recently reflected on my own content strategy as I am a consumer and a business owner.

Things have changed since that phrase 'Content is King' was coined by Bill Gates in the mid nineties, and I have reflected recently on my own content strategy as I am a consumer as well as a business owner.

I think it's important to make sure we share enough content to please the algorithms and account for the fact that not everyone is on social media ALL the time..:) and make sure it's relevant, timely and rich with what your audience wants to hear.

So here are some tips on content development approaches you could take. So let's dive in!

Links in this episode:

Repurposing: https://henbe.co.uk/2021/05/13/ep-23-why-investing-in-the-right-content-once-is-a-good-strategy/

5 Whys : https://henbe.co.uk/2020/12/30/ep-06-whats-your-story-how-to-create-messages-with-impact/

Today's episode was inspired by brand strategy agency, Mobas's article 'content makes for a rubbish king: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/content-makes-rubbish-king-adam-tuckwell/?trackingId=DiTdigjeQYKqghc2vvfGvw%3D%3D

You can also;

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business (also here: https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/n8xnx5bjj3 )

Checkout my bite-sized digital course; How to find customers and help them buy from you'

Follow my Facebook page for daily tips.

PS – Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot.

If you follow me on social media, you will know that I have recently had a bad customer service experience. It got me thinking about how brands can easily get it wrong if the back-office function is not connected to the brand message.

Public relations is about managing and protecting your reputation as a business, and how you handle customers is a huge part of that. It can make or break a customer's experience of your business or brand.

More and more brands are turning to a digital customer experience, and that's great, and some are nailing it. But it's not all plain sailing right? When we buy into a 'brand promise', we don't expect it to break as soon as you start interacting with the back-office functions.

So today I will cover a few things to think about how digital customer service can affect your hard-earned reputation if not managed as part of your public relations plan.

Links in this episode:

Top Customer Service Expectations and How To Succeed Them

You can also;

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business (also here: https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/n8xnx5bjj3 )

Checkout my bite-sized digital course; How to find customers and help them buy from you'

Follow my Facebook page for daily tips.

PS – Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot.

Context is everything in terms of making sure your message lands; how often do you review what you are doing and what I call the 'operating context' in which you are doing it? If 2020 has taught us anything, customers have a higher expectation for information exchange and show loyalty to businesses that deliver this to a high level through their customer experience with them.

The days of 'set it and forget it' have long gone for communication planning, and as communicators, we need to be responsive and adaptable. Exhausting, though, right? Today I cover why you should review your operating context for a modern approach to communication planning and tips on integrating this into your comms strategy.

Let's dive in!

Links in this episode:

The One-Page Marketing Plan on Amazon

You can also;

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business (also here: https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/n8xnx5bjj3 )

Follow my Facebook page for daily tips.

Checkout my bite-sized digital course; How to find customers and help them buy from you'

PS – Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot.