3 Questions for a Strong Corporate Communication Strategy

Corporate communication is one of the most vital business strategies you can employ. In fact, a strong corporate communication strategy can increase returns to shareholders by an impressive 47%. Let alone the fact that employee productivity increases by 20-25% when they feel connected to their workplace. However, a brand’s corporate communications have to be built and developed in a cohesive and strategic way, to be powerful and effective. Therefore, we are going to take you through 3 steps that will transform and unite your company’s communication efforts to form a corporate communication strategy.Let's first look at what corporate communication is before we work on improving or strengthening our strategy.

What is Corporate Communication?

Let’s put it this way: it’s through effective communication that customers learn about a brand’s products or services, including what makes them unique. But most importantly it’s also how management and employees coordinate their activities so the entire company can replicate and embody its personality, goals, and essence. In addition, having strong communications internally helps to boost employee morale. You simply can’t overstate how important it is to keep a brand’s communication cogs running. But how do you go about it? Let’s take it step by step.

1. What are the core elements of your business?

Trying to roll out a corporate communication strategy without having the core elements of your business in place, is like building a house with no foundations. Essentially, that house is going to slide into the mud. And it all starts with reacquainting yourself with your brand, where it sits in the market, and assessing the competition. That way, you can have a building block that all communication comes from to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Here’s how to do it

• First up, conduct a thorough competitor analysis. You need to be assessing how they position themselves in the market, what their brand values, personality and tone of voice are. That way you can make sure you differentiate in a competitive market and your strategically-crafted communications are going to stand out.
• You need to develop your brand values. What do you stand for? Values stand at the very core of your brand. They’re the center from which everything radiates, including your branding, messaging and relationships.
• Develop your tone of voice. How are you going to talk to stakeholders, customers and employees? The voice will need to be consistent across the board, as this will encourage trust.

And once you have these, you can move onto the next question.

2. What are your current internal communications activities?

As we touched on before, effective communication in the workplace is paramount. Without it, it is impossible to build innovative products, provide exceptional services, engage employees or satisfy customer needs.The ripple effect is powerful. You need to take a long hard look at your current strategy to make sure you’re communicating effectively and have happy employees.But a staggering 60% of businesses don’t have a long-term strategy or vision for their internal communication and over 21% of internal communicators say that there is no planning attached to their internal communication strategy. You need to be different.

Here’s how to do it

• Consider the current situation. Think about what current channels you’re using and if they’re working. Are your employees engaging with your newsletters? Have there been any complaints about forms of communication? How regularly do you communicate with your employees?

• Think about your company culture. How are your employees feeling about where they work? What is morale like? There are survey tools you can use, such as Office Vibe, that help you to get this information while your employees remain anonymous.

• Tailor your internal communications based on what your audience needs and wants. From newsletters, to focus groups, to group Zoom calls, to events and digital signage, you can make sure you get it right.

Then it’s time for the final question and bringing it all together.

3. How do I define my new strategy?

This is a crucial step, as making sure everything is aligned is going to be intrinsic to ensuring your corporate communication strategy is cohesive and highly relatable. You’re going to need the following in place:

• Clear goals. Your goals should lay out exactly what you want your communications to achieve. The key is making sure your goals are SMART and that you stick by them like glue.
• Segment your audience. Remember that different audiences need to be spoken to about different topics. Your external audience will need different communications than your internal audience, for example.
• A strategic content plan. Planning content ahead of time will help to keep your content in line with your core brand elements. Make sure you’re always relating content back to what makes sense for your brand values, personality, and tone of voice.

Remember, fixing a corporate communication issue is not a quick or simple process. On the contrary, it takes research, strategy, and time. You’re going to need to be both proactive and reactive to make your communications work powerfully.FINAL TIP: Always communicate with your customers, employees and stakeholders on a human level. If you’re unsure what types of communication and content they want from you... ask them! People like to be consulted and they respond well to being asked their opinion. Do you want to talk more about how digital signage can boost your corporate communication strategy? We’re experts in digital signage and can deep dive into exactly what your business needs. Contact us on 866 310 4923.