Telling your business story is getting more difficult as the marketplace becomes more crowded. There are many players out there advertising what they do the best and it’s easy to get overlooked if you aren’t saying what you do differently.
1. Become an expert
What defines an expert? Essentially, an expert knows things about a particular area that most people may not. Expertise can be very broad and it can be very narrow. If you have deep knowledge within a niche area, you are in demand whether you realize it or not. News outlets and various publications are always looking for experts to shed light on the situation. If you have valuable insight on a relevant news story, offer yourself as a resource to the reporters.
While this is not a selling platform for your company, it is an opportunity to boost the visibility of your organization in your role as an expert. When you are positioned as a thought leader, it’s inevitable that people will take a closer look at your company. In becoming an expert, fine-tune your specific list of areas that you can speak to and get in touch with the right media influencers. This way, you may be one of the first people they call when a story breaks.
2. Become transparent
If you really want to know how your company is viewed, listen to what people are saying in front of –and in back of –you. Chances are, the public comments are probably pretty positive. However, it’s the hidden feedback that you need to pay attention to. If people are complaining about your products or services, or had a really horrible customer service experience, your company needs to address this in a public forum before it snowballs into a public relations nightmare. Own what you did wrong and spell out your plan to fix it. This transparency goes a long way in developing consumer trust.
3. Recognize the power of now
There is nothing like owning a news story right when it happens, especially if it involves your company. If there is a major industry happening, you need to get on the horn and address it immediately, especially on your social media networks. Of course, news is an unpredictable beast and a story may break five minutes before people are heading home. However, if you wait until the morning, you may lose your opportunity to have the first word. Spending 30 minutes with your top team advisors to craft a public message will beat playing catch-up after the fact every time.
4. Master the elevator pitch
In such a busy world, your customers (and your key stakeholders) want you to get to the point—and fast. You need to know what makes your company different and say it in one sentence. If you can’t capture the attention of your audience in a few words, go back to the drawing board to develop an engaging elevator pitch.
5. Find the right audience in the right place
Even the best and most intriguing story will go unheard if you can’t deliver it to the right people in the right place. Finding your target audience takes some work. They might be strictly blog readers or they might be people who stay on Facebook all day monitoring their favorite companies’ feeds. Either way, discover their media home before you craft the message, especially if it needs to fit into a single Tweet.
While these are all essential parts of public relations success, your company can never lose sight of your bottom line. Business checks can help you stay on course. Laser checks for business can be paired with leading accounting software programs, allowing you to record all financial transactions in the system as they happen. As a leading provider of small business resources, Checksforless.com offers discount business checks in both the manual form and laser form (compatible within 4,500 different software titles). The right checks and software programs can save you time and money, as well as help design your budget to best serve your public relations objectives.
Today’s customers today are looking for the true story behind the words, so stay smart and transparent in your messaging. Honest companies, with effective solutions, will win the race every time!
This article is made possible by Checksforless.com. For more than 35 years, Checksforless.com has provided over 500,000 businesses with high quality business checks, deposit slips, and other banking supplies with easy ordering and fast production times; all at the guaranteed lowest price in the nation. Our discount business checks are easily customizable and compatible with over 4,500 software programs including QuickBooks® and Peachtree/Sage®. Email or call us toll-free at 800-245-5775.