When a business needs to connect to the public or their external environment, accurate messaging is critical. If the company has a lot of time, that messaging can go through several iterations before it makes its way out of the business and into the recipients’ hands.
If the message needs to go out quickly, there isn’t the luxury of multiple revisions, and companies need to come up with ways to ensure that there is nothing lost in communication. To aid companies that might not have the time to revise their external communication properly, 15 members of Forbes Communications Council offer their own strategies for ensuring accuracy in external messaging when pressed for time.
Photos courtesy of the individual members
1. Stay True to The Brand
External messaging is always tough — how do you tell your story, sell the product and convert? The key is consistency, always staying true to the brand and the brand’s story. The key here is being grounded in your company objectives, mission statements and story. Communicate this out to all employees and make sure they understand — that way, everyone is sending the same message at all times. – Erin Drummond, Ignite International, Ltd.
2. Know Your Audience And Adapt
Personalizing communication is important, especially during a crisis. Segment your audiences leveraging data and use words that make sense to them. Avoid a “cookie-cutter” approach, as people often ignore generic broad messages. When contacting customers in written format, use visuals that are relatable to their industry. It takes extra time to customize, but it’s a “best practice” for a reason. – Stacy Sherman, Customer Experience Expert
3. Plan For Various Scenarios
Take a step back and breathe. Staying calm even when quick action is needed is important. As a health insurance provider, we must remain steady so our members know they can rely on us. Preparation is key. We plan for varied scenarios and think about what our consumers, team members and partners might need or want to know. We maintain a consistent voice and presence by putting those we serve first. – Tynan O’Neil, Health Alliance Medical Plans
4. Craft Your Brand Plan
Make sure your company has a clearly defined mission, vision and position. In your brand plan, clearly articulate who you serve and what your brand stands for. Having your strategy and brand guidelines locked in place will help your teams consistently execute messaging that articulates your brand voice in a timely manner. – Tesa Aragones, vsco.co
5. Be Empathetic And Authentic
Even with the best of intentions, companies fall into age-old traps when communicating in a pinch: often being perceived as inauthentic, tone-deaf, profiteering or all three. As with all good messaging, companies must put themselves in the recipient’s shoes: demonstrate empathy (care about/understand the world around you) and authenticity (stay true to your brand), and pass the “so what” test. – Joe Boissy, Iteris, Inc.
6. Be Prepared With Vetted Key Messages
In an era of fast-paced communications, it’s important to have a go-to list of simple, consistent key messages to reference. This helps you keep a consistent tone in all of your material. It’s important to be empathetic when using external messaging during emotional times, but understand that facts and directive information can be grounding, calming and powerful for your audience to hear. – Lynn Kier, Diebold Nixdorf
7. Ask These Three Questions
The best strategy is to ask yourself three questions. Ask yourself, is what I’m communicating necessary, is it timely and is it brief? If what you’re saying truly helps your audience, is relevant given the context of the day and can be communicated in three sentences or less, go for it! – Kim Coutts, Civilian
8. Stick To What You Know
What worked before will probably work again. Use the data and past activities you did for a similar or same objective and apply toward the new objective that you are short in time for. By applying in a smart way, you limit the range of mistakes or misfires when on a tight schedule. – Kobi Ben-Meir, Yalber
9. Understand When It’s Not Business As Usual
It’s important to make sure communications are relevant both to individual people and in the context of what’s happening in the world. In unexpected situations, getting the right tone and information doesn’t require every external message to focus on what a business is doing to respond. Rather, marketers need to adjust messaging to at least acknowledge when something isn’t business as usual. – Nicole Amsler, Formation.ai
10. Validate Assumptions With Customers
When time is scarce, the risk is that messaging becomes inside out. Resist the urge to skip validation of your hypothesis. Nowadays, performing A/B testing on messaging using websites or ads is quite simple and can help gather lots of data very quickly. Call customers with whom you’ve built strong relationships over time and pressure-test your ideas with them. – Alberto Farronato, Gremlin
11. Ask Your Inner Circle
No communications expert, no matter their level of experience or talent, is an island. We rely on our team to provide feedback and friction, which in the end creates a more impactful message. When time is of the essence, share your communication with your inner circle — those whose opinions you trust most. Once they all OK it, you’re good to send. – Melissa Kandel, little word studio
12. Get A Fresh Pair Of Eyes
A strategy we have used in the past is to find the newest person to the company and have them critique the message. This person has the freshest eyes and may not be biased with company loyalty yet. There is also the benefit that this can usually happen quickly due to the person not having a full plate of projects yet. – Sarah Lero, Peerless Products Inc
13. Prioritize Speed Over Perfection
When timing is critical, don’t try to be perfect in your messaging and tone of voice. It is much more important to answer quickly than perfectly since any delay might do even more harm. PR crisis situations require careful planning and crisis scenarios that you can fall back on. – Rafael Schwarz, TERRITORY Influence (a Bertelsmann group company)
14. Talk To Yourself
Read your work aloud. During periods of heightened sensitivity, the tone of your message — the attitude or feeling expressed by your choice of words — will determine how people engage and react. When you pause and read your work aloud, you are better able to judge sentiment and adjust accordingly. This also helps you create a natural cadence for authentic communication. – Leela Brennan, PXG (PARSONS XTREME GOLF)
15. Use Voice Communications
Voice communications — whether by video or audio only — provide an opportunity to use intonation, pitch, speed, pace and emotion to add color to your message. You can accompany it with a transcript or written highlights, but when it comes to tone (which is the basis for trust), nothing beats voice. – Ellen Sluder, RingBoost
