In our recent webinar, we looked at various ways to build your brand and strengthen its reputation, speaking to businesses from a variety of sectors and of all scales and sizes.
After all, whether you’re a private business, a public organisation or a start-up, the fundamental principles are the same. Yet our research has suggested that 71% of businesses don’t have a plan in place to deal with serious reputational challenges when they arise.
While nearly six in 10 (59%) say their business has a social media strategy (as the chart below shows) the fact that less than a third have a crisis communications plan in place seems concerning. It's really positive that businesses recognise the importance of social media, but it shouldn’t be viewed in isolation.
Social media strategies must be woven into a broader communications plan, including processes for how to recognise and manage risks, as social media can interact with all other channels with alarming speed.
That's where your crisis communications plan may come into play. And it needn't be a lengthy dossier – just a set of clear and concise actions in terms of who does what and when in the event of an issue.
The tools which businesses have in place for managing reputational risk, based on research with C-level executives conducted for Amp’s Reputational Risk Radar 2024
The chart also shows that just a quarter of the businesses surveyed have media trained spokespeople and only a fifth have communications processes for sharing information with stakeholders in the event of a reputational risk. These are both key elements in terms of building and protecting trust, and can be easily addressed with the right processes and training.
However, don’t wait until there’s an issue to consider ways to strengthen your brand. Review your narrative, make sure you’ve got the right message and then build a holistic, multi-channel brand and communications strategy. So, how do you do that?
1. Review your brand positioning
In the webinar, we talked through the steps we take in our brand review process to help companies ensure they have the optimum brand positioning. That includes being aware of any reputation-reality gaps that need addressing and enhancing brand messaging to better resonate with key audiences.
To do this, first we gather a holistic, multi-dimensional view of what’s being said, using a variety of data, both qualitative and quantitative, so that you can understand where your brand is currently. This can unveil powerful insights, both positive – such as untapped revenue opportunities and compelling stories that should be told – and negative, including potential risks that need to be addressed.
It also allows you to create a communications and content strategy that will support the business across all areas; from sales and marketing to people management and talent acquisition, with a unified message and holistic framework.
2. Create compelling content
When it comes to brand reputation and building trust, communications play a key role, ranging from direct customer messages and how you engage with partners, regulators and industry bodies, to what you’re saying in the media.
In addition, it's largely accepted that content is king in marketing today, so having the right brand and communications strategy in place is essential in order to create appropriate marketing material that resonates with all elements of the business and maximises wider opportunities.
Once you’re clear on your narrative and positioning, you can make sure your content is working effectively across all channels, with appropriate tailoring as needed. This delivers huge efficiencies within an organisation, creating a more consistent approach and powering the 'trust loop'.
Sharing engaging and insightful content, with a focus on thought leadership, will help you get your message across and can take a variety of forms, be it white papers, ebooks, blogs, presentations, media features or social media, to name a few.
And don’t forget internal communications. Your people can be your greatest champions so you need to include and engage them. If you want to build external trust, it goes without saying you should be able to do that with your own colleagues too.
3. Media training
We found in our toolkit analysis that only a quarter of businesses have media trained spokespeople. This could possibly be attributed to the increase in non-official spokespeople, with social media effectively making everyone a brand ambassador.
However, it's important to have a few key spokespeople (usually at C-level), both to promote the good news stories and to handle challenging questions from journalists and news outlets in the event of an issue. Rudiger Theilmann, who lectures in crisis and corporate communications at Leeds Beckett University said: “It’s worrying to see things like media training dropping down the priority list. As communications comes to grips with a host of challenges within our own industry – notably the use of artificial intelligence (AI) – strengthening the ‘human’ aspect becomes more important than ever.
“With all-pervasive issues like trust, authenticity and sustainability, leaders have to bring the personal, human element into the story. It’s not just about the information but the insights gleaned from it, what we’ve learned and how we’ll move forward, so there’s a real opportunity here for businesses to differentiate themselves from competitors and make their mark.”
Media training also provides a good opportunity to test the brand messages in a series of possible scenarios, so that changes can be made if necessary.
4. Issues management workshops
As well as having the right tools and processes in place to manage and mitigate risks, it’s important that the responsible parties are appropriately trained and have the competencies needed.
At our issues management workshops, we look at how companies are dealing with reputational risks and provide practical structures that can be put in place, along with sample communications such as media statements and other stakeholder messages, to give an example of how to engage with relevant audiences in the event of an issue.
With the right tools and training, businesses can better navigate reputational risks, as well as creating more powerful brand strategies to support growth by building trust with customers.
Get in touch to find out more and discuss how we can help build your brand.