Developing A Corporate Communications Strategy

In the past couple of years, we’ve seen Covid-19 rage on, widespread natural disasters, and political unrest, among other major global events that have altered the way we live and work. Managing internal and external communications during these uncertain times is challenging, so we’ve put together a corporate communications playbook of general best practices. Some of them include:
 

• ☑️ Accept what you can’t control. Global crises and drastic climate change will continue to dominate headlines for the foreseeable future and may impact announcement results or timing.
   
• ☑️ Be relevant. Not every CEO or founder is Elon Musk willing to jump into the fray of topics related to politics and policy. That said, contributing to the national discussion about topics core to your business is an authentic way to participate in a non-controversial way.
   
• ☑️ Check your state of mind. Are you reacting or responding? Write the response, sit with it, and see how you feel a day later. What is your appetite for arguing with contrarian voices on social media? Does that serve your organization’s purpose, or your purpose, or neither?
   
• ☑️ Operate from your values. Weigh your desire to respond with your values. Would issuing a statement align? If yes, does the content of your statement map to them? Values become real when they are lived.
   
• ☑️ Lead with facts. Regardless of the type of information you disseminate: make sure you have the facts. Who are you retweeting? Where does your data come from? Where does your credibility come from? The bar is, and will be, higher now.
   

Beyond these timely tips, there are many other best practices business leaders need to keep top of mind when navigating various company growth stages. From funding rounds to IPO comms to executive branding in between bigger company milestones, there’s a lot of complicated (and sometimes conflicting) advice out there.

Interested in learning more? Here are some of Inkhouse’s best tips on corporate communications…
 

What To Remember When Managing Comms Through IPO

If you’re an in-house communications person or team lead at a PR agency and you’ve never managed an IPO before, it can seem really daunting. There’s new terminology, new stakeholders, and higher stakes than ever. If your executive team lets you know going public is close, how should you approach it? Where do you even start? While no two IPOs are the same, some broad stroke guidelines apply in more situations than not.

Funding News 101

It’s not all about record-breaking IPOs and SPACs: we’re still seeing a wave of mile-high funding rounds, plus the media environment is getting more competitive. This has an immediate effect on tech PR strategies. If your company has raised a round and is ready to tell the world about it, start by building in planning and strategy time. It’s also important to double down on the business story, drop the tech particulars, and wrap in data if you can. Contacting the media as far in advance as possible creates more runway and allows flexibility on both sides.

How to Engage your Investors in PR

Your investors will not do all of your communications for you, but they will support you how they can. And for some larger firms, resources are ample — consisting of multiple marketing or communications partners, plus agency support. For companies that have achieved commercial and market success, VCs like to boost their association with your brand as it sends a message to other founders and their limited partners that the firm is successful at backing market winners. To engage with your VC investors on PR, start early, keep them updated, and think beyond funding announcements.

Executive Branding: It’s All About Substance

Executive branding is not an exercise in crafting a persona, but one of mirroring authenticity. Audiences want the truth (and also want something real). The biggest marketing mistake executive spokespeople make is asking their PR people what they should think. PR is the place you go to help make it all make sense through the art of good storytelling and make it stick through words that resonate. At Inkhouse, we help CEOs, university presidents, venture capitalists, and other leaders translate their authenticity and authority into effective executive branding using nine core steps.

Fear and the Future of PR

The hard PR truth is that fear gets more clicks than puppies and babies. It’s the most powerful emotional driver, according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. But PR is supposed to open us up to new ideas, people, and things. The Public Relations Society of America’s definition is this: “PR is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.” Mutually-beneficial. Fear only benefits the wielding party. As citizens in society, we set out to discover mutually beneficial pathways that lead to connections — between our clients and their audiences, our teams and their clients, and even among ourselves. The good news is that fear is not the only way to get people’s attention — there are other ways you can focus your efforts to garner attention and drum up interest.