Why Your Company Needs to Focus on Corporate Communications
No company exists in isolation. To be successful, companies must learn how to communicate effectively. Key information must be shared with both internal and external audiences.
Corporate communications are crucial when it comes to managing a brand. A company can use its communications strategy to bolster its reputation, market its products, and create a strong internal culture.
There are various types of corporate communications. Each communication sector has its own specialized role and function. Understanding how to structure your corporate communications strategy effectively will strengthen your internal operations and boost your brand.
In this article, we’ll look at the role of corporate communications in an organization. We’ll explain the different types of corporate communications and analyze the key elements of a successful corporate messaging strategy.
What are Corporate Communications?
The concept of corporate communications covers a broad area. In general terms, corporate communications refer to any methods a company uses to share information.
All corporate communications are goal orientated. An effective corporate communications strategy must be multi-tiered. It needs to encompass a wide range of audiences and accomplish various aims.
Many organizations have dedicated teams or professionals that deal with a specific set of corporate communications.
How corporate communications are disseminated largely depends on the audience. They may be in the form of written communications such as emails, memos, reports, press releases, or marketing and advertising copy.
Corporate communications can also be verbal. Staff meetings, training sessions, press conferences, interviews, or promotional videos are all examples of spoken corporate communications.
It is also possible to have non-verbal corporate communications. Non-verbal corporate communications include a company’s logo and branding, as well as marketing photographs, internal infographics, and illustrations.
Why are Corporate Communications Crucial to Success?
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of corporate communications in the modern business environment. They play a pivotal role in managing and enhancing an organization's reputation.
The success of any enterprise rests on how well it communicates with its people and its customers. Overall, corporate communication helps to build and maintain relationships with internal and external stakeholders. Ultimately, they can deliver a distinct competitive advantage.
Effective corporate communications showcase a company's unique strengths and its commitment to its values and mission. They allow an organization to define and protect its identity. A company can use its corporate messaging to achieve its goals and optimize its workflows.
If you’re on point with your corporate communications, you can create loyal customers, build an engaged workforce, and ensure the long-term sustainability of your enterprise.
What are the Core Components of Corporate Communications?
While they have a complex range of functions, there are two main types of corporate communications. In simple terms, corporate communications can be either internal or external.
Internal corporate communications are aimed at company staff and are not for public consumption. Internally, corporate communications are essential to creating a robust company culture. Good communication also assists in streamlining internal operations, keeps employees engaged, and creates a cohesive work environment.
External corporate communications are for audiences like potential and existing clients and customers, the media, the general public, investors, government agencies, or suppliers. Externally, corporate communications help to build a company’s brand identity and strengthen customer awareness. They enhance the company's reputation and maintain transparency.
A good communication strategy must take into account the goals and functions of internal and external corporate messaging.
The Main Goals of Internal Corporate Communications
Internal communication used to mean simply providing employees with the basic information they need to perform their roles. In today’s business world, internal communications are integral to building a successful enterprise. All major stakeholders in a company should be aware of the value of internal communications and the benefits, best practices and tools involved.
The two main goals of modern internal business communications are to build employee engagement and to create a strong corporate culture.
What Is Employee Engagement?
Employee engagement is how committed and motivated employees are and how connected they feel to their work and their company.
Engaged employees are more loyal to their employers and are excited about their work. They’ll go over and above what is expected of them. They believe in their company and see value in their daily tasks.
Engaged employees feel appreciated at work and are proud of their roles. An engaged employee is more productive, happier, and more likely to actively promote their company.
What is Company Culture?
Company culture is the shared values, beliefs, and behaviors that define an organization's identity. It sets the tone for how employees interact, make decisions, and carry out their roles. A healthy and positive company culture can foster a sense of belonging and worth.
How to Create a Company Culture that Builds Engagement
How can an organization ensure that its employees are engaged? By creating a strong company culture that fosters a sense of belonging and purpose. A positive internal culture is achieved by clearly defining and communicating the company's mission and values.
Employees need to know why their work matters. Staff also need to feel involved with the organization they work for. They should be kept informed of all company developments, milestones, and successes.
There are many ways that a company can use its internal communication channels to strengthen its culture and build employee engagement.
An organization can set up a newsletter that details all the latest goings-on. Monthly companywide meetings and regular team meetings can also keep employees informed. A reward and recognition platform can be established to acknowledge high-achieving employees.
The company intranet is the ideal vehicle to strengthen culture and build employee engagement. Using a dedicated intranet solution such as LumApps can help your company optimize its internal corporate communications.
The Aims of External Corporate Communications
Many people view external corporate communication as just marketing and advertising. While these are no doubt important, this is a very basic definition. In reality, there are various aims of external corporate communication for a modern business.
As well as promoting its products and services, external corporate communications have other key functions. They are crucial to building and managing an organization's brand recognition and overall reputation.
External communications enhance a company’s ability to maintain positive relationships with outside entities, like regulatory agencies or the media. External corporate communications also act to build trust with customers and other external stakeholders. When done well, they can demonstrate that an organization can respond to a crisis quickly, transparently, and appropriately.
External Communications and Marketing – Synergy is Vital
Traditionally, organizations would have an external communications department that was separate from the marketing department. Today, the divisions between these two areas have become less apparent and there is considerable crossover.
The way a business communicates with external parties can influence how it markets itself and its services or products. And the opposite holds, as well. It’s not unusual now for a communication team to help develop marketing strategies and for marketing teams to assist with external corporate messaging.
If there isn’t synergy and clear internal communication between these two areas, stakeholder engagement can be negatively impacted.
All marketing campaigns, branding, and promotional materials need to conform with the established corporate identity. Marketing that is perceived as ‘off-brand’ can reduce consumer trust in a company.
Managing Media Relations and Public Relations
Media relations and public relations can make or break a company. How an organization is presented by the media and perceived by the public depends greatly on its external communications.
The media and the public both have the power to influence each other. A drop in public opinion can result in negative media coverage, and vice versa.
All external communications with the media or the public must be carefully managed and orchestrated. Most companies will have dedicated media and public relations professionals working in their corporate communications departments.
External communications relating to the media and the general public can take many forms, including:
- Written press releases
- News conferences
- Interviews
- Product launches
- Corporate-sponsored events
- Social media presence
- The company website
- Images, banners, or clothing on public display
Crisis Management and Issue Resolution
A major role for any external corporate communications team is managing crises. Crisis communication involves developing strategies to avoid possible threats to a company’s reputation. It also involves crafting responses to resolve controversies and protect the good standing of a company’s brand and image.
The rise of digital media has made crisis communication more important than ever. In the past, only major companies would find themselves enmeshed in public controversies.
Now, social media, online rating systems, and chat functions allow anyone to place a negative comment about a business in a public space. Even a small company can find itself in the center of worldwide media attention brought about by online interaction.
How Can Your Company Manage Crisis Communications?
With the prevalence of social media, it’s not just a question of whether a company will face a crisis, it’s when it will face a crisis.
A crisis can be defined as any type of circumstance, event, or public sentiment that can negatively impact the reputation, credibility, or branding of a company.
When a crisis happens, a company needs to have an effective communication strategy in place. Both internal and external communications can be crucial during a crisis. How a company responds to a crisis and how it manages its communications afterward can make all the difference in whether it survives or not.
Carefully planning, managing, and curating your external and internal communications during a crisis will help your company weather the storm.
Be Sure Your Company is Prepared for a Crisis
Planning for a crisis involves carefully assessing all possible risks and devising strategies to deal with them. Every conceivable way that a company’s reputation could be brought into disrepute needs to be considered. Involved contingency plans must then be formulated.
Preparing for a crisis is a painstaking and time-consuming task. Many companies fail to put in the required amount of effort. So, when a crisis does happen, they don’t have a set communication strategy to rely on. However, speed is crucial during a crisis. Companies need to be seen to be able to respond quickly and effectively to resolve difficult issues. Failure to do so will diminish trust and prolong the crisis.
Carefully Manage All Communications During a Crisis
Every message that a company delivers during a crisis needs to conform to a predetermined strategy. Internal and external communications need to be focused on reputation management.
All internal and external corporate communications must work toward restoring faith and trust in the company. Both the general public and company employees need to regain their sense of engagement with the brand and the values of the company.
Too often companies respond to a crisis in a manner that is inappropriate, off-brand, ambiguous, or poorly thought out. Unclear or poor communications can sometimes serve to deepen the crisis or, at worse, leave the company open to litigation or regulatory penalties.
Develop a Post-Crisis Communications Strategy
Once a crisis has been resolved, there is still much work to be done. Developing a post-crisis communications strategy is a matter of following a few key steps. First, the impact that the crisis had on the company must be evaluated. The cause of the crisis, its scope, and the consequences need to be analyzed. Feedback from both customers and employees should be gathered.
Based on this data, goals can be defined. Rebuilding relationships, restoring reputation, achieving transparency, and increasing trust are all common aims after a crisis.
Then, the company must carefully craft its post-crisis communications. All communications should be clear, on-brand, consistent, and demonstrate credibility. Both internal and external post-crisis communications should show that the company acknowledges any errors and is committed to rectifying mistakes and improving its overall culture.
How to Develop Effective Corporate Messaging
Developing a corporate message strategy will enable your business to communicate clearly and concisely across a range of channels to all types of audiences.
And it’s the audience itself that is the first thing to consider. Who are you communicating with? What are their wants, needs, and preferences? Be sure to use appropriate language and be aware of the company’s goals regarding each specific audience. How a company communicates with its internal teams will differ from how it communicates with potential investors and how it markets itself to customers.
Despite these differences, consistency still must be maintained. All internal and external communications should accurately reflect the company’s values and culture. Messaging should be consistent throughout all channels. Marketing campaigns on television and radio, online advertising, website copy, and even responses to comments need to align with the company culture.
The Importance of Evaluating Communication Channels
Evaluating communication channels helps an organization determine the most effective means to reach its target audience. Assessing the performance of different channels helps companies to allocate wisely and optimize their communication strategies.
Choosing the right communication channels enables an organization to stay up to date with technologies and stay on top of changing consumer preferences.
There are three main channels for corporate communications:
- Digital Channels: Social media, email, websites, blogs, online advertising, mobile apps, podcasts, and online forums.
- Traditional Channels: Print media such as newspapers, magazines, catalogs, brochures, and direct mail-outs. Television advertising and interviews. In-person sales and presentations. Radio advertising and broadcasts.
- Emerging Channels: Automated AI-powered chatbots. Collaborations with online influencers. User-generated content. Live streaming. Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) marketing.
The Benefits of Analyzing Effective Corporate Communications
Analyzing successful corporate communication strategies can provide key insights for both internal and external communications. Taking note of corporate communication mishaps can help companies avoid mistakes.
A recent example of good corporate communication was how KFC handled a PR crisis. The company was facing a PR disaster in 2018 when it ran out of chicken to serve. KFC saved the situation with quick messaging displaying humor and humility while reassuring customers that the situation would be soon rectified.
Amazon, on the other hand, is an example of how corporate communications can go wrong. In 2021, the company faced severe criticism for forcing workers in Edwardsville, Illinois to work during a tornado. Six people tragically died as a result. A response by CEO Jeff Bezos was interpreted as being insincere and too slow. The reputation of the online giant took a beating in the aftermath.
Conclusion
Effective corporate communications play a pivotal role in brand management. Both internal and external communications enable a company to enhance its reputation, promote its products, and foster a cohesive culture.
Corporate communications encompass diverse categories, each serving a distinct purpose. A well-structured corporate communications strategy is instrumental in optimizing internal processes, company culture, and employee engagement. The right communications strategies elevate brand awareness, encourage brand loyalty, and attract new customers.
