A quick PR Autumn prep-list?

Though for sure we’re not out of the COVID woods completely just yet, the UK economic bounce back is undeniable: lots of clients are getting in touch and planning for September-onward media activity, and with a definite bit of a spring in their steps it must be said, as the feeling grows that things are getting back to being a little bit more normal.

Which is great, but just before we get into all that to ensure we maximise our opportunity, a bit of a PR refresh checklist is in order before the Autumn frenzy. We do this to help clients get their Q3/Q4 comms off on a solid footing; in some ways this post summarises a few of the things I’ve been saying recently, but all in one place. (Kind of a spring clean for the Autumn, maybe?)

1 Revisit and check your top-level messaging

There’s no need to make it hard work—you don't have to lock yourself for three days in a dark room with lots of comms people and emerge triumphant with the white smoke. It really should be done in a very agile way, starting with the absolute fundamentals:

●????Does your elevator pitch still pass muster?

●????Does it still accurately reflect what you and your brand do?

●????Are you saying it nice and simply, using accessible language?

That last point is so important, by the way: we all know adjective-drenched power-language should be a thing of the past. So, get it right (and consistently so) on the website but also cross every channel, LinkedIn, Twitter, whatever you use.

2 Once that’s done, does your SEO need a tweak?

After that exercise, if you decide that your top-level message needs a tweak than absolutely 100% so do your SEO search terms and targets, if you actually want people to find you. And so do your LinkedIn and your website and Twitter—they all need to reflect any new revised, refined messaging—and remember to tell the team as well so everyone’s singing from the same hymn sheet.

3 Speaking of the team, how engaged are you with them?

I posted a while back about how absolutely critical online employee advocacy is these days. It speaks volumes about a brand, so get your fab internal advocates and ambassadors out there; give them some love, give them a bit of spotlight, let them talk on your behalf and give them room to shine. I predict this is even more important now given the new virtual working style that we're all enjoying (so customers may only come across the guys in these spaces)—and remember too the impact that a well-honed employee advocacy program has on your employee attraction rate, too (given all these headlines about post-COVID employee departures and potential life changes).

4 Learn (or re-learn if you have to) to love your customers

I can't stress it enough: customer advocacy alone will change how people engage with you. So speak through the customer—it counts for so much more than saying it yourself. Their voice is what will convince prospects, so your customer advocacy programme needs taking off the shelf, dusting down, and putting front and centre of your entire comms programme.

5 Last but not least: how fluent and on-message are your spokespeople?

Now if you've done numbers one and three, so getting the top-level messages back at front of everyone’s mind and making sure the team are speaking well about them, your execs should be fairly fluent on the key messages. But how good are they at staying on message when they're speaking with media?

So think about a media training, refresh for your execs. We all have great execs that can talk for Britain on their chosen topic, but few can do it succinctly enough when they're dealing with the media. Coverage often either doesn't happen or when it does it, isn't what they expected. I have to say, there's quite a difference between really knowing your stuff and being able to express it really succinctly to somebody who doesn't have 45 minutes to listen to you. I am sure you have a lot of people who could talk for Britain on their topic, but external ears have to have that distilled down for them: you need to be a bit tough on yourself here and ask how do we take that to a third party who is not internal who at least initially doesn't actually care about your great value proposition?

So, this is a great time to train and refresh those exact words: perhaps book a one-to-one and really tailor it to what they're weak at (we can help if you want us to!). All in all, then, it’s time to enjoy the rest of the very weird Summer weather and get ready for what we all hope will be a very busy September and new Year!