Three Things Companies Do To Sabotage Their Brand

What things do you consider when you think of ways to promote your business? Brochures, slick web content, news releases and video content won’t help you much if you neglect these three things!

1. Don’t neglect internal communications. It is easy to focus on external communications, because most of your customers are outside of your company, but remember the importance of advocacy. If your employees aren’t raving about your company and products, your customers will be harder to attract and retain. Your employees sell your company to other consumers and also to potential employees. You want a strong team working for you and you want loyal customers. That is why a comprehensive internal communications strategy designed to support your employee engagement initiatives is essential.

2. Don’t neglect to monitor and engage in social media discussions related to your brand. Many companies have sussed onto the importance of social media, but only to a certain degree. Social media isn’t about spewing content at people. It is really all about engagement. You have to start a conversation with your audience and interact with them. Be prepared to address questions and comments all over the internet regarding your products or services. 18 year olds cannot do this effectively, by the way. Your Social Media Manager is now the voice of your company. Be careful who you choose to speak on your behalf.

3. Don’t neglect to develop consistent and impactful messaging. All marketing content and contact with media and advertisers should contain consistent messaging. Decide what your message really is and sing your song without faltering. This may mean having to come up with a few special phrases (sound bites) to create an impact and help make your company a little more memorable. It’s all about the message, so pick three key things you want the world to know about your brand and incorporate them into the blood and fiber of everything you say about your company, products and services. Make sure your messaging touches an emotion in your audience because every good sales person knows emotion sells! If you need help with your various communications strategies and tactics, contact me through Linkedin or my website. I’d be very happy to help you out!

Renée Cormier is a Public Relations and Communications Specialist, published author, sales and marketing strategist and all round great gal! Visit www.reneecormier.com to contact.

Obscuring Your Message: How to make sure nobody cares

Everybody is jumping on the content marketing bandwagon these days, but not everybody does it well. People think that having a free e-book or a video to give to customers and prospects will give them a credibility boost and help them increase sales. Sometimes it does, but the reality is that 80% of content doesn’t even reach its intended audience and the effect of the content on those who do engage really depends on the quality of the content itself.

So what mistakes do people make with their content? The biggest mistake people make is in letting their message become obscured. I see a lot of written content which is full of typos and grammatical errors. Your message will be obscured if it is not easy to read. Those mistakes will also undermine your credibility.

Video and audio messages can also be obscured. I have also seen video where the speaker sniffed through his entire presentation. Sniffing is particularly problematic, not only because it is disgusting, but also because it makes the viewer question the reason for the sniff. Does the speaker have a cold or allergies? Maybe he’s just done a line of coke. Do you see why that’s a problem?

Bad audio is another problem that can obscure your message. Hearing garbled music, or the sound of saliva in the mouth will turn people away. Nobody will take the time to listen to your content if it makes them cringe on any level.

Graphic content can be very interesting to look at and presents an opportunity to provide a quick visual message. Unfortunately, some people think that wild and fancy pictures are really great to use for printed or web-based content. Actually, they usually aren’t. Whenever you choose to use graphics, make sure they are visually appealing and fairly simple. The busier the picture, the more your message will be obscured. Less is more.

Of course, the other thing with content, is that you really have to have a clear message to begin with. What are you trying to tell people? What is the purpose of the content? What are your key messages? Have you put together a complete communications plan? Fortunately, I can help you sort out all of your marketing communications needs and it really doesn’t have to cost a ton of money!

 

Renée Cormier is a Public Relations and Communications Specialist, published author, sales and marketing strategist and all round great gal! Visit www.reneecormier.com to contact.

 

 

 

Reputation Management: Five Things Big Bird Never Told You

It’s true. Everyone makes mistakes. Big Bird sang a whole song about it. In business, however, mistakes can cost you the reputation of your entire brand. A DUI charge, embezzlement charges, sexual harassment charges; any criminal allegation that results in someone going to prison is a problem for your reputation. Below are some things to keep in mind should you find yourself in hot water.

Fess -up: Nobody appreciates a liar. Denying your mistake and hoping it will go away will never serve you well. Neither will trying to place the blame on someone else. There will always be a reporter willing to dig up the truth and make you look even worse. Admitting and taking full responsibility for your mistake is the first step in rebuilding trust with the public.

Apologize: Offer a sincere apology. Say how terrible you feel for having caused so much grief to others. If you don’t mean it, then you are a psychopath and no one can help you. Stop reading here.

Pay restitution to victims: Use all financial resources available to you to provide compensation to those who suffered because of your actions. This is a very important gesture and a must-do; no matter what. If you don’t pay, then you are not owning the mistake and no one will trust you ever again.

Send out a good will gesture: Now that you have made such a serious mistake, you need to rebuild people’s confidence in you. Do whatever you need to do to make people confident that you will never make that mistake again. If you don’t do this, you will look like a narcissist.

Become known for better things: While your mistake may have had a tremendous impact on you and others, you don’t want it to be the first thing people think of when they think of you and your brand. Do great things to demonstrate your ongoing commitment to making the world a better place. Be sure the media knows what you are doing and consider them an ally rather than an enemy. At the end of the day, the media just wants to tell a story. News is news. Be the good story in the news.

Renée Cormier is a Public Relations and Communications Professional. Need to improve your company’s reputation? Renée can help. Visit www.reneecormier.com for more information.

How do opinions get infuenced?

Six things people say that drive me nuts

Although I grew up in the Maritimes where people are often made fun of for their diction and pronunciation, I have to say, I was taught to speak rather well. I remember my grade two teacher in particular, telling us to pronounce the “r” in February (and I still do) and to open our vowels when we speak so that “our” doesn’t sound like “are”.

While I’ll admit that I have fun slipping into Cape Bretonese on occasion, the pronunciation and grammar lessons of my youth are fully ingrained in my every day speech and were solidified even further when I became an English teacher. Grammar and pronunciation have always been important in my world. I guess that’s why hearing the incorrect use of certain words and phrases penetrates my nerves like nails on a chalkboard.

Take the term, “anyways”. OMG! There is only one way! The word is an adverb. It cannot take a plural or possessive form; hence, no “s”. I remember when I first met my husband he used to tack an “s” on “anyway” when he was speaking. I couldn’t stand it so I wasted little time correcting him. Since his mother had been quite a grammar fanatic, he considered this was correct. I challenged him to find it in the dictionary, and of course, he couldn’t so he had to humbly retreat and start using the term correctly. I love it when I am right.

Another confusion that people make is using the term “unsatisfied” instead of “dissatisfied”. Here’s the easiest way to tell the difference. Dissatisfied is an emotion, as in, “I was dissatisfied with his performance.” In other words, it made me feel unhappy or disappointed. Unsatisfied can only be used when you are not referring to an emotion. “His hunger was unsatisfied.”

Regardless of what you believe, “Irregardless” is not even a word! It is a word that is so commonly misused, uneducated people believe they sound intelligent if they use it. Can't you see they don't?

“Orientated” is another one of those common non-words that people use. The proper term is “oriented” which refers to finding your direction or position. It can also refer to the way someone thinks. One might say, “I am very business oriented” or “I had to re-orient myself after nine hours of travel”. Remember, the word has four syllables, not five.

If you say, “I could care less”, then you are not even thinking about what you are saying. You probably mean, “I couldn’t care less”, which of course means that it isn’t even possible for you to care. Think about it. If you could care, then you have the ability to care. If you couldn’t care, then you do not have the ability to care. Trust me. I am right.

“Myself” is a reflexive pronoun. What that means, is you can only use it when you are talking about doing something alone. “I will do it myself.” In this case you are the subject and the object of the sentence. You may also use “myself” for intensity such as, “I, myself, have witnessed such atrocities.” If you are planning a meeting with another person, then you cannot correctly say, “Jerry and myself will be holding a conference call at 8:00.” If you took Jerry out of the sentence, you would have to say, “I”.  It is sadly very common to see corporate announcements stating, “John Smith will be reporting to myself.” The correct pronoun to use in this case is “me”.  It’s pretty simple, really, so stop referring to yourself in reflexive form when you are sharing space with another person.

Renée Cormier is a Communications and Public Relations Specialist, published author, former English teacher and sales/marketing strategist. Renée can be contacted through her website at www.reneecormier.com