Lockdown 2 and a Chance to Rethink Comms?

With England now back in Lockdown for a month, are there specific ways you could be using that period to address your communications approach?

While some companies may have considered ‘turning down the volume’ on their PR and marketing output as the first lockdown hit home in March, others realised pretty quickly that this could be a good opportunity to get their house in order, and to stay visible in a world full of comment and conversation.

As someone whose core business is all about communications and writing, that first flush of fear and frustration in Lockdown 1, led to all kinds of projects and requests I might never have envisaged.

In particular –

- Writing an internal communication strategy for a large corporate which recognised the need to reshape employee-contact in light of the ‘WFH’ shift

- Tailoring some 17 CVs and covering letters for individuals desperate to secure work

- Producing a script for an incredible national charity which had become fearful about loss of revenue

- Finding opportunities for businesses and individual entrepreneurs to comment in the press, on trade websites, within programmes like BBC Radio 5 Live, or on local news, all about their unique perspective on the pandemic

- Rewriting the content of four websites, for brands eager to put the lockdown period to good use

- Developing ‘how we can help you through Coronavirus’ guide, for an organisation keen to provide something very specific to their stakeholders and core clients

This list alone, provides perfect confirmation that you should absolutely be embracing this period for a chance to get communication activity up to scratch….or to embark on it in the first place.

A few things you might want to consider if you’re motivated to make comms your focus:

1 – Do you need to outsource communications? Are you missing out on opportunities because you lack the time or resource in-house?

2 – Are you continuously listening out and remaining aware of topics and issues on which you could be positioning yourself as a thought leader / voice of authority?

3 – How good is your approach to employee communication? Regardless of whether your employees are WFH or alongside you in an office, are you in touch with them and doing so with the right tone of voice?

4 – Is your social media being given the attention it deserves? Have you started to ignore it or consider it less relevant because you’re not conducting business in quite the way you once were?

5 – Does your website need a refresh? Is the written content stale or out of date? Is now a time to refresh it?

6 – Could casestudies be doing more for your brand? Why not put the time to use in developing stories about the clients and customers you serve?

7 – Which journalists and media outlets should be on your radar more? Make it your business to find out and to be in touch with them about what you do.

Obviously this is just a short list of what are potentially hundreds of communication activities you could be embracing right now.

If you feel you could use some help, drop me a message.