Influence the influencers
Influencers can be a really key part of your communications strategy. You may feel a bit marmite about them. Perhaps when you hear the term ‘influencer’, you strike them off the list assuming it means big name YouTubers or Instagram accounts with lots of followers, but that’s not always the case.
While it’s true that if you’re a B2C company with products to sell, finding the right Instagram personality to work with may be beneficial, influencers exist in many more forms than that. They might be the thought leaders in your industry, podcast hosts, or entrepreneurs with plenty to say on Twitter. No matter what your business does, there’s probably a list of key movers and shakers in your industry, that might at least be worth exploring. Quick note: don’t be swayed by their number of followers. There are more meaningful metrics that you need to look at, not least their audience – who exactly are they influencing? I’m not going to pull any punches here, either – this can be an incredibly time-consuming undertaking to get right so there may be quicker wins depending on your resources.
Partner up
Strategic partnerships can be powerful as a way to increase brand awareness and engagement. By collaborating you gain access to your partner’s audience too and depending on the collaboration it can be an important way of gaining credibility. Explore how you can work with them. Make sure you are genuinely adding value to one another. Can you interview one of them for your blog? Can you write a guest post for theirs? Can you appear in their podcast sharing your expertise? Can you create a joint promotion or competition on your products to share audiences?
Get networking
December’s often a month full of events, from work parties to award ceremonies, meaning that now can be a great time to don your best party wear and get your brand’s name out among your industry peers. If you are already over committed in the lead up to the holidays then you could definitely think of January as a fresh start and a great opportunity to implement a ‘New Year Networking Resolution’.
There’s a saying: ‘your net worth is determined by your network’. Networking at industry events can be a great way to find opportunities to work with aforementioned influencers and partners, increase your brand awareness amongst your peers or prospective clients, and discover first hand what’s going on in your industry, so that you can best tackle the pain points of your clients. If networking isn’t already a part of your strategy, it’s time to implement it. Post pandemic we should all be getting out there.
Set clear goals
What are your goals for 2023? And are they SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely)? Not everyone is a fan of the SMART approach and there are lots of alternatives such as PACT (Purposeful, Actionable, Continuous and Trackable. Find a methodology that works for you and your business.
What we’re really talking about here is breaking down your vision into actionable steps. Having clearly defined business goals can help to guide all of your brand’s big decisions. You can start small, defining what you want to achieve within a year or two, before progressing to bigger goals – what would you like your business to achieve in five years? Ten?
Ask your audience
You may think you know all there is to know about your audience – but have you ever stopped to ask them? Whether you reach out via social media, email, survey, or in person, this time of year can be a great opportunity to make sure you’re hitting the mark when it comes to addressing their needs.
Find out what your customer’s pain points are. How do they like to receive their communications from you? Is there anything in particular that they’d like to see more of from you? What benefits do you bring, what problem do you solve for them? Be open to feedback and changing things up and doing things differently, one of my former client’s favourite sayings was “The most dangerous words in business are we’ve always done things this way.”
Look out for Part Two for more health check tips
