How your business could benefit from a communications review
Most people know me for my copywriting skills. But there’s a lot more to my professional services than just words.
As a wordsmith (or ‘the word lady’, as some people like to call me), you’d probably expect me to pitch the services I can offer to businesses concisely and eloquently. However, as I’m sure other business owners are well aware, it’s not always simple to explain what you do in 60 seconds or less. So I decided to use the channel I know best of all – my blog.
What is a communications review?
A communications review is a little-known service I offer to small and medium-sized businesses. It’s a deep dive into all your marketing communications to assess what’s working and what could be improved, to help you grow your business. I draw on my extensive marketing communications experience to provide honest feedback and provide creative input to support your future plans.
What’s involved?
I usually review all digital (website, newsletters, emails), social media (twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) and print channels (brochures, leaflets).
Before I begin, I’ll ask you to establish some objectives. Some examples might be:
Improve existing channel content, messaging and consistency
Create a communications strategy and plan for a new product or service
Bring a new channel into the communications mix
To fill a knowledge or skills gap in the team
Website
I look at the user experience of your website from the perspective of a new visitor from your target audience and review:
Your site structure and page content including tone of voice, spelling, grammar and images used
Page links - are they all working and linking to the correct pages?
Relevance of site keywords and search terms
How easy it is to find what you're looking for
Social media
Review content on your current social media platforms to assess:
How appropriate and relevant the content is for your audience
How well you’re using your social media platforms to promote your business
Digital and print
Is the content appropriate for your audience?
Are your campaigns well structured and easy to read?
Is your strategy right for your audience?
What types of business can it help?
A communications review is ideal for small to medium-sized businesses that want to grow by improving their marketing communications but may not have the skills, knowledge, time or in-house resource to do so. At the end of the review, you’ll get a full written report and the findings presented back to your team in person. It’s entirely up to you how to implement the findings in the report. Some businesses prefer to work on improvements themselves; others ask me to provide on-going support as an extended member of the team.
Clear benefits
If you want to improve the way you interact with your customers, a communications review could help to improve the quality of your messaging and get it right first time. A fresh pair of eyes can bring a different perspective and plenty of new ideas to the table. Your team may also learn and benefit from the additional expertise and advice provided.
Outsourcing can be a sensitive subject, particularly when you own your own business, but when you appoint a professional it can free up precious time to do what you do best and grow your business in other areas. Sometimes it takes an outsider to identify and harness the power of untapped opportunities.
If you’d like to know more about what’s involved in a communications review, please contact me for an informal chat.
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