HIDDEN BUSINESS BLOCKERS

Have you ever felt as though you keep pushing your business in the right direction, but problems to continue to arise? Is there a needling crisis that just will not go away? Are you creating marketing campaigns you thought would resonate with customers only to hear crickets once deployed?

When you are in the thick of it all, it can be difficult to see the proverbial forest through the trees. Often, situations are hindering your ability to grow that may be obvious to everyone but you. Public relations can help clear the path to increased sales and visibility. Here are a few hidden dilemmas many businesses face and simple PR tactics that quickly resolve the issues at hand.

UNRESOLVED SOCIAL MEDIA COMPLAINTS

When you are upset and take the time to let a company know, the only thing that is potentially worse than the problem itself is not being heard at all. Imagine going to a restaurant and being served the wrong entrée. Now imagine when you approach the waiter about the issue, they ignore you and never return to your table. Ouch.

When companies receive negative feedback online – especially when it is egregious and over the top – ignoring it may seem like the right thing to do but that one unhappy customer can easily multiply into many more. Acknowledge the complaint publicly but resolve privately. Forbes.com shares additional golden rules and tips once you are ready to tackle the naysayers.

SPELCHEK. ALWAYZ.

Nothing turns off a reader faster than poor writing and grammar. How you write can be just as important as what your trying to say as poor writing can cause your brand to lose credibility. According to Entrepreneur.com, a BBC study shows businesses can lose millions due to pour writing. Therefor get a second par of eyes, slow down and turn on yore spellchecker. You’re customers will thank you for it.

BACKFIRING SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

While you are checking and double checking the writing on your website, marketing materials and social media – be cautious about the shiny penny that is the latest social media bandwagon. Not all irreverent online marketing campaigns are created equally. If you need examples, take this quick walk down memory lane and take heed if you’re looking to use the next hot hashtag. What seems trendy initially could cause years of damage to your brand’s reputation.

TEAM TROUBLE

AmericanExpress.com discusses the pitfalls of employee collaboration gone bad. Especially now with many companies readjusting their communication methods because employees are either working remotely from home and/or internal structures have been recalibrated, keeping the team connected and on the same page working toward the same goal is crucial. Too often employees from different departments don’t communicate and collaborate enough. Especially when working remotely, this creates a scenario where the right hand isn’t talking to the left and could lead to duplicate projects, missed deadlines, unfinished tasks and frustration. Speaking of working from home, click here for refresher tips on setting up a remote work environment.

CREATE A CRISIS PLAN

Creating a crisis plan, printing it out, putting into a big binder and putting it away is a great feeling. Believe us. This takes a lot of planning and brainstorming every possible blunder, issue and crisis that could potentially befall your company is a lot of work initially, but once you go down that rabbit hole and start imagining all the potential issues and developing plans for tackling them, you will feel much better in the end. Plus, the team will be on the same page when and if that crisis strikes rather than scrambling for answers or guidance on how to best handle a crisis situation in the moment.

It’s inevitable at some point your business will encounter one or more of these problems. Whether the issue is with a customer or an employee, it may hinder the growth of your business without you even knowing. Even the most well-respected companies run into problems from time to time. Of course, no business strategy can eliminate every single issue before it occurs, but what these public relations tactics can help your business achieve is how to resolve a problem properly and efficiently.

These are just some examples of the many different problems potentially hindering your business’s growth. If you would like additional information on how to tackle hidden business dilemmas utilizing public relations and digital marketing, contact us.