PRSA

PRSA

National Capital Chapter

Get Your Whole Team “On Message” Now: Part 2

Spark Public Relations Cover
This article is excerpted from the book: “Spark: The Complete Public Relations Guide for Small Business” by PRSA-NCC member Robert Deigh

In last week’s blog post, I shared with you two key parts of building your company’s message document, and this week, I’ll highlight the remaining two—must-say messages and “factsheets.”

3) A Dozen “Must-Say” Messages

Using your company ID (the “boilerplate graph at the bottom of your press releases, among other things) as a starting point, your next step is to build a clear, concise set of short messages that everyone in your company can use to communicate with the audiences they deal with most. Your first message point might be “XYZCo. is the leading maker of software that enables law enforcement officials to…..”

By answering questions similar to those below, you can build the dozen or so messages that make the case for paying attention to—and doing business with—your company.

  • What are we? What category defines us? Then, what do we do for the client? What advantages do we give them? You’ll end up with something like “XYZCo. is a leading Internet-related, financial services company that enables ordinary people to pay their monthly bills using other people’s money (VCs, take note).

 

  • Why do other companies do business with us? Because of our management team? Partnerships with other, better-known companies? Our “first-mover” status? Create a “bandwagon” approach that gives your company cachet through “gilt” by association with other well-known companies. If it’s OK with your clients and/or partners, drop their names into your communication. Just knowing you do business with the US Navy, American Airlines or Wal-Mart, for example, will make some potential customers warm and tingly all over.

 

  • What are the major attributes of your product or service? List them in order of importance. This will serve as a guide for anyone on your team writing a speech, a pitch for business, a direct mail campaign or other communication. Be sure to include a few easily digestible stats like revenue and staff growth, awards and even a testimonial or two.

 

  • Is it a good place to work? Why? Retention rates? Benefits? Make the case for joining your team.

 

4) Overall Messages
This is the rest of the information about your organization, the stuff you’ll want to put into a factsheet so everyone on your team will have accurate information. Examples include product lines, past revenue figures, company locations and notable successes.

So that’s it—those are the four key points to your company message document. Get one step closer to having your team “on message” by starting to put these items together for your business.