Why do some companies succeed and others fail? There is a good answer to this, and it is ‘corporate communication’. Now, let’s dig a little deeper and understand what it means and why it is important for all companies to have a good corporate communication strategy.
What is Corporate Communication?
Corporate communication is about how companies and businesses communicate with external and internal audiences like customers, employees, and stakeholders (e.g., investors). It is a framework that companies use to plan out better communication with their internal and external audiences. If implemented properly, a corporate communication strategy can boost a company’s reputation and increase its value to the people who play an essential role in its success. Having a strategy beforehand will help companies know how to behave and what to do in critical times, or during the launches of new products.
What Types of Corporate Communication are There?
Corporate communication includes two main types.
Internal communication: It is all about how companies share information with their employees, leadership teams, and managers. Communication can be done through face o face meetings, company newsletters, and internal memos, or businesses can use more informal ways of communication, such as messaging apps to welcome new hires, collaborate, or share general information about the company. With the rise of technology, the letter has become more modern, and it is essential to keep everything running smoothly inside the company.
External communications: Basically, this refers to any kind of communication shared outside of the company. It can be done through press releases, social media, and, of course, through the company website. External communication is the way companies build their brand image in the public eye and gain trust among their customers and in their niche sphere. That’s why when companies use a monetization platform for their website, they should use blockers to prevent ads from certain niches from appearing in their ad inventory. This will help not to damage their reputation.
What Channels to Use for Corporate Communication?
Implementing the right communication channels in your company is the key to keeping your employees engaged, and aligned with your business goals and putting your company one step ahead in achieving success. Communication channels can be formal or informal.
Formal communication includes exchanging information about the company’s goals and policies. Examples of formal communication include business plans, annual reports, agreements, workplace safety guidelines, etc.
Informal communication is used to deliver business messages too but in a more casual way. It can include conversations at work about some issues that team members can have, lunchtime conversations, and chats with peers.
Digital communication channels
After the hit of Covid-19, as more and more companies shifted to a remote work style, the importance of digital channels in keeping internal and external communication increased.
Traditionally, email has been the main channel of communication at workplaces, but nowadays, it is not enough to keep effective communication with the employees. In fact, 39% of employees say that there is not enough collaboration between people in their company.
Nowadays, employees need more user-friendly and mobile-first communication channels. They need apps that are not different from the apps they use on a daily basis in their lives. One good example of this is Slack. It changes the way communication happens in the workplace, making it easier and faster.
Project management tools are another effective channel for better team collaboration. Such tools are intended to make the working and collaboration processes between team members and different departments easier. With the help of those tools, managers can create and assign tasks to employees. This makes the process of checking which tasks are already done and which ones are still in progress easier. Needless to say, information is organized and accessible to everyone.
Video conferencing software is essential in today’s workplaces. As employees work remotely and are far from each other, video conferencing tools help teammates to connect on a more personal level and communicate as if they sit next to each other.
So, for internal project communication, email, messaging, and video conferencing apps are the most innovative ways for people to collaborate at a company. They make it easy to share files and resources, get information from colleagues, and track project status updates.
Other digital channels like social media, digital PR, company websites, etc. are great ways to communicate with external audiences, especially with customers. They make reaching customers and delivering messages specially created for them easier and faster. Digital channels take customer support to another level and help companies to deliver their brand story in the places where their audiences are online.
Agile as a Strategic Tool in Corporate Communications
The concept of Agile has its origins in the software development world, and project management. The idea of enabling people to work more productively and recognize efficiency is not, on its own, a guarantee of success. Projects are frequently undertaken without thinking of the importance of communicating within an organization and with other stakeholders.
So, an agile department or company equips itself with the necessary tools by adopting the relevant processes to react quickly to internal and external changes. Change can be in the work, in the ways the work is done, or in rules that must be followed.
4 Key Values of the Agile Manifesto
1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Nowadays, teams use different platforms to communicate projects and tasks on a daily basis. Such tools as Slack, Zoom, Trello, email, etc. As we already mentioned, such tools help to make the communication process easier and faster. Alongside these tools, other ways of communication, such as stand-ups and retrospectives, are executed by the teams to keep track of the projects and tasks to meet goals. During standups, team members discuss what they have done, what they are going to do, what problems they faced during the work, and what solutions there are to solve those problems. Retrospectives are where participants look back at what has gone well and what could be done better. This enables open and honest feedback.
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
Simplicity is important, which is why teams use platforms, such as Miro to present their work in online workshops. It keeps the work short and strategic, focusing on the main parts. Digital plays an important role here, so the website is used to gather valuable feedback. The website is supported by channels like social media, emails, and newsletters.
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Building relationships with customers through a tender process, keeping it simple, and working with stakeholders rather than against them ensures continuous value creation and delivery.
4. Responding to change over following a plan
If something changes in a project instead of following the initial plan, agile teams adapt and act accordingly. It’s essential to deliver solutions frequently. An important question to ask is “what does success look like?” and actions will be taken based on the answer to this question. This is managed by weekly/two-week sprint plans during which priority tasks are done till the next sprint.
So, now we know what corporate communication is, why it is important, what types it has, and what channels there are to successfully implement it. By strategically making a plan for your company’s corporate communication, deciding on which channels are the right ones for your company, and carefully implementing your strategy, you will take your company steps ahead in achieving success.