The most important aspect of a business isn’t simply the amount of money it makes! Cashflow is obviously key to survival and your clients need to buy your services, and a business needs to make a profit – but there are many other factors in how the business is perceived that can help you succeed and be sustainable!
PR (public relations) is vital for a business to truly succeed. Why? Often, customers can feel distant from your company when they are working with if you don’t take the time to get to know more about how their business functions. At the end of the day, a business wants more from it’s business partners than just an invoice; customers want to obtain mutual benefit from your services and the key to that is expert communication. By building up your PR, you can reach customers you may never have met and find business you never imagined possible.
How can I build strong relationships with my clients from the start?
From the very beginning, do your research! Find out as much as you can about your customers; from businesses they’ve run in the past to their goals for the future! Make sure you fully understand what a client wants from their business with you since the more successful the project is, the better the feedback you’ll receive! Not only that, but in today’s business world, the most important thing is ‘who you know’. With that in mind, you should always strive to make yourself known through client reviews. Most of the time a business is most trusted to do a job well when personally recommended by others who have worked with them. How is your business doing with this? Are you making the most of your reviews?
Also, social media is a huge industry that has been embraced by the top businesses. The likelihood is, if you’re not active on social media, you won’t be reeling in big business. Of course, social media isn’t the only method of gaining influence with other businesses. However, it does work wonders in producing a portfolio and client-base. If your business isn’t on social media yet, what are you waiting for? Go get some new customers!
How can I develop my PR with existing customers?
First of all, get in touch with them. Ensure that your clients know that you are interested in helping their business develop if you can help. One of the most important skills for a company owner is to ensure your business is well-known within the local area. If it’s not, it is highly unlikely that you will get much business since people won’t be able to find you. We have already mentioned two ways to avoid this but what about a third? Advertisements. PR is all about making yourself known so what better way than sending out some adverts. For example, you could print some flyers with custom, branded design and send them out to local businesses so that they keep you in mind next time they need your services.
“PR is all about getting your story right. It is all too easy to default to slogans or key points. In fact, good PR is about a clear narrative that guides everything you say: the beginning, middle and end; the once upon a time and the happy ever after. When you have a narrative then the other aspects of communication fall into place; clients understand your journey and staff see where they fit in. At Dexterous Designs, we have always worked with Mark Wall Communications. They specialise in helping people understand and articulate their narrative and identify their audiences. Interested? Talk to them on mark@markwall.co.uk or fill out our contact form to be put in touch!”
