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Are you good company?

August, 2023

Andrew Metcalf, Managing Director of Kent PR, marketing and public affairs agency Maxim, comments on business issues and how they relate to marketing and the wider economy for South East Business magazine. Here are his latest thoughts.

How do you know when you’re in good company? And what actually defines a ‘good company’?

In today’s highly competitive marketplace, the leaders in every sector are invariably those who differentiate themselves from their peers – and that requires communication.

To many, the mark of a good company is being award-winning. But awards worth winning aren’t simply handed out: it takes time and effort to enter them, and you need to communicate a strong enough case to impress the judges and win.

Or perhaps you’re more interested in securing a national standard and accreditation – for instance a relevant ISO – for which you will be required to demonstrate your ability to meet stringent tender requirements. Other organisations, meanwhile, aim for recognition such as ethical B Corp status and achieving the business equivalent of being Fair Trade certified for goods and services. All of these can be a great route to connecting with your respective industry or sector – and clients who share the same values. All of these require time and effort to communicate.

Awards and accreditations are tangibles, the harder indicator to measure is reputation.

Being a good company can be easy if it’s part of your ethos, but being seen as a good company, one that other organisations want to actively engage with and be connected with, rarely happens overnight. You’ve got to put in the hard miles.

It’s not enough to just do the right thing, it’s also important to be seen to do the right thing, and that’s where your marketing and communications comes into its own. The starting point is knowing what your business is; its purpose, its point of difference, what it does well and what it stands for and the people you want to engage with.

Once you’re happy with who and what you are, the next step is telling the story, whether locally, to your industry, or nationally if relevant. The key is having realistic expectations. So often we’re told the MD wants to see national coverage – but that requires a story of national interest, significance or perfect timing and draws attention that doesn’t necessarily result in contracts.

Managing expectations can be a daily challenge for PR people or in-house teams. Identifying stories that will have a positive impact on your business and ensuring senior management understands what makes news is at the heart of successful communications. At the same time you need to know when to discard the ones that seem exciting but won’t really achieve much: listen to your communications experts if they say something is or isn’t news – it’s what you pay them for.

Ultimately don’t let your determination to tell every story do more harm than good. Tell the right story, at the right time and take your customers, community and colleagues on your journey to being perceived as the good company that you are.

This article first appeared in South East Business magazine.

Andrew Metcalf - Director

Andrew Metcalf

Maxim / Managing Director

posted in: advice, marketing, public relations, reputation management,

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