Is your comms strategy prepped and ready for 2024?

The first month of 2024 has drawn to a close and you’re likely looking ahead to the rest of the year. Is your communications strategy ready for it?

As times change and new trends appear, it can be difficult to know if your business is keeping up with the times and if you’re spending your budget in the right areas.

Certainly, in the post-new year period, for those businesses coming up to the end of the financial year and with budget remaining, want to be sure that they aren’t just spending for the sake of it. 

 In our Communications Trends and How to Spend report, we dive into some of the key areas to focus your comms efforts.  

Corporate Purpose 

At face value, this may seem like a tough concept to neatly pin down. But having an established and present corporate purpose, running through both your brand and your day-to-day operations, is very important. We are starting to see purpose overtake many other job ‘perks’ as a driving factor for teams. This is especially true among the younger, Gen Z. 

This makes defining and actioning corporate purpose one of the most important brand, recruitment and retention challenges any business can face. 

But it’s not ok to just talk the talk. 

Employees are becoming increasingly more aware of their employer’s corporate social responsibility and the red flags of those who are all talk, with little action or purpose to back it up. 

 ltimately, businesses that continue to find ways of showing and living their purpose will reap the longer-term rewards. 

Crisis Contingency Plans

What steps do you have in place, for when something goes wrong particularly if that ‘something’ goes public. 

Businesses will need to become more proactive with their contingency planning in dealing with crises. Preparedness for external threats is essential to a coherent and robust communications strategy.

Negative events, and how you deal with them, can have a major impact on your brand, your operations and ultimately, your bottom line. Businesses that proactively plan for the worst-case scenarios, will ultimately be better placed to deal with crises and minimise damage by communicating clearly and honestly.

The best outcome is for no issues or crises to arise. But preparedness for if they do can be a real difference maker. 

 It’s better to have your contingencies in place and not need them. Rather than need them, and not have them.

The rising tide in PR’s stock  

CEO’s and leaders are rapidly beginning to see the strategic value that public relations can add to their organisations. 

While there is a growing recognition that PR can speak to stakeholders and shareholders across all levels, the wider strategic value of PR – beyond just a media engagement tool – is becoming more and more apparent. 

A well-placed PR agency can offer far more strategic value to a business, on top of achieving media engagement. 

In an age of purpose, where honest and authentic narrative is critical to success, PR can have a key role in driving brand and comms strategy, helping businesses to build understanding and earn trust across a business’s many audiences. 

In summary 

It is highly likely that we’re in for another ‘turbulent’ year, but businesses have a lot of tools and strategies at their disposal to prepare, plan and mitigate potential threats and challenges. 

But businesses need to invest in comms that look beyond the outputs.

When it comes to adapting to changing trends, having a strategic partner that understands how insight and inputs can shape outputs and outcomes, can help businesses stay ahead of the game… PR and comms teams are ideally placed to be that strategic partner.

 This is because the best PR operators can be found at the crest of the wave of change, leveraging insight and experience to drive new ideas, strategies and approaches. Which ultimately results in a greater impact. 

To read our Communications Trends and How To Spend report in full visit: https://www.ambitiouspr.co.uk/trends-spends-24/