Business surgery: Communications

The success of any enterprise depends on how well you communicate with customers and other stakeholders – after all, if you've got a great product or service but don't tell anyone why it's special, you won't earn any money from it.

There are many ways to get your organisation's message across. You could embark upon a PR campaign, distribute leaflets, publish a report or get involved in social media (Twitter, Facebook and the like) to name but a few.

But the true power of communications lies not in the amount of different tools that you use, but in the way that you use these tools. You need to be strategic and consistent. Choosing the wrong tool, or muddling your messages among many is both a waste of time and energy, and ultimately counter-productive as your audience will be confused about who you are and what you do.

Here are some top tips to ensure the right message gets to the right people.

1. Define your objective

Think about what you want to achieve from a campaign or your ongoing communications. You might want increased sales, a higher profile among MPs or to change the way your stakeholders view your organisation.

2. Who do you need to communicate to?

Perhaps you need to target people who buy your services, such as local authority commissioners, or key decision-makers, such as civil servants.

3. What do you want to say to them?

Developing a set of key messages to summarise and encapsulate your story and which are used consistently across all communications will help focus your story and ensure it is heard.

4. Consider all your options

You need to find out the most effective way to get your messages across to the audience. It might be useful to seek the advice of a communications expert as they will be able to tell you from experience how different options work in different circumstances. They will also be able to help you establish how much it will cost and your likelihood of success.

5. Develop a plan of action with key milestones

Remember to think about how external events, such as the Christmas break or a general election swamping the news agenda, will affect your plans.

6. Launch in an appropriate way

A campaigning publication might benefit from a parliamentary launch, for example. A website may need a period of testing before it goes public.

7. Review

Encourage feedback, evaluate the impact of what you've done and consider how you develop the next step. Then you return to point 1!

Society Media is co-owner of London Fields Publishing, which publishes Social Enterprise magazine

• Voice10, the national conference for social enterprise organised by the Social Enterprise Coalition, takes place in Cardiff on 1-2 February 2010. Find out more HERE.