The image your company presents to its employees, customers and other stakeholders matters. It can affect whether a prospective employee wants to work at your organization or whether a consumer wants to purchase a product from your business. Corporate communication helps businesses to strategically create and control the messaging about and around their organization.

Tip

Good corporate communication solves customer problems, builds credibility, prevents miscommunication and creates a strong brand image.

Objectives of Corporate Communication

The goals of a corporate communication plan should align with the overall goals of the company. Corporate communication objectives may include:

  • Always being transparent with employees and customers
  • Building credibility and establishing expertise in the industry
  • Minimizing damage to the brand’s reputation
  • Preventing miscommunication and clarifying details

Create a corporate communication plan for your business that helps to further the goals of your organization. For example, if one of your goals is to increase awareness of your company for a specific audience segment, your corporate communication plan may include publishing thought leadership articles in publications that those consumers read.

Embodying the Vision, Mission and Values

Corporate communication helps a business to identify and establish its vision, mission and core values. These foundational aspects of the business are on what the rest of the organization is built, from the products to the sales strategies to the operating procedures.

The vision, mission and core values should always shine through all corporate communication activities. For example, if your company’s vision is to always use sustainable materials in your products, you can expand on that idea in the way you distribute corporate communications. Instead of printing out memos, send them via email. Focus on creating marketing brochures on recycled paper or donate funds to environmental charities.

Ensuring Employee Engagement

One of the benefits of corporate communication is that it helps to keep employees informed about the direction of the company. This helps to boost morale, increase engagement and help employees to understand what the future of the company holds for them.

Internal corporate communication includes companywide quarterly meetings, monthly departmental newsletters and readily available policies and procedures. By keeping the lines of communication open between management and front-line employees, organizations can increase retention and reduce hiring and training costs.

Solving Customer Problems

Corporate communication is an effective way to improve customer relations. By keeping customers informed about upcoming events or company updates, businesses can reduce the likelihood of problems. For example, if a business is going to be out of a popular product due to supplier issues, it is important to inform the customer base about the upcoming shortage. While customers may be upset to learn this information, they will appreciate knowing it in advance so they can plan accordingly.

Businesses can use a multitude of channels to communicate with customers. These include email marketing, social media, post mail, website updates and in person at a store location. The key is to offer transparency to customers so you can establish a sense of trust and credibility.

Maintaining a Strong Brand Image

Corporate communication in brand promotion is vital for ensuring a cohesive company image. Businesses need to have a clear strategy for how they will communicate internally and externally and how that aligns with their brand. Businesses can use corporate communication to tell their brand story, which is about much more than what they do. The brand story includes why the company exists, what it values, how it is different and how it helps its customers.

Businesses can keep their employees updated on the brand through internal strategy presentations and corporate memos from senior leadership. Press releases, blogs, social posts and media interviews help to share the brand vision with customers, prospects and other external stakeholders like partners.

During negative press or problematic business operations that affect the perception of the brand, corporate communication can help diffuse the situation and present the company in a positive light again. Through community outreach and carefully crafted messaging, businesses can highlight the unique and beneficial aspects of their brand to distract from the negative publicity.