Limitless
Limitless Public Relations

PR, communications and productivity: staying focused in the new hybrid world

Posted on by Claire Stephenson

As we approach World Productivity Day (Monday 20 June 2022), it’s worth revisiting whether our processes and procedures are effective enough. Public relations and communications professionals must be at top of their game to ensure productivity and smooth communications, especially with the world of work still in flux. 

It’s far too easy to lose track of quality communications, and we often come across businesses that are so busy, their communications – both internal and external – are negatively impacted by a lack of structure and organisation.

Changing world

Covid 19 has changed the landscape of work and communications on a grand scale. A great many businesses and organisations still have not returned to the office on a full-time basis, with some preferring to maintain a hybrid working environment for flexibility and convenience.

However, with the changing working atmosphere still emerging, we should be prudent over how we’re communicating with each other – particularly internal communications – and ensure that productivity is encouraged by using the optimum tools and techniques so that you and your team flourish, not flounder. Wellbeing will be a key action point for the workplace going forwards.

Productivity or just busyness?

A good definition of productivity in the workplace:

“Workplace productivity relates to the amount of work that your staff can produce over a certain period. In other words, it’s the measure of the total output (goods and services) versus the total input (labour and costs) … Developing a greater understanding of factors that impact workplace performance is essential for company leadership. A productive workplace often leads to more engaged employees and improved performance metric.”

Being productive shouldn’t be confused with being busy, which is often seen as a status symbol of success. Busywork – defined as “Work that keeps a person busy but has little value in itself,” – can contribute to feelings of disillusion, lack of worth and eventually, burnout.

We’re probably all guilty of busywork, with people being sucked into it without even realising. But how can we nurture quality work without losing focus?

Tools to help find the balance

There are plenty of tools and platforms out there to help you channel your focus on the important stuff, and side-line the less valuable work. 

And if you believe every tool, app and influencer, their tool is just the ticket for a magical work-life filled with perfect communications, super-duper productivity and sparkling creativity!

So which platforms are helpful for communicators in particular? A good place to start is to make a list of ‘wants’ or issues that you need help with resolving. 

Here are three platforms to try if you need to maximise productivity without the overwhelm.

Trello

Trello is a great visual project manager that allows you to communicate and collaborate with others, from small tasks to larger projects. It uses a card system to organise and helps keep team members accountable for tasks.

It’s literally a drag-and-drop to create cards, that can be used as task lists, links, and attachments, with the ability to add specific names to the cards as required.

Trello also has a Power-Up feature, with integrations for apps like Mailchimp, Twitter, Zoom, Teams and others. 

If you love visual workspaces that are simple to use, Trello is a great option to try. You can get a free trial if you’re a new user.

Trello

Slack

Slack is a great communication app for teams as a group or one-to-one through DMs (direct messaging). It allows for different channels and easily helps keep track of projects and client work, even when you’re on the move. It saves a lot of faffing around in your email inbox hunting for information, as conversations can be better tracked through the app and its individual channels (threads). It integrates nicely with Google Calendar and you can set reminders for deadlines.

If you’re looking for better organisation within communications, Slack is a definite one to try. A free trial is available and a free version for smaller teams.

Slack

Notion

Notion is a clean, clever workspace where you can do everything – project manage, collaborate, journal, organise, goal setting, spreadsheets and databases, make and manage lists…endless possibilities to work within and from Notion. You can access templates to use or build your own workspace. It’s mid-level in difficulty to get to grips with and allows for different views and layouts, along with integrating a calendar. You can get a free trial of Notion and it’s free for up to five users, so an absolute bargain for small teams.

Notion
Notion

Need help?

These are just three tools of many that are great to help organise communications and productivity within your business. As always, we’re here to help. If you’d like to find out how we can work together, please drop us a message. Contact Michael Gregory on 0845 625 0820 or use this contact form here.

Storytelling: the power behind the PR

Posted on by Claire Stephenson

Everyone loves a story. Everyone has a story. Humans have been telling and enjoying stories and tales since the dawn of time, from primitive cave etchings, to fireside whispers of myths and fables right through to high-level campaign and advertising stories.

When we talk about storytelling for business, we’ve only to look at some of the biggest brands for how they’ve cultivated such cast-iron strategies to connect and market to their customers, showcasing quality public relations. They effectively tap into the emotions of their customers, keeping it human and creating compelling stories and messages that travel the globe, seemingly without effort. 

Apple, for instance, projects a powerful, minimalist image, with a brand loyalty like no other along with a rack of desirable products. Their co-founder, Steve Jobs, was an advocate of impactful storytelling and said:  

“The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.”

World-renowned screenwriter and director, Robert McKee, said:

“Cognitive psychologists describe how the human mind, in its attempt to understand and remember, assembles the bits and pieces of experience into a story, beginning with a personal desire, a life objective, and then portraying the struggle against the forces that block that desire. Stories are how we remember; we tend to forget lists and bullet points.”

If you’re a business or organisation and want to connect to your customers, effective storytelling with a unique perspective can help you to create trust and relay your brand in an authentic way. Clear, concise and captivating stories will perform better in customer communications than those that lack strategy or direction.

Here are three questions to ask yourself when looking at storytelling for your business and how it can impact your public relations.

  1. Is your story genuine and authentic? Storytelling contributes to a strong PR and marketing strategy, as long as it is a truthful account that your customer can relate to. People have had enough of cheap gimmicks and blatant sales pitches: they want fresh, honest and clever stories from brands they can trust, and in turn, you could gain a valued customer.
  2. Is it directed towards your niche audience? Remember – you’re not for everyone. And that’s a good thing! If you’ve correctly identified your target audience, your messaging should be precise and appealing to them. Seth Godin talks about the potency of your story, that fits perfectly with your core public: “Great stories are rarely aimed at everyone. Average people are good at ignoring you. Average people have too many different points of view about life and average people are by and large satisfied. If you need to water down your story to appeal to everyone, it will appeal to no one. The most effective stories match the world view of a tiny audience—and then that tiny audience spreads the story.”
  3. Is it relatable? Does your story and messaging relate to your ideal customer? How so? Keeping your messaging aligned with your customer and their connection to you is a key point for any public relations. Helping them to identify with your brand forges trust and authenticity, making them more likely to become a customer. 

Seth Godin’s quote on how customers make purchases is a good example of the psychology of sales, and making your brand and product relatable: 

“People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories and magic.”

Now human attention spans are reported to be at an all-time low – research suggests that the human attention span loses concentration after just eight seconds – there’s never been a better time to review messaging and storytelling for your brand.

These are just a few ideas you could consider when crafting a brand story or message. As always, we’re here to help. If you’d like to find out how we can work together, please do drop us a message. Contact Michael Gregory on 0845 625 0820 or use this contact form here.

Ministerial visits and your business

Posted on by Claire Stephenson

Building relationships between your business and relevant government departments, or constituency MPs, can be a valuable part of a business or organisation’s communications strategy. A strong public affairs strategy can be a powerful way to showcase your work and have your say on policy matters that impact your business and sector. It’s also a good opportunity to connect with, inform, and engage ministers who are responsible for policy-making.

Here are a few valuable pointers to consider as part of your communications strategy when planning a ministerial visit to your organisation.

Aims and objectives of a visit

Prepare and prepare some more. What do you hope to gain from a visit? Get clear on the key objectives. It could simply be building a positive relationship with a constituency MP, or maybe talking and sharing information about a specific section of your business in relation to a policy. Always bear in mind the hectic schedule that government ministers have, and that any time spent with your organisation should be planned and directed well to maximise the time and benefits, and moreover, make them more likely to accept your invitation.

Keep time a priority

Time constraints will always be a factor, so make sure that you work to the time that has been allocated. Liaise closely with the Minister’s office or aides, and ensure everyone has the correct contact and directions to your location. Consider how you will work around any curveballs thrown. For example, the Minister could be delayed in traffic and your visit time might be been cut short if they have a follow-on engagement. What would be the minimum key objectives you could achieve in such an altered time frame?

How will it look?

What do you want the visit time to look like? Who will be present for the meet-and-greet? What kind of experience would you like the Minister to have whilst visiting your business space? Will a full briefing be required, or just a simple overview of what the Minister should expect?

Don’t assume the Minister will have read any briefing prior to arrival either – a quick overview of what they should expect on arrival is always helpful.

Plan a programme accordingly for the time allocated, and ensure your key objectives can be met in an interesting and creative way – no death-by-Powerpoint presentations, please! Consider an interactive experience for the Minister and make it memorable. 

Media

If there’s to be any press follow-up or other communications on the visit (blog, social media etc) include any photography and quote-gathering into the schedule, as this can take time to achieve the right photos and information. Brief the photographer (if external) ahead of the visit. What kind of photos and style are you aiming for? Make sure any relevant staff are present and they also have a briefing.

These are some of the basics you’ll need to consider if you’re planning on having a Ministerial visit to your business or organisation. Proper research and planning are essential during this process, as is good communication between all parties involved.

If you’re looking to get expert help and guidance on public affairs and how to build positive relationships between your business and the government, contact us today via our website or call 0845 625 0820.

Influencer marketing: would it benefit your business?

Posted on by Claire Stephenson

What is influencer marketing?

HubSpot provides a good definition:

“Influencer marketing employs leading, niche content creators to improve brand awareness, increase traffic, and drive messages to brands’ target audiences. It’s this collaboration between brands and creators that allows businesses to expand their reach across their buyer personas.”

HubSpot

The latest figures suggest around 57.6% of the population uses social media, with that number growing all the time.

Why use influencers?

Using influencers to help PR your business can be a good way of reaching your target market. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, the influencer marketing industry is estimated to have been around $13.8 billion in 2021 – despite a global pandemic – seeing businesses adapting their marketing direction to the shift in sales to more online

Demographics matter. Who and where are your audience? Where do they frequent? For an example, The Digital Marketing Institute states that 70% of teenagers trust influencers more than traditional celebrities, so platforms like Instagram and TikTok would be prime channels to utilise with social media influencers. 

If your demographic is older, however, you might need to have a different plan. Statistics show that the Boomer generation (think ages between late 50s to 70s) are more interested in YouTube (so video-based content), Facebook and written long-form content like blogs.

Who can be influencers?

Traditionally, influential people tended to be well-known celebrities and public figures. Nowadays, social media allows just about anyone to influence, depending on the topic and relevance.

TikTok and Instagram in particular, are platforms where unknown people to the majority, wield power with some having a few million followers. Outside of those platforms, however, they may hold no relevance in everyday life – especially within business and organisational needs of influence. And of course, a high following does not equate to good or quality engagement with those followers.

Stephen Waddington talks about the shift of influencer marketing transitioning from high worth ‘well-knowns’ (macro) to more niche and smaller audiences (micro):

“From a PR perspective, Influencer Marketing is the shift in recognising there are new ways to reach your audience or publics. Traditionally that used to be high net worth individuals or journalists and now it can be anyone with their own network or media of their own.”

Stephen Waddington

One good example of an influencer campaign that reached out to women everywhere, because they could identify themselves with the brand, was Dove’s #ShowUs campaign. Dove focused on the everyday woman in their drive, using every shape, size and colour of model to celebrate and champion diversity and inclusion.

Graphical user interface, application Description automatically generated
Dove’s #ShowUs campaign

The body positivity and strong messaging helped to reshape the message of what real beauty is, along with uniting an ocean of women. Financially, Dove sales turned profits from $2.5m to $4m in the first ten years.

Another example of influencer marketing – but back in the 80s, where TV, movies and pop culture gave boost to brands – was the adoption of Crocodile Dundee, aka Paul Hogan, for a Foster’s campaign, following the movie’s success. Foster’s moved from being an Australian beer to a global sensation, capitalising on the popularity of Hogan’s character and charisma. A big win.

A person holding a glass of beer Description automatically generated
Paul Hogan for Foster’s Lager

Social proof

At a very basic level, you’re aiming to provide social proof, where people can see that others have experienced your product or service, and by having different types of influence – whether that’s a blog, social media platform or even a well-known public figure – you can help potential customers to see the value in what your organisation is about. 

So how do you go about getting in with this influencing lark? 

Research, research, research. 

Start with knowing your target audience. Who are they? Where do they hang out? What do they like? What are their habits? Defining and refining your consumer persona is key to understanding your customers and what drives them. Demographics are also important – research your social media analytics and refine further. The more information you can garner, the better.

You’ll also need to identify your goals through influencer marketing. What do you want to achieve and why? The clearer you can get with your why will help you identify the who influencer to look for. 

Finally, when researching and deciding upon the right kind of influencers, choose wisely. As well as having the power to raise your profile and propel a brand forwards, influencers also have the ability to damage a brand (intentionally or not) and bring the wrong kind of attention your way.

Inspired?

Want to find out more about influencer marketing and whether it’s a good fit for your business? Give us a call! We can help you with working out what, who and how of influencer marketing, from the drawing board to inception and management.

Contact Michael Gregory on 0845 625 0820 or drop us a message via this contact form here.

Agile communications for a post-Covid world?

Posted on by Claire Stephenson

If you’re part of a communications team that replies on heavy planning and forward planning with messaging and calendars, you may not need to invest so much time in creating content and timing plans that often don’t come to fruition.

A changing world

The global pandemic seems to have revved up another notch with the discovery of another mutation – Omicron – a Covid variant that is suspected to be highly transmissible. In turn, this finding has cast a chaotic and unstable future for businesses, travel and planning in general.

Agile communications could be the approach that makes a constantly changing and uncertain digital world, one to your advantage.

Rooted in the IT world, Agile has migrated over to public relations and communications in recent years, lending itself well to iteration and adaption as situations – Covid being a great example – happen.

But what is it?

The Australian software company, Atlassian, offers this definition:

Agile is an iterative approach to project management and software development that helps teams deliver value to their customers faster and with fewer headaches. Instead of betting everything on a “big bang” launch, an agile team delivers work in small, but consumable, increments. Requirements, plans, and results are evaluated continuously so teams have a natural mechanism for responding to change quickly.

Atlassian

‘A waste of money and effort’

Dr Betteke van Ruler discusses agile processes as a continual adjustment, but only to reach the best results possible. Collaboration between the project owner, team members and potentially, stakeholders, work closely together, with a reduced project hierarchy to maximise flow and results.

Van Ruler states that old-style strategic planning and time-heavy administration aren’t dynamic enough for communications in a fast-paced world, with these traditional methods being “far too linear” to be helpful.

Scrumptious

Ever found yourself in a Scrum? This Scrum, whilst still team-based, is off the rugby pitch. A Scrum is just one facet in agile methodology, describing how the project team learns on the go, addresses problems dynamically together, reflects what works/what doesn’t work, and improves their process to ensure a successful project outcome. A Kanban board is often used as part of the Scrum.

Ken Schwaber, in Agile Project Management with Scrum, says:

“Most people responsible for managing projects have been taught a deterministic approach to project management that uses detailed plans, Gantt charts and work schedules. Scrum is the exact opposite.” 

Ken Schwaber

There are four main project roles within a scrum:

Scrum master = the facilitator, helping teams to self-motivate and follow the agreed process.

Project owner = the client representer

Scrum team = team members

Stakeholders = people who have an interest in the success of the project

The benefits of the scrum process are the fast-paced workflow allows for team creativity to be fostered, reduces costs and time while increasing productivity and quality.

Agile for the win

If you’re feeling a need to shake up your traditional communications methods, an Agile planning method could be something that benefits your organisation and clients. You can read more about Agile communications via this (surprisingly) good blog from DEFRA and a fuller explanation from Lucidchart, here.

It’s worth regularly revaluating your communications and messaging, using your metrics and data to assess what’s working and what isn’t working for your organisation.

Here at Limitless Public Relations, we can help you with your communications strategy.  Whether that’s creating powerful messaging from fresh, or consulting on an existing plan to ensure your words are reaching the right people. We’re your people.

Contact Michael Gregory for an informal chat on 0845 625 0820 or you can message us here.

Stakeholder engagement and why your business needs it

Posted on by Claire Stephenson

What is Stakeholder Engagement?

The term stakeholder is used to determine individuals or groups of people who have an impact or can impact a business or organisation.

R. Edward Freeman first used the phrase in 1984, in his text Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach, when he described stakeholders as:

“…any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization’s objectives.” 

Stakeholder engagement should be viewed as a positive opportunity to inform, consult, influence, learn from. To analyse information from people surrounding your business, and to help you gain the best outcome on how you share your communications.

Identifying Your Stakeholders

So how do we work out the impactful people surrounding our business or organisation? A good place to begin is with a brainstorm of all of the people who are impacted by your project or business, or who might hold influence over the outcome – good or bad. This could be co-workers, community groups, customers, shareholders, residents, regulators, politicians…the list could be varied depending on your business.

Once you have generated your list, you’ll need to work out the priority of your stakeholders, by deciding on the power and interest that they have in your work

We can do this by stakeholder mapping. Quite literally, making a map of who they are and at what level they interact with our business. Only then can we address how we can engage with the relevant people in a human, respectful and engaging way.

Aubrey Mendelow (1991) created a power-interest matrix to help identify the importance of stakeholders within and beyond an organisation. Stakeholders can be both internal and external and both groups should be considered.

Here are the four levels of power-interest and a general breakdown of meaning:

  1. High power, high interested stakeholders (ENGAGE and CONSULT) = fully engage with these people and groups, paying close attention to expectations.
  2. High power, less interested stakeholders (KEEP SATISFIED) = maintain contact and messaging without excess.
  3. Low power, highly interested stakeholders (KEEP INFORMED) = engage, inform and ensure smooth communications.
  4. Low power, less interested stakeholders (MONITOR) = monitor with low-level communications

Why You Should Have a Stakeholder Engagement Strategy

For projects, campaigns and launches, it’s crucial to analyse, understand and strategically reach the people who can support your endeavours. And conversely, who negatively impacts what you’re trying to achieve. By laying the good groundwork in identifying and engaging with all of your relevant stakeholders, you’re more likely to succeed in your project and messaging mission.

If you need help determining your stakeholder engagement strategy, Limitless can help you with a clean and clear process. Contact Michael Gregory for an informal chat on 0845 625 0820 or you can message us here.

Kiistone hands expanded campaign brief to Limitless

Posted on by Michael Gregory

Following a successful launch of its payment platform, Kiistone has handed Limitless Public Relations an extended brief which will see the agency deliver a national trade and consumer campaign comprising media relations, social media and events.

The tech start-up initially engaged Limitless to launch its mobile and desktop platform aimed at helping tradespeople run their businesses more effectively and put an end to payment disputes.

The brainchild of CEO Tim Mullock, the Kiistone platform is designed to financially protect both tradespeople and customers, who agree job specifications and budgets via the platform. Payment is then protected and held independently, by the largest Escrow provider in Europe, until both parties are satisfied that the job has been completed as agreed.

CEO of Kiistone, Tim Mullock, said: “My experience of being a British tradesperson over the last twenty years has shown me both the good and the not so good that the industry has to offer, and the biggest issue that we’ve still got today is a lack of trust between the customer and the trade.

“While it’s undeniable that there are some cowboys out there, professional tradespeople often find themselves tarred with the same brush, which doesn’t make for good customer relationships. On the flipside, tradespeople can experience a lack of understanding from customers or unrealistic expectations, which can lead to disputes over final invoices.

“Kiistone has been designed to provide absolute clarity to customers at all stages of the project and ensuring fair payment for the job delivered.”

As well as the Escrow solution, the online platform provides further functions to help tradespeople manage their projects, diary, cashflow, admin and communication. It also links to the Kiistone Community, providing industry news, guidance and support for trade businesses and homeowners.

Mullock continues: “The aim for Kiistone in the long term is to build a community of tradespeople who take pride in their profession and who understand the value for everyone in modernising the industry. Kiistone’s ultimate goal is to be a gamechanger for the industry, to reinstate pride and quality in British trades, and to represent a new benchmark in professional standards.”

For the PR launch, Limitless drew upon the profile of West Bromwich Albion and England goalkeeper Sam Johnstone, who became a shareholder of Kiistone after using the platform during his own home renovation, to secure coverage in the Daily Mail, the Sun and i-News. Further extensive coverage in trades sector press and local press has led to a significant number of enquiries about the platform and Kiistone has now rolled over the contract with Limitless to include social media.

Mr Mullock says: “For a new idea like Kiistone that is aiming to change the way tradespeople nationally work for the better, the credibility of national media coverage is absolutely crucial. Limitless smashed it out of the park for the launch and we are looking forward to working with them into the future as usage of the platform develops and grows.”

Limitless Director Greg Wilson said: “The Kiistone launch has been a great PR success. National newspaper coverage has helped us so far hit publications with online readership figures of 348 million and 2.6 million opportunities to see in print. Kiistone is a fantastic product with big ambitions to positively disrupt the status quo and improve the lives of its users so we’re really looking forward to helping support them with their long-term growth goals.”

For more information visit www.kiistone.co.uk

Does your marketing need an oil change?

Posted on by Michael Gregory

When a client asks us to help them promote a product or service, we always want to know more about their marketing and PR activities. We look at three distinct areas:

  1. Lead Generation
  2. Sales Conversion
  3. Brand Awareness

Why these three?  Well, these are the holy trinity of effective sales and marketing. To get sales, you need to generate leads, right? But there’s no point in generating leads unless you convert them into sales.

Factors one and two are basically the engine of your marketing. Your business is going nowhere without them.

Brand Awareness

But what a great many younger businesses don’t understand (before they come to us, that is) is the importance of the third element – brand awareness – in getting the most effective performance from your lead generation and sales conversion tactics.

Essentially, brand awareness is like adding oil to your marketing engine. You might generate leads with your SEO and PPC campaigns and convert them using the great UX on your website. But more people will click your search results or PPC ads if they have heard of your brand (read our previous blog on creating a buzz around your brand).

They’ll also be more comfortable completing a transaction on your website if your brand was already known to them before they got there.

Sales v Being Known

Your superstar salesperson might be great at setting meetings and smashing it out of the park in their presentations, but it will be a lot easier for them if the prospect has heard of your company before taking the call or sitting down for the meeting.

You might get all your business from referrals and recommendations, but think how reassuring it feels when someone recommends a company, and you’ve actually already heard of them.

Nobody likes unknowns. That’s why it’s important to Be Known. Being known means your business is running at optimum efficiency. It’s what will help you pull ahead of the pack and become the leader…if that’s what you want?

Call us today if you’d like to find out more about how we can help you Be Known. Phone 0845 625 0820 or email: enquiries@limitlesspr.co.uk

When Public Relations goes wrong

Posted on by Claire Stephenson

Public relations, even in the hands of a skilled practitioner, can still hit the skids and go terribly wrong. There have been some absolute howlers over the years, from Ratner’s Jewellery fall-down to the corporate PR storm of United Airlines following a passenger assault and being dragged from an aircraft by UA staff.

Here’s three notable examples of recent PR and communications disasters:

Veganuary by Burger King

During the annual vegan challenge of Veganuary, Burger King launched their brand-new vegan ‘Rebel Whopper’ burger that very quickly became non-vegan, with it transpiring that the ‘plant-based’ burger was actually cooked on the very same equipment as the meat-based burgers, making it unsuitable for vegetarians, let alone vegans. There was also the addition of the non-vegan mayonnaise, which customers may not have been aware of.

More of a Huge Whopper than a Rebel Whopper, which resulted in a massive PR fail. Along with an advertising ban from the watchdog, the Advertising Standards Association (ASA). They stated that the accompanying small print on the burger advertisement “was not sufficiently prominent to override the overall impression that the burger was suitable for vegetarians and vegans.”

Dominic Cummings and his Barnard Castle Eye Test

Along with the 2020 onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, came the government PR arm swinging into action, bringing with it the famed ‘Stay Home, Protect The NHS, Save Lives’ slogan that was splashed across all media and every messaging opportunity possible, so that the general public had the message embedded into their consciousness. One disastrous communications fail which had huge public consequences for this message, was the then-advisor to the PM, Dominic Cummings and his famed eye-testing drive to Barnard Castle.

Cummings fled from London to Durham, with suspected COVID-19, and then drove to Barnard Castle with his family to ‘test his eyesight’. The Guardian described the evolving story as “evasion to evisceration”, with the PR fall-out of the scandal turning the heat up for Number 10’s comms team. Calls for Cummings to quit swiftly followed, along with a ministerial resignation and public condemnation. The resulting dip in confidence of the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic was later coined as “the Cummings effect”.

Wetherspoons

Tim Martin, the wealthy Wetherspoons boss, caused a huge public backlash after informing his staff members that they would be paid up until the date that the government forced pubs to shut, with no more wages until the furlough scheme kicked in. Shockingly, Martin then proceeded to send a video message to all of his staff, advising them to look for alternative employment at Tesco if they needed money in the meantime. The negative publicity around this damaging approach was across all media, with reputational damage on a wide scale.

Plan in Advance

Even the best strategic plans can go haywire. But whether your campaign or PR strategy has covered all the bases or not, you can quickly find yourself in a comms disaster where reputational damage can occur. And the ways it can go wrong can be unpredictable and challenging. Knowing how to respond and deal with difficult situations is part of the job of a professional communications practitioner.

An issues or crisis communication plan should be something that’s already in place for your business or organisation, preferably before the crisis happens.

If you’re looking for crisis management, help with creating a bespoke strategy or advice on what your business or organisation needs, we’re here to help. Drop Michael Gregory an email at michael.gregory@limitlesspr.co.uk