Choose the right corporate communication company for you

Corporate Communication isn’t just another buzzword: we promise. Whether you’re a one-person operation, a micro-sized team or a growing enterprise, we know you’re already using it in your operation. Corporate communication covers the way you conceptualise, strategise, execute and evaluate your communication with:

In good times and bad times, your corporate communication processes are running. Everything about the way your company communicates, both inside and outside, gives people an impression of you or your brand. If you’re not actively thinking about this, you’re actively missing opportunities to grow and profit more each day.

Should you be working with a corporate communication agency?

Trust us: you already have at least one piece of the corporate communication puzzle in place. Working with an agency is what you do to supercharge and organise your current efforts. Let’s break it down into the three main scales of business:

Corporate communication consultants for one-person companies

You’re alone from start to finish: product ideation, creation, sales, execution of the service or delivery of the product, and customer service. It’s chaos, madness even, trying to be everything all the time. What can you do when the hustle is real?

Our advice is that you save and study. Save an extra 10% from every sale or every day’s revenue, toward a budget for outsourcing communication services of some kind (this includes marketing, but more on that in another article). Study by using no-cost resources like YouTube tutorials, follow our Founding Director on LinkedIn or take advantage of online communication courses.

At Perana Viosa, the price of research and development services is quoted on a case-by-case basis, built specifically around what’s required for you to harness the full benefit of the research project and outcomes.

Communication companies for small businesses

Small businesses can be further broken down into small, micro or medium sized businesses. That’s typically between 2-250 employees across the spectrum and, as you can imagine, each tier has a corresponding set of corporate communication requirements. A company of two may only need the basic: customer-facing communication and possibly investor relations, perhaps with an on-call arrangement for any crises or media situations that need to be navigated with care.

A business with 20-50 people will have departments forming. It needs a bit more care and planning in terms of how information flows up and down the business, and from one department to another. When you start reaching a staff complement of 80-200 more layers appear in the business hierarchy, more skilled specialists appear in each of the departments and you begin to see different communication systems appear.

Growing businesses have to invest in communication as a function of business because there are many variables that affect the business’ performance:

In reality there are so many variables for businesses to keep track of and use to inform changes, it really is an ongoing cycle of executing and evolving all communication processes.

Enterprise corporate communication

Multinational corporations (MNCs) know the value of communication. When you have thousands upon thousands of employees serving the business across different regions, languages and cultures, you realise how important it is to invest in a strong communication framework. Every single stakeholder, internal and external, needs to have the right information at the right time, to execute on the right tasks to move the business forward.

In an enterprise environment you will probably find a Chief Communications Officer who is responsible for the company’s entire communication portfolio:

Choosing tools for internal and external communication
Drafting and updating communication policies that respect communication laws in every region of operation
Contributing to the company’s disciplinary code for breach of communication conduct
Selecting Communication Managers who can carry forward the company’s communication principles and help teams use communication to improve efficiency and working climate
Set up frameworks for evaluating the efficacy and efficiency of communication, calculate communication overheads and create a loop for feedback about possible improvements.

Communication in an enterprise environment needs to be taken seriously to constantly bring out the best of your talented employees and to strengthen w

Finding the right communication company to work with

Now that you know about the importance and application of Corporate Communication at different scales of business, let’s show you how to find the right communication company to work with:

The very first step is to define your goal: what is it that you want to achieve, and why? What would that achievement do for your business? Here are some examples of business goals that relate to communication:
1. Reduce lead times when responding to customer queries: improves customer loyalty and brand reputation.
2. Launch a new brand into a market to let people know that there’s another choice available to them, based on our differentiator (eg. price, customer service, branding). This would help find the product-market fit and generate revenue.
3. Reduce spills or wastage in manufacturing: this would improve profitability and production lead times.
The second step is to research and reach out to corporate communication consultants or agencies. Think laterally here, and try to set up a conversation with at least one provider whom you find through different platforms:
1. Facebook
2. LinkedIn
3. Google Search
4. YouTube channels (especially if you follow a channel there, to learn about business communication)
In your conversations with your provisionally selected providers, be clear about the goal you want to achieve. Avoid asking for a specific method and rather clarify what you want that end result to look and feel like.
Reviewing proposals from communication companies can be tricky if you’re not familiar with or formally trained in communication. How would you know what to look for, right? The easiest way to really judge a proposal is to see if it makes sense.
1. If there’s jargon and complicated terminology in the proposal, use your right to ask questions.
2. RED FLAG ALERT: If a provider can’t or won’t fully explain the meaning and significance of what’s in the proposal, they depend on you not knowing in order for them to serve you.
3. Short list the providers you believe to care about the results as much as you do, then move on to the cost estimate.
Reviewing quotes and cost estimates in your short list doesn’t mean that you should go with the cheapest option as a default.
1. Score your shortlisted providers according to your assessment of how easy it is to talk to them, how quickly they respond to you, and whether you sense enthusiasm from them, or not, about working on your account.
2. If you select a provider whose cost estimate is out of your immediate budget, first ask them if it’s possible to break the project down into phases and be honest with them about what your budget is. If they can accommodate you they should let you know, before you then move on to your second highest scoring provider, and so on.

Once you’ve selected a provider, make sure that you let the other contenders know that the contract has been awarded and thank them for considering your brief. For those who you may have really wanted to work with, but maybe their costs were outside of your affordability, keep them informed and let them know that you may be in touch after the current brief has been fulfilled and you evaluate your company’s progress. Let your current provider know what stands out to you and what you appreciate about the working arrangement, so you can accept updated pitches and keep your company at its strongest by regularly evaluating the performance of your communication service providers.

Perana Viosa can help you with your corporate communication

If you’re currently looking for some help with your corporate communication frameworks, policies and execution, we can assist you. Click here to learn more about our services and to get in touch with us.