Communication Strategy That Works (Emma Drake)

As we step firmly into 2025, the communication landscape continues to evolve at a breakneck pace.

For PR and marketing professionals, staying ahead of trends while effectively connecting with audiences requires not just strategy but precision execution.

In my latest podcast episode, I provide a comprehensive communication strategy for 2025, complete with actionable tips and key takeaways.

Let's dive in! 

As we dive into 2025, I know how challenging it can feel to keep pace with the constant changes in communication and PR. The rapid shifts in technology, platforms, and audience expectations can sometimes feel overwhelming—believe me, I get it. That’s why I’ve put together this list of tips. They’re not a blueprint (more on that another time!) but rather a set of ideas to inspire and guide you.

Before we get into it, I want to say: be kind to yourself. You don’t have to tackle everything at once. Instead, I encourage you to pick three things from this list that resonate with you most and focus on those. Small, intentional steps can lead to big changes. And if you’re looking for more strategies to stay productive, keep an eye out for my upcoming episode on Productivity in 2025.

Let’s dive in!

Today I share how using topic experts can add real value to your business by building trust and credibility in your brand, product or service.

This tool is related to the PR discipline of communication for your business but could be used in any content too.

I’ll give an overview of what this tool is and how you can use it, what to look for in a topic expert, and provide examples of where it has worked well.

Download my FREE cheat sheet; seven simple steps to communication activity with impact which can guide your promotional activity in a strategic direction, saving you time and money.

Also here:https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/me4aassrqp 

You can also;

Please leave me a review on Apple Podcasts or my FB page @commthatworks as it helps others find the show and subscribe to be the first to listen each week.

Follow my Facebook page for daily tips and advice. 

Also here:https://www.facebook.com/commsthatworks

DM me on LinkedIn emmadrake or Twitter @_emmadrake or email info@henbe.co.uk

I wanted to talk to you today about connecting your marketing and sales messages.

There was some interesting research recently from Global PR firm Fleishman Hillard. Their 2021 global report looks at The Authenticity Gap, which measures the gap between consumer expectations and their actual experiences of a company or brand using the Nine Drivers of Authenticity that shape consumer perceptions and beliefs. 

I think there are lots of key points that growing businesses can take from this report in terms of making sure what you say you do, what you actually do and how you operate are all telling the same story.

you will learn;

• Why you need to have your brand messages connected to your sales
• How you might start this process
• A simple method to organise your messages into a document you can refer to

Links I mention in this episode:

Fleishman Hillard Global Authenticity Report

https://fleishmanhillard.com/brand-consumer-expectations/ 

Messagehouse.org and free toolkit

https://messagehouse.org/ 

Today, I'm exploring how customer problems can be a valuable source of ideas for PR campaigns. You'll learn how to turn those ideas into successful campaigns, what makes a good campaign, and how to measure its success. And a couple of great examples along the way.

This episode was inspired by a recent Deep Dive with Ayo Abbas on Campaigns - check the link in the show notes.

Let's dive in!

Links for show notes:

How to use campaigns in your strategy ‘Deep Dive’ with Ayo Abbas: https://henbe.co.uk/2023/05/25/ep-127-deep-dive-how-campaigns-can-improve-your-strategy/

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Today, I share a case study on how a startup used a white paper to build trust in a new product.

This is a new format I am trying; sharing case studies.  These will sometimes be from me, like today, and sometimes be from guests as well, hopefully.  I’d love to know what you think?

Today’s case study is all about when you are new to the market and you need to convince people to buy from you, even though you don’t have a track record. You might be a new company, or you might have developed a new product, either way, your potential customers are going to have a lot of questions and you need to gain their trust.

I’m going to share how I co-developed a PR campaign using a white paper to help a housing sector startup attract customers.

Let’s dive in!

Links mentioned in todays’ show: 

Intelligent Conversation

The White Paper featured in today’s episode (which has been turned into a ‘guide’).

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap for more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise, whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor at emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work with me, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling? Then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Social media will always be a staple of your comms plan, but it’s easy to get wrong. And hard work to get right, it seems.

This episode is a teaser for a great ‘Deep Dive’ episode I have coming up with the wonderful Helen Reynolds from the Comms Creatives in January so look out for that one.

Let's dive in!

Links in this episode:

Sue, You're shouting at tea: https://twitter.com/yorkshiretea/status/1232293516862218240?lang=en

What to do next:

Get my FREE 5 Lessons on how to use Audio as part of your B2B strategy https://bit.ly/B2BAudioLessons

Follow/DM me on LinkedIn : https://bit.ly/FollowMeLinkedIn

PS – Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot.

Today on the podcast as part of November's focus on brand tracking and insights, I take a look at customer feedback and how it can be used to improve brand reputation.

Looking after our customers has never been more important. Competition is fair and platforms a plenty for people to take to and give their positive, or negative, opinions about your brand, product or service.

How does this relate to PR - well it's about public perceptions and how we can influence opinion so intrinsically linked in fact.

So today I am exploring the significance of customer feedback and three actionable steps to succeed in this critical area.

So let's dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

With the bulk of winter behind us, I find that February is the perfect time to start being proactive and setting the tone for a productive year ahead. 

If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to shake off the post-holiday slump, this is it! Now is the time to reset, refocus, and build momentum that will carry you into Spring and the rest of the year. 

In today’s episode, we’re diving into some of the best productivity tools and strategies of 2025 to help you work smarter, not harder, while keeping a good work-life balance. And it’s not all about AI you’ll be pleased to hear (although some of it is)

Let’s dive in!

PR can help the sales process along through the ‘know, like, trust’ aspect of the customer journey with you.

The more someone hears about your business and the better informed they are, the warmer they are as a potential lead. In plain terms, this means your customer is closer to working with you or buying from you than they were when they first heard of you. Customers have to travel along the ‘know, like, trust’ pathway with you to know your products, like them, and work out if they will work for them. They also need to trust you so they will choose you over the other options that might be available out there.

Using PR this way can influence your lead generation and become an essential cog in your sales wheel.

Now I say this is for B2B, but it can easily translate into B2C it’s just B2B is my genius zone, so I am focussing here today.

Let's dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business (also here: https://bit.ly/SevenSteps2Success )

Want to explore how i can help you? there’s 3 main ways you can do this:

1. Listen to more episodes, download a resource or enrol in a mini course: Find out more here.

2. Hire my expertise, whether that's support with a one-off comms project or entire strategy for your business drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  emma@henbe.co.uk

​3. Work with me closely in my Communication Strategy Lab 

If you'd like to work with me in a group of like-minded peers to develop your communication strategy through 1:1 work with me, podcasts, workbooks and lots of accountability and up-skilling, testing and learning as we go? then email me emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

On World Book Day I thought I’d focus on how business books can be a rich source of content worth investing in.  Books have the ability to captivate our imagination. They can transport us to another place and time. They can change our view on something entirely. This is why so many authors turn to books as a way of conveying their message.

World Book Day was created by Unesco in April 1995 as a worldwide celebration of books and reading. It’s marked in more than 100 countries around the globe.

The day aims to promote reading for pleasure while offering “every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own.

But as well as children reading and enjoying reading, over the years, books have been used by businesses and organizations as a means of storytelling. The advantages of using books as part of a content strategy are numerous.

So today I cover my own personal reflections and share 3 ways I have used business books for my business, my personal PR and my clients.

So let’s dive in!

Links in this episode

About World Book Day

Shaping Future Places case study

Shaping Future Places initiative

Promoting Property and Insight

How to use Audio in your B2B Strategy

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business

Listen to more episodes, download a resource or enrol in a mini-course: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise, whether that's support with a one-off comms project or entire strategy for your business drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely in my Communication Strategy Lab 

If you'd like to work with me in a group of like-minded peers to develop your communication strategy through 1:1 work with me, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas and lots of accountability and up-skilling? then email me emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

I was asked 3 times recently if I would help people start their podcast. My answer was yes of course! but what's stopping you?

I realized that one of the biggest questions people have is why should they start a podcast? Is it for fun or for business? The answer varies for everyone, but for me, it was a way to establish myself in my industry and to connect with like-minded individuals.

Today's episode rolls off the back of hitting a top 50 position for Marketing in Apple podcast charts. A highly competitive area to make a mark in with a podcast. so I thought I would reflect and share a bit about my podcast and why you should start one of your own.

Let's dive in!

I knew I was going to launch a podcast for several months before Communication Strategy That Works went live. I was just waiting for the right time. Guess what it never comes!

It fitted into my communications strategy, I knew what it was going to be about and who it was for, but two lockdowns, a puppy, and life in general got in the way. I kept telling myself, “I haven’t got time”.

It got to the point where I actually thought, "I'm going to do this and I'm going to launch it because I am actually now putting more barriers in front of it." And I was ready, I was totally committed to the idea of starting a podcast.

But what is it that draws people to this medium?

For some, it's the desire to share their knowledge and expertise on a particular subject with a wider audience. For others, it's the opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and build a community around a shared passion.

Maybe you are listening and this sounds like you? You’ve got an idea for a show, or you’re quite a way down the road with the planning, and yet something is holding you back. I'm now 118 episodes in and regularly hitting the top 200 for marketing for my podcast up against some huge competition from the Marketing Meet Up, Amy Porterfield, The Digital Marketing Podcast and many other great podcasts.

I get asked a lot about my podcast, in fact, its the first thing people talk to me about when we meet. Which is great.

But I also get asked how to get started, so here are three common barriers you may come across and how to overcome them:

Barrier 1: Time

People think that it takes a lot longer than it does eventually. I always say to people when you do start a podcast point at the centre of everything, so that it helps you to create content everywhere else in your business. If you're creating a podcast repurpose that content, transcribe it, and use it in lots of different ways. There are lots of ways to make creating a podcast a lot quicker, including batching your episodes.

I’ve followed this advice and found a podcast is very rewarding for time spent. I find it easy to talk about a topic and then I can transcribe each episode and turn it into blog articles or social media posts.

Barrier 2: Content

People worry about, ‘Who's going to listen to me’. It overlaps with mindset. People think, "Well, who's going to listen to me? Who's going to listen to this topic? Who am I to do this? I've not got any good content. How am I going to pull together all of this content?"

People worry about being consistent with that content as well. They're all just stories that we tell ourselves. I work with clients and students all the time on helping them get through this and showing them that they do have a really unique story. They've got a unique message and it's important to get it out there.

And when you flip in your head into being more about the audience than about you, then that anxiety around it tends to ease."

I sympathise with those early nerves. The first time you record a podcast episode it does feel awful and cringy and you feel like you've really put yourself out there. And then it becomes very normal and now I say to people actually the recording and the editing for me is the easiest bit.

I think being in communications as well, for me I felt like there was this pressure to get it perfect.

Barrier 3: Fear of tech

People worry about the tech all the time. It's perfectly natural to feel a bit of anxiety about something that you've not done before but think about things that you've done in your lives that you never thought you'd be able to do and now you can do them with your eyes closed. It's the same with podcasting.

It takes a bit of practice to get started, but once you do and you’re in your flow it's going to become so much easier for you. The tech doesn't have to be that complicated either. You need a few pieces of equipment that don't have to be expensive and it's fairly simple to learn how to create the podcast, how to edit, record it, get it approved by Apple and so on.”

Whenever you are embarking on a new aspect of your communications strategy you are bound to have concerns.

Focus on your goals and how what you are doing is going to count towards them. If you would like to talk through your plans, whether you want to launch a podcast, or are wondering whether audio is a good fit for your business, get in touch with me.

My Podcasting Made Simple is a quick and easy introductory programme could be for you, to find out more check the show notes or go onto my website to find out more and register for the next cohort. You can also download my free beginner's guide to using Audio in your comms strategy too.

Welcome to the Communication Strategy 'That Works' podcast!

I'm Emma, your host and I am making it my mission to help smaller businesses like you that want to grow and have ambitious plans to be a bigger company, to get the 'comms stuff' right earlier on in your journey. I want you to grow your brand more effectively, protect your fledgeling brand reputation, spend your budget more wisely and, ultimately, have much more impact with your comms.

In this trailer, you can learn a little bit more about me, my background, and why I have produced this podcast for you, and what you can expect to learn each week through listening to my show.

There are step-by-step processes, downloads and freebies to help you get started, and mini masterclasses to look forward to. Each week you will get actionable advice you can implement straight away. There's no navel-gazing here, just straight-up free advice and tips distilled from my 20 plus years in the business.

I hope you enjoy it!

You can also get my monthly email StratChat enables you to be first in line to hear about my offers and free downloads and also get new episodes straight to your inbox each week.

https://mailchi.mp/c73d7cdfb037/stratchat

Connect with me on LinkedIn Emma Drake Chart.PR

https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmadrake/

And please follow my Facebook Business page CommsThatWorks for daily tips and advice https://www.facebook.com/commsthatworks

A new year is often a time for a fresh start. It's a great time to audit how effective your business communication is.

Most businesses will undertake financial audits and expenses claims audits, but how often do you audit how you communicate with customers and other stakeholders?

Some businesses I've worked with are really good at this.

However, I am always amazed at the number of businesses that don’t do this. This could be a big factor in why some of those messages are not getting through to customers.

Effective communication leads to better marketing and more traction, which ultimately helps with more sales, right? So measuring how it's going and starting with a desktop audit it a good idea if you've not done it before.

So this episode is a re-run, a refresh and a New Year reminder to audit your communication. It covers four reasons why I think you should undertake a communication audit of your business now and gives you some tips on getting started.

Let's dive in!

Episode mentioned is: Episode 4.

Today, I wanted to talk to you about the importance of fostering business relationships in B2B when building your brand from scratch. I reveal why this approach is not just for big consumer brands.

Getting people to tell your story for you is a powerful way to build trust and credibility. It's tough when you start because no one knows you. You may be new in a market, have a new way of doing things, or compete in a very established industry.

Let's dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Today I'm delighted to have on the podcast, Steve Leigh, from Sensu Insight. 

In 2022, he left his role as a director of a large, independent PR agency to start Sensu Insight. He helps in-house PR agencies, and C-suite teams make sense of reputation, sales and audience behaviours, and how all of these things impact communications and market issues. 

Join us as we 'Deep Dive' into PR measurement and evaluation, how to use research to improve your brand's reputation, and much more.

Let's dive in!

Business events, such as trade shows, conferences, and networking sessions, can be a valuable tool in promoting your business product or service. Not only do these events provide opportunities to showcase products and services, but they also allow for face-to-face interactions with potential clients and partners. Additionally, attending industry events can provide insight into emerging trends and challenges within the market, helping marketing experts stay ahead of the curve. As such, we professionals must understand the various benefits of business events and develop strategies for leveraging them effectively.

Today I run through some simple strategies you can use to maximise your event experience and a list of quick takeaways.

Let's dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor - emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Often, the decision of when to skill up and when to outsource PR can be tricky. You want someone with the right experience, who knows what they are doing and will be able to deliver the desired results. In most cases, it makes sense to opt for an experienced professional who can make sure that the job is properly completed. For certain campaigns or projects that require specific expertise, outsourcing is the more ideal option, as it allows for access to a broad range of skills and resources.

Today I look at a few areas of when and how to consider when to skill up and when to outsource. And 4 tips on briefing a PR or Comms consultant to work with you.

Let's dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

In times of economic downturns, it's essential to ensure your communication and marketing plans are recession-proof. However, the latest research from Linkedin suggests brands will keep on building and not hold back, despite the economic picture.

You can do a few things to ensure your spending remains conservative while still reaching your goals in times of challenging external influences.  But this doesn’t necessarily mean less is more.

Here are some reflections on LinkedIn's latest marketing research and expert views and three tips to get you thinking.

Let's dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Links mentioned in this episode:

My simple measurement framework:

https://henbe.co.uk/2022/06/30/ep-81-how-not-to-fail-at-comms-a-simple-measurement-framework/ 

LinkedIn research

https://pressgazette.co.uk/b2b-marketers-remain-positive-despite-economic-gloom/ 

We talk a lot about ‘goals’, especially at this time of the year, but often we are not clear on why we have chosen them, or how we will arrive at the outcome we want. Here are a few reasons why it’s important.

Setting a clear, actionable goal is the first step towards achieving success. It signals to yourself and others what you want to achieve, and mobilizes your resources towards making it happen. Without a goal, you might be working towards something that isn’t quite what you really want, or you might not be working at all. You might think you’re making progress when in reality you’re nowhere near your goal.

When you set a goal, you’re committing to working towards a result. This can be as simple as ‘I will complete this project by the deadline

So I am sharing with you why I think it’s important to set strategic goals regardless of what time of year it is and how you can go about it in a simple way.

Episodes mentioned in this podcast; Ep. 04 How to measure your comms impact

Let’s dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

ESG reporting is emerging as the most effective way for companies to build a positive reputation. This potentially means that PR and comms professionals are now being asked to become experts in environmental policy and other fields.

While this may sound like a huge challenge, it actually opens up a wealth of new opportunities for PR and comms pros in smaller businesses.

I haven't worked in the corporate world for some time, so I wanted to find out more on this topic, particularly how it relates to diversity and inclusion, not just the external factors that a company's operations may entail.

So today, I explore what this new lens through which reputations are being managed and judged means for PRs and reputation management and help PRs and comms pros in smaller businesses be aware of how this could affect day to day campaign planning.

Let's dive in!

Links mentioned in this episode: Grab my ‘No tissues’ reputation issues management guide

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource : Find out more here.

Hire my expertise, whether that's support with a one-off comms project or entire strategy for your business drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor  emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you'd like to work with me in a group of like-minded peers to develop your communication strategy through 1:1 work with me, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas and lots of accountability and up-skilling? then email me emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback in this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

In episode ten, I thought I would give you ten tips on how to make the most from speaking at events.

You can create a lot of authenticity and credibility by speaking at events. But it's essential, especially as we are all time-poor right now, to plan to make sure that the time spent away from the office is worthwhile.

This episode is for you if you are a seasoned pro or starting out as it acts as a helpful reminder of all the things to think about when speaking at an event to make it worthwhile for you, your biz or your brand, product or service.

I'd love it if you would please leave me a review and subscribe to be the first to listen each week.

You can also;

Get a FREE copy of seven simple steps to communication activity with impact

(https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/me4aassrqp)

Follow my Facebook page for daily tips and advice (https://www.facebook.com/commsthatworks) 

Remember when we dug deep into brand reputation and its importance in our previous episode? Well, today, we're taking it a step further as part of our reputation and insights series this month. Buckle up because we're exploring the captivating relationship between brand reputation, Gen Z, and the power of honest communication. And include 3 conversation starters to have honest and transparent communication around ESG.

In today's fast-paced and socially conscious world, brand reputation has become a crucial element for an organization's success. The incredible influence of Gen Z, the demographic cohort that follows Millennials, is shaping the reputation landscape.

Let's dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

I was asked to prove a theory on a stakeholder campaign recently. My first port of call? The UK census data. In the UK, we recently had a new Census in 2021, the first in ten years. The Office for National Statistics started releasing this data in June 2022, providing valuable demographic information for businesses and organisations alike. It's into the final last sets to be released, and there is a wealth of information for the taking for PR professionals.

Today I cover four reasons to use this data in your campaigns.

Let's dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor - emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

As someone who started life in Corporate Communications for a famous American credit card brand, I lived through the pain of Internal Communications as posters and internal launches through to a strategic function. Comms under Corporate Comms, but got moved to HR and back again, even 25 years ago.

Reflecting on these complexities and inspired by Jenny Field’s insightful "Chaos to Calm" model, and the podcast where we spoke about this, I delve into the strategic role of internal communication and its optimal positioning within a business.

So, let's dive in! 

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

One of the top three things people ask me is how you measure the effectiveness of your communication activity. My answer is that, without knowing what your current marketing and communications activities are, and how they are performing, it’s impossible to know where to focus your energy and resources. Lots of people trip up on this first step.

Many growing businesses struggle to generate enough revenue to keep their doors open. Even the most successful businesses often operate on a thin financial margin, making it difficult to invest in or make a case for the marketing, advertising, and customer service that can drive more business and increase sales. Just as you wouldn’t drive without checking your rearview mirror, you shouldn’t launch a marketing campaign without knowing where you are along the road.

So, in today’s podcast, I’m going to share a simple tool that will enable you to track your comms and measure how it performs, thus improving your outcomes.

Let’s dive in!

Links mentioned in today’s episode:

My simple measurement framework

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

I was surprised and saddened to see prioritisation skills and analytical skills low on the list of what challenges lie ahead for PR pros in 2022 in the CIPRs state of the nation report out this week. Is this because we've nailed it? or is it a lack of education on what the profession can do and is capable of, and people not seeing the link between core skills and specific industry skills?

One of the concerns flagged in the recent state of the PR nation report by the CIPR was the reputation of PR in the future - and well I think reputation and lack of recognised business skills are intrinsically linked. If we cannot prove that we have brains that can craft messages based on research and evidence and not just gut feel, surely that puts our knowledge and ability higher on the agenda?

If we are overworked due to not being able to prioritise (all the way up the management chain) then how will the reputation of the function ever improve?

There is also a surprising lack of skills being cited as a reason for slow recruitment. I wonder if the skills sought are those not being matched—too many writers and not enough project management and analytical skills, perhaps.

The CIPR is the only chartered body for PR Practitioners globally and has been conducting a report on trends and insights for over a decade. We haven't seen many shifts, but key things highlighted in the 2022 report published this week include; an increasing lack of diversity, poor working conditions and mental health, and a lot of movement in jobs, as well as the lack of skills available for those recruiting into roles.

So this episode focuses on skills and my opinions on what's important.

Let's dive in.

Links mentioned in his episode:

CIPR State of the Nation Report

The Productivity Planner

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise, whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work with me, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling? Then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Today I talk about how you can measure the effectiveness of your communication activity using a straightforward approach. I'll share why you should track your activities, how this approach can help support your business goals and save you money.

This is up there as one of the top things I get asked about by business leaders and comms people.  So listen and learn, and hit subscribe if you are listening on iTunes and leave me a review.

You can download the free activity tracker

Also here:

https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/1g85gwokl5

Make sure you also follow me on my Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/commsthatworks

How bubbling issues can impact your business reputation, and what you can do prevent it from happening.

Your reputation is by far the most valuable asset you will have as a business. It is a culmination of how you are perceived by everyone who interacts with your business or product/service from the general public to customers, staff, investors, and other people important to you biz.

In this episode, you will learn

• What reputation impact is
• How to implement a simple 6 step process to spot, monitor and mitigate potential reputation issues in your business 
• How by pre-empting bubbling issues and managing them effectively you can avoid a crisis hitting
  

Please leave me a review and subscribe to be the first to listen each week.

Get a FREE copy of my six-steps cheat sheet to managing reputation impact

(https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/me4aassrqp)

Connect with me on LinkedIn

(https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmadrake/)

OR follow my Facebook page for daily tips and advice (https://www.facebook.com/commsthatworks) 

In the last of the summer hacks series, I share with you how audio can help you with your content creation. Audio transcriptions services AI and automation for recording your voice have changed unrecognisably over the last ten years. You no longer need to write a blog. That’s right, you heard me!

I am going to talk to you today about why voice notes and audio can help you create quick and easy content for your business by sharing my own experiences of why I started my podcast.

Let’s dive in!

Links metioned in this episode:

How To Find Customers and Help Them Buy - New online resource now available, also here: https://commsthatworks.mykajabi.com/find-customers+help-them-buy

I recently spoke at an event for property marketers where I joined two other experts to discuss what has changed for property marketing in a post-pandemic world.  I thought I would share these insights with you today as the points around audience, community cohesion and the use of technology are relevant to any industry and provide some food for thought around where your communication strategy is now, and what you could do to improve it.

Let's dive in!

You can watch the webinar event that was the inspiration for this episode HERE

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business (also here: https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/n8xnx5bjj3 )

If you're new to marketing your business or need a refresher on audience insight, checkout How to find customers and help them buy from you’

Follow me on LinkedIn

PS – Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot.

Building on the recent Deep Dive with Adam Driver and January’s measurement and evaluation theme, I explore a bit more about how SEO can specifically help your PR campaigns.

In today's digital age, the landscape of Public Relations (PR) has transformed significantly, with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) emerging as a pivotal tool for gauging the effectiveness of PR campaigns. 

Let’s dive in!

Links mentioned today:

Deep Dive with Andy Barr: https://henbe.co.uk/2023/02/23/ep-114-deep-dive-with-andy-barr-all-things-digital-pr/

Following on from the topic of self-help coaching and mentoring this month, I thought I would talk a bit this week about how embarking on new projects in podcasting and how self-doubt has impacted this, and how coaching helped unblock me. These challenges, dominated by the whispers of imposter syndrome, have been a significant part of my professional journey. And has led me to talk to you here on my own podcast today

So let’s dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

I am a big fan of testing and learning. I started my career in a credit card company in corporate comms and marketing, and they 'invented' the balance transfer (yeah, it was that long ago!). One of the many things I learned from the amazing people I worked with there and taken forward into my career from that is the 'test and learn' philosophy. This approach is probably why I love working with growing businesses and startups so much.

A blended channel mix and trying new things should be part of every great comms plan. So I will give you three content types to try on 2022 if you haven't tried them already.

Let's dive in!

Links mentioned in this episode:

Invideo.com ; https://invideo.io/blog/video-marketing-statistics/

YouTube stats Think With Google https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-ca/advertising-channels/video/self-directed-learning-youtube/

Video stats HubSpot: https://research.hubspot.com/content-trends-global-preferences

Content Marketing Institute content to try in 2022: https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2021/11/fresh-content-types-marketer-consider/

What to do next:

Get my FREE 5 Lessons on how to use Audio as part of your B2B strategy https://bit.ly/B2BAudioLessons

OR grab my FREE 7 steps to success roadmap for strategic communication

Follow/DM me on LinkedIn : https://bit.ly/FollowMeLinkedIn

PS – Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot.

To continue the festive spirit, I've decided to focus on 12 comms tips for you over the 12 days of the Christmas period, from 25th December to 2nd January. So here are the first 6 to get you going!

These are short and snappy episodes to keep you going over the festive period to help you improve your comms.

Let's dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor - emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Welcome to today's episode, where we're diving into the world of crisis communication with an expert who's been on the front lines. Amanda Coleman shares her incredible journey, starting as a journalist and transitioning into key roles in the public sector, including her time at the Environment Agency and Merseyside Police. Amanda brings valuable insights from her extensive experience, including the pivotal role she played during the 2017 Manchester Arena terrorist attack.

In this conversation, Amanda emphasises how crucial crisis communication is in shaping operational responses and why organisations need clear communication plans that focus on empathy and authenticity. She also breaks down the impact of social media on crisis management and why it's essential to be ready for rapid response in today’s fast-paced world.

Whether you're in communications, crisis management, or simply curious about what it takes to navigate through tough situations, this episode is packed with takeaways you won't want to miss!

So, let's dive in! 

Today, I am delighted to welcome to the podcast Jo Twiselton, Human Change Specialist, executive coach, facilitator and fellow communication consultant.

Jo has worked with leaders and teams across the tech, transport, healthcare, manufacturing, media and services industries, helping them to emerge better from any change.

We talk about all aspects of self-help, mentoring and coaching.  It’s a great chat and I learned loads! So if you want a free coaching session tune in!

Jo is a qualified executive and wellbeing coach who helps empower leaders, managers, and teams who want to introduce positive transformation. 

How to get in touch with Jo:

www.twistconsultants.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jotwiselton/

Links:

LinkedIn post on the meaning of 'learning'

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jotwiselton_learning-coaching-organisationalchange-activity-7185660666706284544-7dig?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Executive Coaching services:

https://www.twistconsultants.co.uk/executive-coaching

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

In this third episode in the summer hacks series, I will cover some hacks around making social media content easier for you, whether you work in-house as part of a team or a solopreneur who needs to carve out more time for running your biz.

Do you find social media is taking up a lot of your time? You’re busy writing posts, creating graphics, possibly recording videos, and then you think posting would be quick but somehow you emerge 30 minutes later and think, ‘where did the time go?’

You might also find you’re posting for the sake of it. You’re not being intentional about what you are writing about.

Let’s dive in!

Links mentioned in this episode:

My new learning platform Comms 'That Works' (also here: https://commsthatworks.mykajabi.com/

Social media scheduling tools I mentioned in this episode:

SEMrush is an all-in-one digital marketing platform. It’s best known for its SEO and PPC toolkits, but it also has a Social Media toolkit, which includes the Social Media Poster tool.

SocialBee is a powerful social media scheduling platform that goes beyond scheduling and includes features like competitor research.

Sendible is an all-in-one social media management tool designed to help solopreneurs and agencies manage and amplify their brands.

MeetEdgar is a purpose-built social media scheduling and automation tool that makes it easy to publish your content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Buffer is a software application for web and mobile that lets you schedule content to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Linkedin from one dashboard.

Welcome to the 2022 summer hacks series! These are really short ‘food for thought’, bite-sized episodes, so you can dive in when you have a moment.  

I decided to focus on planning tips over the summer.  Why? Because when people think about comms planning, they often focus on what they are going to say. You have a great product or service and you want to tell people about it. Focusing on the message seems the logical first step. But before you start typing, let alone promoting your offer, there are some vital actions you need to take. 

I’m going to give you an overview of the 7 steps to effective comms planning over this summer hack series. I use this process with all my clients, whether it’s a brand new product or we’re marketing a built environment project.

First up is purpose and goals. 

Let’s dive in!

Links mentioned in this episode

My FREE Seven Steps Webinar - https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/free-webinar-7-steps-190722

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor - emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

With the technological advances of the 21st century, as communication professionals, we must adapt our skills to stay ahead of the curve. Trends in communication and public relations (PR) are constantly changing, and those who want to stay ahead of the game must be aware of the latest developments.

Today's short episode covers communication and PR trends to look out for in 2023.

Let's dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor - emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Another podcast about a podcast I hear you cry? Latest research carried out by a number of organisations, including Guardian Newspapers, The Literacy Trust and Buzzsprout, indicates that not only does podcast advertising command the highest levels of attention of any media channel, but podcast listens are up, people are more engaged in brands that have podcasts, and young people are also turning to podcasts.

The Guardian study found 65% of listeners paid attention to podcast adverts - more than adverts on TV at 39% and adverts on the radio at 38%.

And by all accounts, if it's worth spending money on, then the medium is worth exploring, whether paid or unpaid?

Aside from this, I am a huge advocate, and I am even imparting this info to you on a podcast as I know you are more likely to engage with the content.

And whilst there is lots of research out there on podcasts, it is a fairly new medium in that it's different to radio, for example, so all research is taken with a little bit of caution.

So, today I run over some of the reasons why it's essential to explore audio as part of your communication mix, as it is growing much-needed, whether that's in-house or external communication.

Let's dive in!

Links mentioned in this episode

The Guardian research on podcast advertising April 2022

BuzzSprout research May 2022

Statistica forecast UK listeners

Get 5 lessons from a podcast host Audio Book and Downloadable book + my 15 things to think about before starting

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource : Find out more here.

Hire my expertise, whether that's support with a one-off comms project or entire strategy for your business drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor  emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you'd like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work with me, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas and lots of accountability and up-skilling? Then email me emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback in this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

I recently missed out on attending 'it's a B2B Thing' over on LinkedIn with Stacey Meadwell and Ayo Abbas where, along with special guest Susie Lober, they talked all about repurposing content. So I thought I would re-release this episode all about why I think long-form content is your best friend right now and why it can help hugely with repurposing, and also tell you where you can catch up on it's a B2B Comms Thing podcast too.

I am going to cover today;

• What long-form content is
• How it helps you gain authority

We do It's a B2B Comms Thing live on the first Friday of every month, over on LinkedIn, then you can watch the podcast afterwards. Just follow me on LinkedIn to get a notification and sign up to watch the next one on 1st March.

Let's dive in!

Links mentioned in this episode:

Watch the B2B Comms Thing Podcast

Follow me on LinkedIn 

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business (also here: https://bit.ly/SevenSteps2Success )

Want to explore how I can help you? there are 3 main ways you can do this:

1. Listen to more episodes, download a resource or enrol in a mini-course: Find out more here.

2. Hire my expertise, whether that's support with a one-off comms project or entire strategy for your business drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  emma@henbe.co.uk

​3. Work with me closely in my Communication Strategy Lab 

If you'd like to work with me in a group of like-minded peers to develop your communication strategy through 1:1 work with me, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas and lots of accountability and up-skilling? then email me emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

The aim is to get your brand, products, and services in front of as many potential customers as possible, right? The more people you reach, the more chances you have to make a great first impression and turn a one-time buyer into a loyal fan.

But in our digital world, where we are exposed to an almost infinite number of ads and offers, it's getting harder and harder to cut through the noise and get noticed. One of the best ways to get noticed is by using a few key messages repeatedly in your content, so that customers start to associate your brand, product or service with those messages.

This is also why it's important to sell the sizzle and not the sausage, especially in B2B.

So today is a reminder of how important it is to remember who's buying or benefitting and why they should even bother listening, for every campaign you are working on. I cover my insights and tips on how and throw some examples for you too.

Let's dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource : Find out more here.

Hire my expertise, whether that's support with a one-off comms project or entire strategy for your business drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor  emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you'd like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work with me, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas and lots of accountability and up-skilling? Then email me emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback in this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Welcome to the 2022 summer hacks series Part Two! These are really short ‘food for thought’, bite-sized episodes, so you can dive in when you have a moment.  

I decided to focus on planning tips over the summer.  Why? Because when people think about comms planning, they often focus on what they are going to say. You have a great product or service and you want to tell people about it. Focusing on the message seems the logical first step, but before you start typing, let alone promoting your offer, there are some vital actions you need to take. 

The summer hacks is an overview of the 7 steps to effective comms planning. I use this process with all my clients, whether it’s a brand new product or we’re marketing a built environment project.

This is the final episode, all about reviewing how well you've done and why this is an important part of the process for future planning.

Let’s dive in!

I wanted to unpack in more detail a topic that I am also very passionate about in my everyday work—issues management. Having worked extensively in communications, I’ve seen firsthand how vital it is to identify and manage potential problems before they escalate into full-blown crises. It’s an area I’ve dedicated much of my focus to, helping organisations develop proactive strategies to address emerging issues and protect their reputations.

In a recent conversation with Amanda Coleman, we discussed some shared experiences in crisis communication, but this is a topic I’m deeply invested in myself. I wanted to share my perspective on why effective issues management is essential for any organisation and what I’ve learned throughout my career.

So, let’s dive in!

In today's episode, we'll be taking some notes from the deep dive and unpacking in more detail creativity related to your environment, and also procrastination. We'll uncover the challenges of creativity in comms and PR, the importance of choosing your battles wisely, and how seemingly unrelated factors can influence our creative prowess.

Here are a couple of things you may not know to weave into your strategy

Let’s dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Trade shows are not just about turning up and networking, they are an essential part of any B2B strategy.   There are so many touchpoints where you can have a ‘moment’ at trade shows, however big or small.  So today I cover how to create the right strategy for you.

Why? Because we are all time-poor, so as marketing and comms pros and business leaders we need to make sure that the time spent away from ‘the office’ is worthwhile.  

If you’re hosting a stand and/or speaking or both, this is true.   

This was the subject of the latest It’s B2B Comms Thing Live over on LinkedIn - so I also cover some of my co-hosts' insights as well Ayo Abbas and Stacey Meadwell.   You can watch the replay of that podcast HERE

I will cover;

• What actions should you take now before your trade show? 
• What’s the most important activities to prioritise during the event itself?  
• Mopping-up – most important tasks post-event

Let’s dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource : Find out more here.

Hire my expertise, whether that's support with a one-off comms project or entire strategy for your business drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor  emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you'd like to work with me in a group of like-minded peers to develop your communication strategy through 1:1 work with me, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas and lots of accountability and up-skilling? then email me emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback in this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

This is a VERY exciting time as the UK Census is published in earnest this week, which means up to date baseline data on the UK's population and habits over the last ten years.

Creating campaigns with insights and data at their heart can really help left-brain thinkers get behind a campaign, so internal sponsors, for example, it also means, more importantly, that your campaign is more likely to hit the mark with your audience.

One of my passions is data and insight. And the Census is about as interesting as it gets! It is a treasure trove of information about the nation's population and can be used in many ways.

The Census is the most extensive survey globally, in fact, carried out across many countries every ten years.

Importantly, this data also helps to better understand the demographics of the population, which is critical for marketing and communication purposes. And, it informs how we can talk to our audience better based on their habits and demographics.

Today you will learn; what demographic data is, why it's useful in campaigns and where to start.

Let's dive in!

Links mentioned in this episode:

The UK Census release schedule

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource : Find out more here.

Hire my expertise, whether that's support with a one-off comms project or entire strategy for your business drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor  emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you'd like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work with me, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas and lots of accountability and up-skilling? Then email me emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback in this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

This week we reflect on a recent ‘Deep Dive with Adam Driver to unpick a bit more around what SEO is, highlight its numerous benefits for comms folk and businesses, and emphasise how it should be integrated into a broader marketing strategy for optimal results.

Why? Well in today's digital age, having a strong online presence is crucial for any business looking to succeed. SEO is one of the most effective tools available to achieve this. However, it is often misunderstood and misused, leading to confusion and missed opportunities.

So let's dive in! 

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Audio is on the rise as a digital media with Amazon getting involved in streaming podcasts last year and the audio-only app Clubhouse's popularity.

It took me a while to fall in love with podcasting and understand the value it could bring to my business and my clients' businesses. But now I am completely hooked! So it seemed only right that for my first interview 'deep dive' episode, I wanted to share insights on podcasting and how it can help you grow your business, grow your reach, and grow your brand awareness.

So, I'm super excited this week to have Lynsay Gould on my show. Lynsay is a podcast and business coach and the founder of the Podcasting for Business Show. Lynsay runs a podcast production company called The Podcast Boutique and is the Podcasting for Business Awards founder. Lynsay helped me start my podcast and start the right podcast. And she's helped hundreds of men and women start theirs too.

So today you will learn;

• When is it a good time to start your podcast, and the right podcast?
• What are the biggest barriers?
• How you can use podcasts in your business as part of your communication strategy
• Personal learnings on how we have used a podcast in our businesses with success
• The wider and growing opportunities with audio including the Clubhouse app (sorry Andriod users you have to wait a bit for this is one!)

I'd love it if you would leave me a review and subscribe to be the first to listen each week.

You can also;

Get a FREE copy of seven simple steps to communication activity with impact

https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/me4aassrqp

Follow my Facebook page for daily tips and advice 

https://www.facebook.com/commsthatworks

Now that we're all back to work and most likely revved up with new goals and resolutions, I'm sharing this podcast again, as I can't emphasise enough the importance of goal-setting.

We talk a lot about ‘goals’, especially at this time of the year, but we are often unclear on why we have chosen them or how we will arrive at the outcome we want. So here are a few reasons why it’s essential.

Setting a clear, actionable goal is the first step towards achieving success. It signals to yourself and others what you want to achieve and mobilises your resources towards making it happen. Without a goal, you might be working towards something that isn’t quite what you want, or you might not be working at all. As a result, you might think you’re making progress when in reality, you’re nowhere near your goal.

When you set a goal, you commit to working towards a result. This can be as simple as ‘I will complete this project by the deadline. So I am sharing with you why I think it’s important to set strategic goals regardless of what time of year it is and how you can go about it simply.

Let’s dive in!

Episodes mentioned in this podcast; Ep. 04 How to measure your comms impact

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor - emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

To continue the festive spirit, I’ve focused on 12 comms tips for you over the 12 days of Christmas, from 25th December to 2nd January. Here are the final 6.

These are short and snappy episodes to keep you going over the festive period to help you improve your comms.

Let’s dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Full Transcript (unedited)

To continue the festive spirit, I’ve focused on 12 comms tips for you over the 12 days of Christmas, from 25th December to 2nd January. Here are the final 6.

These are short and snappy episodes to keep you going over the festive period to help you improve your comms.

Let’s dive in!

7. Manage the issues, not the crisis

If the global pandemic of 2020 is anything to go by, we know now that we cannot plan for acts of God. But, still, many bubbling issues within organisations were there when the pandemic hit, and what happened is it unveiled lots of these under-the-radar issues that have been hidden just beneath the surface. Like IT, ways of working, and operational and HR failures. And what lots of businesses realised at this point was that they had to supercharge their operations to deal with some of these issues that could have been dealt with previously.

8. PR isn’t just about column inches – no, really, it isn’t!

An important part of strategy creation should always include ensuring the strategy is aligned with the organisation’s culture. Not just in a strategic sense, though. We cannot change the culture through a PR strategy, just the perception of it, arguably, but it would be tricky to have a plan that contains newsjacking if the organisation is risk-averse.

We have to, therefore, find multiple ways to engage the audience in 2023 without conflicting with the culture of where we work or clients’ businesses.

9. Make your comms more accessible

We assume everyone can read. So Number one, reduce the need for alternative format versions. So writing clear English. Sounds obvious, but we all make this mistake, no doubt. And there’s lots of slang now, especially around social media posts and marketing.

Be as concise as possible, like short sentences that get to the point quickly. And design it to be as legible as possible. For example, using 14 typeface rather than 12 or 11, which quite a lot of us default to.

Think about using audio-first to engage with your audiences, as some disabilities are hidden from view.

By doing these three simple things, the information will be more accessible to a greater number of people straight away and may reduce demand for alternative versions.

10. Use photos in your press releases

From a consumer product media and trade media point of view, a good image is non-negotiable. If you send a pitch without one, it simply will not get looked at in the same way or tool. Journalists get thousands of emails every day. And a photo can be part of the filtering system. National media also use images as page holders and page turners, as they know that they add this to the story, and it’s their job to make it the best possible story it can be for the publication they’re working for and for their readers. It’s worth researching the publication you want to be in, as they will likely have a particular style. So as part of your strategic approach, you need to think about where we want to be pitched and what images they’ll be looking for. Also, see number 9 regarding accessibility.

11. Use technology and AI to help you be more efficient

From project management software to content planning calendars, many tools can help you with your comms planning and content generation. So choose wisely and make it a priority to include some new technology as part of your comms mix in 2023. AI is here to help, not hinder, and using it will help you to be more efficient.

I use a few; Canva, Calendly, Hyperwrite.ai, Buffer, and Trello. These are all powered by AI, and they all help me be more efficient.

12. Spend some time understanding your purpose

I talk about the “why” quite a lot on the podcast regarding how businesses talk to their customers and explain what they do in a way that resonates with people. The “why” is about understanding what your purpose is, I think. This purpose can translate well into external marketing and comms plans. In terms of what you are ultimately trying to achieve? If you’re a council, what’s your purpose, and how does that inform your communication goals? This takes some thought to make sure that your messages and activity align.

What would a successful campaign look like to you? You know what you want to achieve, but how will you know when you’ve done it? Without an overarching purpose, this is hard. Purpose is outcomes driven and can also be a much higher organising thought around climate or diversity. A lot of people are aligning ESG to purpose, for example. It also is a good way of aligning comms within the business so that the role is critical to success or failure, and it’s therefore seen as a strategic function, not about words and pictures.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my 12 Comms Tips of Christmas.

Every picture tells a thousand words, right? This week I share how using an image-led approach for your media strategy can be a game-changer for you. Why? I started my career as a photojournalist from Essex, UK, in the early 1990s, mostly working with music mags and creative portfolios before I trained in public relations and never looked back.

Here’s the thing, one of my first proper PR jobs was as a global PR manager for a technology consulting company, and I had some very technical topics to talk about let me tell you!

But, because of my background, I knew how important a good image was to getting featured in the media or not. Even if that was a bought stock image of that represents the context of what I was talking about. I made sure that every press release or media pitch had an image after that. And guess what? It works.

REGISTER INTEREST in my online learning and get my FREE cheat sheet which can guide your promotional activity in a strategic direction, saving you time, energy and money.

Also here:https://mailchi.mp/9903a79513e9/hzjh7aey22

You can also;

Please leave me a review on Apple Podcasts or my FB page @commthatworks as it helps others find the show and subscribe to be the first to listen each week.

Follow my Facebook page for daily tips and advice. 

Also here:https://www.facebook.com/commsthatworks

DM me on LinkedIn emmadrake or Twitter @_emmadrake or email info@henbe.co.uk

Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot

**When people hear information, they're likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later. (Brain Rules via Hubspot visual content stats April 2021)

If you're not sure what the opportunities are with a podcast, or you know but are uncertain about how it could fit in with your communication strategy, then this episode today is for you.

You will learn;

• How audio content is here to stay
• How play-on-demand content can help your business
• Why it could be a useful part of your strategy

Ready to start your podcast? Join Lynsay Anne's Start Your Podcast in A Day course (link also here: https://lynsayanne.firstpromoter.com/signup/8145 

Sources mentioned in this episode:

• Radio Joint Audience Research (RAJAR) Spring 2020
• Infinite Dial 2021
• My Podcast Reviews stats, via Apple Podcast statistics

You can also;

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business (also here: https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/n8xnx5bjj3 )

OR

Follow my Facebook page for daily tips and advice. 

Also here:https://www.facebook.com/commsthatworks

PS - Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot

It was the 100th episode of the podcast recently. To say that the 100th episode of the podcast is special would be an understatement. I've poured my heart and soul into it, so I'm so proud of what I've accomplished. In honour of this milestone, I've decided to take a look back at the past 100 episodes in this “101” episode. The first episode was released on 3rd December 2020.

I will cover; why I started the podcast, what's been popular with listeners and what topics have stood the test of time and why.

Let's dive in!

Liked Listening today? What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further. You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Webinars and live events allow you to make a personal connection with your audience. Whether you're trying to reach existing customers about a product or service or build up your brand awareness, these online platforms can be a great way to get your message in front of the right people.

Live webinars and events allow you to speak directly to people and respond to their questions. This format provides the opportunity to build a personal connection with an audience, which is vital in today's age of impersonal marketing.

Today I share how to utilise this for your B2B content, talk a bit about my experience of LinkedIn Lives as a platform for doing this in B2B, and look at some of how you can use pre-recorded content.

Let's dive in!

Links mentioned in today's episode:

How to reach your audience online with Hybrid events 'Deep Dive'

It's A B2B Comms Thing youtube channel

If you liked this episode please share it with one person!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource : Find out more here.

Hire my expertise, whether that's support with a one-off comms project or entire strategy for your business drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor  emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you'd like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work with me, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas and lots of accountability and up-skilling? then email me emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback in this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Continuing celebrations for the podcast's one year birthday, I reflect on what's been popular and successful for marketers in B2B in terms of content and where your focus should be in 2022.

I cover,

Understanding your audience's preferences or 'audience-led content' what to focus on and how to engage your audience effectively, how to prioritise and when to say; no, it's not working let's move on.

Let's dive in!

This episode content was first featured in It's a B2B Content Thing on LinkedIn live WATCH IT HERE:  https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/652904803

What to do next?

Treat yourself to my strategic planning resource bundle of templates and guides to help you plan 2022 HERE: https://bit.ly/CTW_Resources

How do you make an impact when you don’t have time to create content or run a campaign?

There’s a simple action you can take which won’t take long at all but will keep you top of mind on – repurposing your resources.

Today I cover how repurposing can save you time, money and effort, and help you win big in the longer term!

Let’s dive in!

Liked Listening today? What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further. You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely.

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

A crisis communication plan before you need one can be daunting—everything from when to write one and how to get engagement on it. But it doesn't have to be, so today; I run through a quick ten-point checklist you can use to get going, however small or big your business is.

I cover:

• What to do before you start

• My ten-point checklist

• My biggest tip

• Share lots of links and my free download so make sure you check the show notes

Let's dive in!

Listen to episode 72 of the podcast for how to work with stakeholders for brand advocacy.

Links for this episode:

View or listen to my free summary guide: https://mailchi.mp/811ad97adf7a/doyouneeedacrisisplan  

Listen to Episode 72 on stakeholders: https://henbe.co.uk/2022/04/28/ep-72-why-you-need-stakeholders-and-advocacy-to-be-an-integral-part-of-your-pr-strategy/ 

Amanda Coleman is the author of Effective Communication Strategies - get her book

Andy Barr is an expert in handling crises, especially with the media - get in touch

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor - emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Artificial Intelligence and PR are becoming increasingly intertwined as we grapple with the pros and cons in real-time. As professionals, we recognise the immense potential of leveraging this technology to enhance strategies and deliver more impactful messages to their target audience. I find I am using it more and more as I find new tools and think 'oh yeah, is there an AI for that?'

In this episode, we will delve into the various ways AI can be used in public relations, not listing the tools but the how -  focusing on three key areas: sentiment analysis, chatbots, and automated content creation. 

These AI-powered tools are revolutionising the PR & Comms landscape, enabling us to gain deeper insights, engage in real-time conversations, and streamline content creation processes.

Let's dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Recently I gave a talk at a communications conference with a colleague, a filmmaker, on how film can change the narrative for a topic or issue and highlight your brand in a new and unusual way- in this case, the housing agenda in the UK. 

As some of you who listen regularly will know, my consulting business focuses on providing communication strategies for built environment projects and firms.  Our big area of expertise is placemaking communications and this means simply, telling the story of places where people live, in particular, new and emerging places that may not have an established identity, like an existing town or city.

So today I give an overview of how film can be used as part of your communication strategy, using a case study from my work, bringing places and communities to life and changing a negative narrative into a positive one.

So, let’s dive in!

It's been an odd time. It's been a time to reflect and review recent events in a few areas of my life and work. I've some new business opportunities I am working on and rethinking how I work and when. Sometimes you just need to change it up, but it's also good to reflect on how I spend my time at work and home to see if being more thoughtful about approaching this could improve anything.

I also have a teenager in the house, and trying to help them think about how to improve their behaviour led me to reflect on what has worked well for me and how it might work well for them. I also like to Champion not just essential skills on this podcast for our industry and profession but also approaches and ideas to help us feel better, work better and reach our personal goals as humans.

Reflection time is something we all talk about, and there is evidence to support that it can help improve our well-being by allowing us to reflect on thoughts and emotions and the actions we've taken. It can also help us identify areas in which we could improve.

So today, I cover reflective thinking and some tips on how it can improve your comms strategy and general well-being.

Let's dive in.

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Links in this episode:

Sketchnotes https://www.sketchnotes.co.uk/ 

OneNote (Microsoft Office needed)

MindMap apps (App Store)

Bullet Journal https://bulletjournal.com/ 

Remarkable 2 https://remarkable.com/

One of the top three things people ask me is how you measure the effectiveness of your communication activity. My answer is that, without knowing what your current marketing and communications activities are, and how they are performing, it's impossible to know where to focus your energy and resources. Lots of people trip up on this first step.

Many growing businesses struggle to generate enough revenue to keep their doors open. Even the most successful businesses often operate on a thin financial margin, making it difficult to invest in or make a case for the marketing, advertising, and customer service that can drive more business and increase sales. Just as you wouldn't drive without checking your rearview mirror, you shouldn't launch a marketing campaign without knowing where you are along the road.

So, in today's podcast, I'm going to share a simple tool that will enable you to track your comms and measure how it performs, thus improving your outcomes.

Let’s dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor - emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

A recent report from Muckrack on PR measurement stated that more than 94% of PR Pros agree that media placements were a top priority in 2021—and that will remain largely unchanged in 2022

The report from the global media platform unveils how PR pros measured success in 2021, plus their plans and predictions for 2022. Disappointingly, for me, there is a huge focus on media placements. Those of you that have listened to the podcast before will know this, but PR is not all about media placements!

So today I wanted to share with you how you can measure the success, or failure, of your PR plan so you can invest in the right team, activities and resources to reach your business goals and not be fixed in the groove of placing media stories. Spoiler alert - it’s not all about getting in the press.

You will learn:

Three reasons why you should measure your PR activity, top tips for getting started and why quality, not quantity, should be your driver.

Links mentioned in the episode:

My Activity Tracker: https://bit.ly/TrackActivity

MucRack's report: https://info.muckrack.com/state-of-pr-measurement-2021-research

Further listening:  Episode 05 https://henbe.co.uk/2020/12/17/ep-05-how-and-when-to-use-public-relations-in-your-business/

Get in touch

Follow/DM me on LinkedIn : https://bit.ly/FollowMeLinkedIn

PS – Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot.

Using the media is a great way to get your message across.  Press releases are one of the most common ways to do this.

They’re an excellent way to get your news out to journalists quickly and easily. They’re also a great way to provide journalists with information about your company, product or service quickly and easily. This makes the

Press releases are, however, just one tool in the media toolkit.  Today I share seven ways you can utilise the media as part of your strategy and some of my personal experiences of using them too.

Let’s dive in!

Links mentioned in this episode:

Every picture tells a story

Using newsjacking successfully

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource : Find out more here.

Hire my expertise, whether that's support with a one-off comms project or entire strategy for your business drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor  emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you'd like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work with me, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas and lots of accountability and up-skilling? then email me emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback in this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

In-person events are looking likely to be coming back this year, thank goodness; it’s reassuring to see audiovisual companies and venues starting to gear up to get full and busy again.

It’s tempting right now to go ‘hell yes!’ Let’s have an event! Everyone is desperate for interaction, but events are costly, so it’s important to think about your end goal when setting out to raise your profile through an in-person event.

I cannot wait to get back to events, and I am also considering having one of my own this year. But people will increasingly want more value from attending I think, so how do you put on an event that has your business goals at its heart whilst delivering value to your potential and existing customers?

I wanted to do a few short episodes during August that were super-short that you could binge on and save you some time and effort over the summer months. I am calling this a ‘summer hacks series’. Today’s episode is all about repurposing your content.

How do you make an impact when you don’t have time to create content or run a campaign?

There’s a simple action you can take which won’t take long at all but will keep you top of mind – repurposing your resources.

I will cover today;

What is repurposing?
Where to start with repurposed content?

Links in this episode:

How To Find Customers and Help Them Buy - New online resource now available, also here: https://commsthatworks.mykajabi.com/find-customers+help-them-buy

The world we live in is changing at an unprecedented rate: Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and the Internet of Things are transforming our economy and society; renewable energy is gaining momentum; and millions of people are calling for a better way of doing business.

All of this means that businesses have a number of communications challenges. This episode highlights the unique opportunities and challenges faced by communicators in terms of skills and how communications professionals can help businesses with their internal and external comms in 2022 and beyond.

What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business (also here: https://bit.ly/SevenSteps2Success )

Follow me on LinkedIn

We all see so many messages each day. On tv, mobiles phones, social media, online, at work etc. So to have an impact, you have to make sure that your content cuts through and speaks directly to who you are targeting.

In this episode, I explain how to work out who your ideal audience is for your content, and where they are hanging as I unpick in more detail Step Three & Four of my Seven Simple Steps to Effective Communication Activity with Impact.  

You will learn how to implement these two steps and gain tools and insights into each of these steps so that you can understand more about how to define your audience and reach them effectively.

Get a FREE copy of seven simple steps to communication activity with impact

(https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/me4aassrqp)

I'd love it if you would please leave me a review and subscribe to be the first to listen each week.

You can also;

Follow my Facebook page for daily tips and advice (https://www.facebook.com/commsthatworks) 

Connect with me on LinkedIn

(https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmadrake/)

Some of the most important skills for a public relations professional are lifelong ones. You can't learn all the knowledge you'll need in a few months of school or a few years of experience. 

Instead, we need to keep our skills up to date. This not only helps us learn new things, but it also keeps us competitive in our specialised field of work.

But how do you know what skills you need or where to focus your time? Today, I run through what skills I consider to be top of the pack when it comes to keeping up to date and how a skills audit can be a really effective place to start for you or your team.

It’s back to school for a lot of us across the world, but especially in the UK, so I thought I would spend some time talking about skills today, how you identify what you need and what’s hot to skill up on.

Let's dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Afer the success of the 'summer hacks' series, I thought I would do another one to give you some quick hacks to help you at this busy end of year period.

This is episode one of three and focuses on reviewing and assessing your success from 2021 in order to plan 2022. Reviewing and measuring your impact means you can hire an effective team, you can focus your budget and effort where it's needed, and you will start to see better results.

The great thing about this episode is it can be used for your personal life goals as well as work. What do you need to do to hit your goals in 2022?

let's dive in!

Download my free resource to help you start recording your activity to effectively plan for 2022 nd beyond!:

My Activity Tracker: https://bit.ly/TrackActivity

Get in touch

Follow/DM me on LinkedIn : https://bit.ly/FollowMeLinkedIn

PS – Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot.

Automation and artificial intelligence is becoming a big part of PR and Comms and marketing, often carrying out and replacing everyday tasks in the digital marketing space in particular, but it is much more far-reaching than scheduling a few social media posts.

As teams get back to work in earnest in 2021 and work generally ramps up for us all, automation tools can be really effective at helping us get set up super quick and automate some of those everyday tasks.

The AI market is projected to be worth $16 billion by 2022, so this is an especially exciting time to bring automation to your brand or business or both..

So today, I cover some of the key communication tools that I use and give you some tips on getting started.

Links in this episode;

Grammarly

Buffer

Mailchimp

Mailerlite

Answer the public

Pocket

Google trends

I am a bit of a research nerd. A lot of strategy work I undertake for customers is grounded in data and insights. Why is this so important?

A lot of communication is for communication's sake, and in a world where we are all overwhelmed with content more than ever, we should focus on what matters and why. Only producing communication that supports our business or purpose (or both)

So today I wanted to share with you why you should be planning your communication activity and not sailing into it hoping for a happy accident.

You will learn

- Why research is important to set yourself up to succeed

- How communication is a support function of your business 

- Why goal setting is important

Links mentioned in this episode:

Are you a goal digger?

https://henbe.co.uk/2020/12/01/ep-02-are-you-a-goal-digger-why-you-need-to-set-communication-goals/

Tax Made Easy

https://archive.thedrumprawards.com/the-drum-pr-awards-2020/b2b/making-tax-easy

The Used Kitchen Company

https://ciprawards.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/1.-Corporate-and-Business-Comms-003.pdf

In today's business world, the ability to anticipate and respond to disruptive challenges - both internal and external - is essential. A comprehensive business continuity and resiliency plan can help you anticipate and manage these challenges, ensuring that your business can weather any storm. And when disruptions do occur, a robust public relations program can help you protect and defend your company's reputation.

I have covered a number of topics that relate to business resilience planning in a communication context in this podcast, such as understanding who your competitors are, how to anticipate and manage disruption challenges, and how to communicate your plan and engage stakeholders along the way. Today I'm bringing this together into an episode that gives this all a badge and added some free downloads and resources for you at the end, so look out for those.

You'll learn what business resilience is and how to take some small steps to communication planning, whatever the size of your business.

Let's dive in!

Additional links and downloads:

If you’re a creative business or Agency check out Wadds Inc's free Strategic Planning and Crisis Preparedness report: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6316046fe5302f1a8f8f41c2/t/6340194579013c1db5cdf27a/1665145160000/Wadds-strategic-planning-and-crisis-preparedness-report-2022.pdf 

Amanda Coleman has some great advice in this reasonably priced book; Everyday Communication Strategies: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Everyday-Communication-Strategies-Prevent-Protect/dp/1398606979 

Check out my reputation management resource page on my website: https://henbe.co.uk/projects/protect-your-brand/ 

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor - emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

If there’s one thing I’m truly passionate about, it’s the built environment. I believe that developments aren’t just about bricks and mortar—they’re about creating spaces where people feel at home, where communities grow, and where memories are made.

That’s why I love what I do. Some of you who listen may know that Placemaking Communications is my passion, and it’s all about helping developers and communities connect through meaningful, thoughtful communication. It’s not just about promoting a development; it’s about crafting a story and building a sense of identity that turns a project into a place people love.

In this episode I speak about what it is, why it matters, and why you need a strategy. 

So, let's dive in! 

Using owned content, such as blogging, is a powerful tool for generating awareness about your business. It's also an effective way to build a brand, generate traffic, and position yourself as an industry expert. 

In addition, as you think about how you want to build your brand, you should also consider how you want to build your audience, and whilst there are a number of different ways to reach potential customers, one of the best ways is to provide them with content they can't get anywhere else. This helps to build the 'know, like, trust factor.

But I think owned content is underused and undervalued by B2B businesses.

So today's episode explores why owned content is a must for your PR plans and an introduction to something called the PESO model for using content.

Let's dive in.

Links mentioned in this episode:

https://spinsucks.com/communication/peso-model-breakdown/

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor. 

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work with me, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Ben has been working with GenAI at Bidwells since early 2022, determined to focus on the art of the possible. Having seen a few technological shifts in a 20-year career as a journalist, public affairs consultant and PR professional, Ben quickly recognised this one as the most seismic.  

So when ChatGPT landed in late 2022 his team were already using AI tools each day to transcribe interviews, edit videos and create content. Since then, Ben has been focused on leading AI adoption across his business and speaks regularly on the topic.

His team won Best Use of AI in the 2023 B2B Marketing Awards after delivering a four-figure ROI for their AI adoption work.

So let's dive in!

Links mentioned in this episode:

Descript - https://www.descript.com/

Fireflies - https://fireflies.ai/

Japer - https://www.jasper.ai/

ChatGPT Team -https://openai.com/chatgpt/team

Microsoft CoPilot -https://news.microsoft.com/reinventing-productivity/

Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benlee22uk/

This week, I want to talk to you about creating a great brief and not wasting time, effort, and energy when hiring someone to help you with PR.

No one wants to waste time, effort and money. So here are four things to think about when writing a brief to stand the best chance of getting the results you need.

Everyone needs help at some point with specific skills and expertise; flying solo on everything means you are spreading yourself thin. I can relate as I run my own business, and there comes a time when you have to write a clear brief to get a good brief for someone to help you.

GET YOUR FREE CHEAT SHEET to guide your promotional activity in a strategic direction, saving you time, energy and money.

Also here:https://mailchi.mp/9903a79513e9/hzjh7aey22 

You can also;

Please leave me a review on Apple Podcasts or my FB page @commthatworks as it helps others find the show and subscribe to be the first to listen each week.  Follow my Facebook page for daily tips and advice. 

 Also here:https://www.facebook.com/commsthatworks

Follow me on LinkedIn_emmadrake or Twitter @_emmadrake

PS - Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot?

When planning a PR campaign, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the competitive landscape. By taking a detailed look at key competitors, their strengths and weaknesses, and their PR strategies, you can gain valuable insights into what works and what doesn't in your industry.

Furthermore, analysing your competition can enable you to identify opportunities that your organisation can gain from, or gaps in the market that have yet to be filled. In short, understanding your competition permits you to create a more effective and impactful PR plan that speaks to your target audience and sets your organisation apart from its competitors.

Today I look at 5 ways you can do this.

Let’s dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor - emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

If you want to make an impact in 2023, you need to measure your impact. Doing this will help you hire an effective team, budget and focus your efforts where you need them most, and start to see better results. But it's not just for work; use this episode to review your personal goals too!

Let's dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor - emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Do you wish more people were telling their friends about your company? When people are looking for recommendations on LinkedIn, you wish your name was being tagged. 

When someone at an industry event is asking for examples of people in your niche, you want your brand to come up in the conversation.

What about when things do not go to plan? A network of trusted people can also help test your response in a crisis and help you out of a reputation hole.

One way to do this is through finding brand advocates, those who rave about how good you are when the going is good and when it’s not so good.

Today I delve into this topic with a focus on crisis management and stakeholders and give tips on what to think about before you start, whatever your programme.

Let’s dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

I wanted to talk about productivity.  I've been asked about this by a few people recently, and there's been some chatter on social media about how some of us are struggling with creativity, focus and productivity during the lockdown in the UK (and globally) so this is a little bonus episode all about a technique I've been using that I thought I would share with you. Hopefully, it helps!

The Productivity Planner combines Most Important Task First (The Ivy Lee method) with the Pomodoro Technique, which uses timed slots to complete tasks. 

I got my planner from Intelligent Change. Head over to their website: (https://www.intelligentchange.com/products/the-productivity-planner)

And bag one for yourself with this discount code!:  LetsDoThis5

In this episode, you will learn'

• How I use this technique to power through my to-do list each day and week
• How to prioritise what needs to be done (not what you think needs to be done)
• To feel more satisfied and accomplished at the end of the day
• How you can use this for your daily comms planning

I'd love it if you would please leave me a review and subscribe to be the first to listen each week.

You can also;

Get a FREE copy of seven simple steps to communication activity with impact

(https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/me4aassrqp)

Follow my Facebook page for daily tips and advice (https://www.facebook.com/commsthatworks) 

We need to be inspired to feel creative and fulfilled because, without inspiration, we may not be able to produce the best work possible. If we don't have the drive to do our best, then what is the point?

This inspiration can come from many different sources, but one of the most important is our own personal experiences. We can gain inspiration from our own life experiences, other people we know, or even things we see in the world. We need to be inspired to feel creative and fulfilled because if we aren't, we will likely become bored with our work and stop producing good results.

I was at a swimming event with my daughter recently, and we had the privilege of meeting some of her current swimming heroes and Olympians. Hearing their words and stories has inspired this podcast episode today, where I will talk about how to get creative in your ‘every day’, and improve your creativity at work.

Let's dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

ITV recently added an audio blog for their contestants on Love Island in a move to make their content more accessible after criticism that it wasn't accessible to all. So this week I discuss audio-first content creation and how it boosts accessibility. If you want to learn more, stay tuned as we delve into how you can use the power of sound to reach and engage with a broader audience.

Let's dive in!

Links mentioned in this episode: https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/the-role-of-audiobooks-to-engage-reluctant-readers-and-underrepresented-children-and-young-people/

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Have you got a plan to build trust with your audience or just a communication plan? Good Public Relations (PR) is about creating trust in your brand. It's a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organisations and their public or audiences. Ethical public relations practices seek the truth and provide accurate and balanced information.

However, this is increasingly difficult in our current age. The internet has allowed for a free flow of information that has led to a new level of transparency between people, businesses and consumers.

This podcast today is inspired by a particularly challenging week communicating with my teenager and the perils of social media they are exposed to daily.

Let's dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Lynn PR Misinformation Cell / definitions:​​https://lynn.global/welcome-to-the-misinformation-cell/ 

BBC Education Survey: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/61856053 

Telling your sustainability story is an essential part of any business model and a growing area for us communications professionals. By telling this story, we're helping to create a strong connection with customers on this topic and helping establish that credibility.

As we move into 2023, I think this topic is becoming even more relevant and important as businesses look to even monetise sustainability and see it as an opportunity of jumping on the bandwagon. There are two important reports launched recently. And I think they're proof of this.

UK Minister Chris Skidmore launched Mission Zero and his report; and the Confederation of Business Industry (CBI), just released a report on mapping the net zero economy.

I think this proves this topic needs to be high on our agenda as communications professionals. We need to be sure we're communicating this story in an authentic and compelling way focusing on the impact of the initiatives, rather than individual products or services – or waving company flags. So here are some of my thoughts on this topic this week. 

Let's dive in. 

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor - emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

This week in the UK is national Work-life week promoted by Working Families - the UK's work-life balance charity. Work-life balance is a tricky subject, right? I think it is a modern dilemma where we need to balance life and work as more parents have working households, not just one person bringing in a salary. The 'life' part doesn't have to include kids. It can also mean creating a balance and space from a job.

I wanted to raise some awareness of this today for communications people out there and share my thoughts and experiences on this topic spurred on by this charity's work and some recent feedback from my network about how they create work-life balance. I wanted to raise the topic from a certain angle, mine, and provide you with some tips and advice based on getting it wrong over many years!

I have also created a 'productivity stack' for you.

Let's dive in!

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business (also here: https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/n8xnx5bjj3 )

If you're new to marketing your business or need a refresher, checkout my bite-sized digital course on my learning platform 'Comms That Works'; How to find customers and help them buy from you’

Follow me on LinkedIn

PS – Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot.

PR is not just about promoting your business; it's about protecting your fledgeling reputation. I share with you why crisis plans are not just for big corporates, why you need one whatever size your business is and show you how simple it can be to get started.

It's important to have a plan for when things might go a little bit wrong, however big or small your business is; whether that's a product that you've had to recall, a service that wasn't delivered effectively, or if the IT fails in your online business.

So in this episode, you will learn

• What a crisis plan is and why you need one
• Tips on how to create your own simple plan

Let's dive in!

I'd love it if you would leave me a review and subscribe to be the first to listen each week.

You can also;

Get a FREE copy of seven simple steps to communication activity with impact

https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/me4aassrqp

Follow my Facebook page for daily tips and advice 

https://www.facebook.com/commsthatworks

Welcome to the 2022 summer hacks series Part Two! These are really short ‘food for thought’, bite-sized episodes, so you can dive in when you have a moment.  

I decided to focus on planning tips over the summer.  Why? Because when people think about comms planning, they often focus on what they are going to say. You have a great product or service and you want to tell people about it. Focusing on the message seems the logical first step, but before you start typing, let alone promoting your offer, there are some vital actions you need to take. 

The summer hacks is an overview of the 7 steps to effective comms planning. I use this process with all my clients, whether it’s a brand new product or we’re marketing a built environment project.

Part two is about implementation, review, and evaluation.  This is the first episode of Part Two all about getting your message out there - this is often where people start! 

Let’s dive in. 

Links mentioned in this episode

My FREE Seven Steps Webinar - https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/free-webinar-7-steps-190722 

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Feb is all about bringing you some productivity hacks, and we kick off tackling overthinking, which has always been a struggle for me. If you've ever found yourself caught in an endless loop of worry, anxiety, and self-doubt like I have, then How to Stop Overthinking: The 7-Step Plan to Control and Eliminate Negative Thoughts, Declutter Your Mind and Start Thinking Positively in 5 Minutes or Less by Chase Hill (yes, it's a long title!) might just be the guide you need.

This book offers a structured and actionable approach that helped me break free from my overactive mind and foster a healthier mindset.  I also have a fast processing speed, which means I am often ahead of myself and my thoughts, which is great for problem solving and strategy work, but can lead to a by-product of revisiting thoughts over and over, sounds like you? 

Stay tuned for 2 more productivity-themed podcasts in Feb!

Let's dive in!

I wanted to talk to you today about the importance of fostering business relationships in B2B when building your brand from scratch.  I reveal why this approach is not just for big consumer brands.

Getting people to tell your story for you is a powerful way to build trust and credibility. It’s tough when you start out because no one knows you, you may be new in a market or have some new way of doing things or competing in a very established industry.

I am going to cover with you today;

• Why you should use business relationships and key influencers to help build your brand and 
• How this can form part of your overall strategy

HERE is the cheat sheet I mention in this episode. (also here: https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/iwktvyr6cb)

You can also;

Please leave me a review on Apple Podcasts or my FB page @commthatworks as it helps others find the show and subscribe to be the first to listen each week.  Follow my Facebook page for daily tips and advice. 

 Also here:https://www.facebook.com/commsthatworks

Follow me on LinkedIn_emmadrake or Twitter @_emmadrake

PS - Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot?

Networking and expanding your networks is a great way to bring in new business if you're in B2B. Whether you're a freelancer or working for another business, introducing your company and connecting with like-minded people can bring in opportunities.  

I am always surprised at the number of events people go to where they spend most of the time with people they know. There are several reasons why this is a bad idea if you want to extend your network.  

Plus, I am always amazed at how much better I feel from making an effort to meet new people, over the prospect of not having to! This is always a dilemma if you're not an extrovert. It's surprising the number of opportunities that arise just by talking to people about your business or the business you are in.

The important thing is to have a bit of a plan. So today I am talking about how to increase your networks to bring in new business and also increase awareness of your brand, product or service.

Let's dive in!

Links mentioned in today’s episode

Build Your Own Brand Fans - my simple guide to building strategic relationships for business:  https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/iwktvyr6cb

Liked Listening today? What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

Firstly, I wanted to note the sad passing of Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II recently, which has been felt worldwide, not just in the UK. She always captured the hearts and minds of her audience when she undertook her Queen's Speech and at other times in our history. 

It was national Roal Dahl story week this week in the UK, and I was thinking about how this topic is increasingly important for leaders of state, nations, and for brands in an increasingly noisy, politically challenging, and divisive world. Storytelling has long been a part of human communication. It is an important tool for conveying a message, preserving culture, and connecting people.

For brands, storytelling can be a powerful way to connect with audiences and create an emotional connection.

So today I delve into storytelling a little more and explore how it is used every day by brands to connect deeper, and some tips on how to get started or refine your own message.

Let's dive in.

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor – emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

In this episode In this episode, I run through my seven simple steps to success for planning effective communication activity. You will learn:

1. The seven steps I use for simple yet effective communication activity planning
2. How and why this can help you achieve results and more impact
3. Why it’s important now, especially when resources and budgets are tight

And, how by following these straightforward steps, you can ensure that your activity is relevant, needed and effective in supporting your business goals AND your budget.

Get a copy of the 7 simple steps cheat-sheet and create your own plan.

Listen to Ep.04 for more on how to measure your comms impact

I'll be unpacking each of these steps in more detail over the coming months here on my podcast and through StratChat my monthly email 

If you follow me on social media, you will know that I have recently had a bad customer service experience. It got me thinking about how brands can easily get it wrong if the back-office function is not connected to the brand message.

Public relations is about managing and protecting your reputation as a business, and how you handle customers is a huge part of that. It can make or break a customer's experience of your business or brand.

More and more brands are turning to a digital customer experience, and that's great, and some are nailing it. But it's not all plain sailing right? When we buy into a 'brand promise', we don't expect it to break as soon as you start interacting with the back-office functions.

So today I will cover a few things to think about how digital customer service can affect your hard-earned reputation if not managed as part of your public relations plan.

Links in this episode:

Top Customer Service Expectations and How To Succeed Them

You can also;

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business (also here: https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/n8xnx5bjj3 )

Checkout my bite-sized digital course; How to find customers and help them buy from you’

Follow my Facebook page for daily tips.

PS – Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot.

Spring marks a new beginning in many ways and is sometimes close to the end of the financial year. It's an opportunity to spring clean your mind, your workspace, and your plans and figure out what could help you spring forward into the next few weeks and months.

Today's episode is a quick guide on reviewing your plan, cleaning your workspace, tidying your mind and looking more holistically rather than just refreshing your current strategy and tactics.

We will cover the following;

- How to Get Started

- Evaluating Your Current Plan

- Listen to Outside Advice

- Set Your Personal and Biz Goals

- Tweak Your Tactics

- Upgrade Your Technology

- Streamline Your Workspace

- Block Off Time for Reviewing

Let's dive in!

Links mentioned in this episode:

My top ten tools podcast episode: https://henbe.co.uk/2022/12/15/ep-105-top-ten-tools-for-efficiency-and-time-saving/

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor - emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

I wanted to share with you today how one fantastic piece of long-form content can serve you well for a few different reasons and fill your content calendar in one sitting.

I am going to cover with you today;

• What long-form content is (and isn't)
• How it helps you gain authority 

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with activity in your business (also here: https://mailchi.mp/henbe.co.uk/n8xnx5bjj3 )

You can also;

Please leave me a review on Apple Podcasts or my FB page @commthatworks as it helps others find the show and subscribe to be the first to listen each week. Follow my Facebook page for daily tips and advice. 

 Also here:https://www.facebook.com/commsthatworks

DM me on LinkedIn emmadrake or Twitter @_emmadrake or email info@henbe.co.uk

PS - Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot

Steven Bartlett inspires this week's podcast. And it's all about personal PR. This phrase resonated with me, so I wanted to share my thoughts with you on this subject. 

You can have the best communication strategy, but you reach no one with your message if no one is listening.  

I learned the hard way. I was young, ambitious, and didn't have many great role models when I started work. Women role models were dominant boardroom archetypes, or I had male role models. I realised that I needed to create an excellent profile to get on in life. But building credibility in your job is hard.

If you work in-house, you need credibility to be heard to get your point across in meetings. If you are running a small business, you also need to do these two things. Personal credibility is the difference between getting referred for work or not as a freelance consultant. So these are hugely overlooked components of creating an effective strategy for your business.

I decided for me this podcast has three parts;

• Staff as your biggest ambassadors
• Building personal credibility
• How credibility can help you build external brand ambassadors

Let's dive in!

Links mentioned in the episode today;

Steven Barlett's LinkedIn post

HR Director article / research

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business

Explore how I can help you, there are 3 main ways you can do this:

1. Listen to more episodes, download a resource or enrol in a mini-course: Find out more here.

2. Hire my expertise, whether that's support with a one-off comms project or entire strategy for your business drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  emma@henbe.co.uk

​3. Work with me closely in my Communication Strategy Lab 

If you'd like to work with me in a group of like-minded peers to develop your communication strategy through 1:1 work with me, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas and lots of accountability and up-skilling? then email me emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

There are some huge events in the Spring calendar.  I’m currently working on a big event for a client and it reminded me of this episode as I am busily briefing sponsors and speakers about how to make the most out of this opportunity.  You’d be surprised how many people do not, and just rock up and talk.

But the thing is you can create a lot of authenticity and credibility by speaking at events. But it’s essential to plan your time and to make sure that the time spent away from the office is worthwhile, as well as make those few minutes on a panel of experts count.

This episode is for you if you are a seasoned pro or starting out as it acts as a helpful reminder of all the things to think about when speaking at an event to make it worthwhile for you, your biz or your brand, product or service.

So let’s dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor - emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

I've compiled a list of my top 10 tools to help you become more efficient in your PR and marketing in 2023. From project management software to content planning calendars, these tools have been carefully curated by me using them firsthand and those my guests have recommended. 

Whether you're just starting or have years of experience, these ten tools are must-haves for 2023.

Let's dive in!

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap to get more strategic with communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise

Whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor - emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling, then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.