What an intense time.

The one common theme we keep coming back to is that we’re all in this together. There is no single business, organization, or human who is unaffected by these times—and while that can be frightening, it’s also unifying. 

It’s also a critical time for thorough, thoughtful communication—with your clients/customers/donors, with your staff, and with your partners. Being clear about where you stand, and the action steps you’re taking to #FlattenTheCurve, can help ease everyone’s minds and ensure you have a loyal base of support when things return to “normal.”

As for us, we’re taking the following measures:

• We’re WFH! We’re not taking any in-person meetings, whether internal or with clients, for the next several weeks. Thank goodness for technology and video conferencing.
• We’re practicing self-care. As much as possible, we’re doing what we can personally to establish routines, keep healthy habits, and nourish our minds and bodies. It’s so important that we all invest in ourselves right now—the world needs us to come out of this stronger on the other side.
• We’re ramping up support. We are fortunate to be in a position that we are able to expand our scope of support for our clients, without expanding our fees. This means taking on some technically “out of scope” projects to help lighten the load, and help them stay in contact with the audiences who matter most—both internal and external.

Food for thought for your business

Consider the following questions:

• How are you planning for internal communications with your employees? Whether it’s email updates, intranet posts, internal memos—it’s important to keep your staff apprised and informed about the actions you’re taking and what they can expect.
• How are you communicating with clients/customers/partners? Consider what your audiences need or want to know about what you’re doing, and develop a set of action steps you can take to make sure they get the relevant information—without bombarding them or being too self-serving.
• How are you anticipating the evolution? The situation is constantly changing. None of us knows what business and daily life will look like in 1 week, even 1 month from now. Consider all of your what-if scenarios and how communications needs will evolve with the changing landscape.

Don’t get stuck coping!

It may feel impossible to think about right now—but this will pass. Things won’t go back to normal, but they’ll go back to a new normal. Your clients/customers/donors/partners will slowly start reentering society, and reentering the marketplace.

We understand that the inclination right now is to cut back as much as possible, but if you have the ability, it’s critical to think about the long game.

On the other side of this—you’ll have spent the recent days and weeks coping, but will you have used them to prepare? Will you be ready to ramp up your marketing again when the time comes, or will you and your staff be scrambling?

Food for thought.

Do you know of an organization that could use communications support right now?

We are in a position to be able to help organizations at discounted (or potentially even pro bono) rates while they navigate what’s next. If you know a great organization that could use some additional help right now—hit us up and share a little info. We want to do what we can to help our entire community get through this.

Be well!