Do you know how to shape your story? Really shape it, so that it resonates confidently and clearly with your target audience? As a business, you don’t just want your story read – you need it to be understood, discussed and shared with the wider community.
Writing a blog or communicating your message takes skill. Writing and communicating is an art – an art that all growing, developing and successful businesses need to appreciate and draw on. Time and time again, it has been proven that effective communication is a key factor in success.
As a business leader, you want your target audience to keep your brand top of mind; you want those who need your services to not hesitate – to know there is no other option but your business.
Yes, there are many benefits for an organisation to bring a communications agency into the business. Particularly, a specialised agency that can provide support on projects that require specialist insights, knowledge and understanding.
A comprehensive communications strategy not only sets the direction for marketing efforts but also allows organisations to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing activities. Correctly distributing key messages can be both powerful and influential when it is established across multiple channels. A strong strategy improves efficiency, is cost-effective, opens your organisation up to a larger audience and builds trust.
The QUAY Communications team understands this and we work in the specialist field of health, aiding businesses to measure concrete objectives and adopt changes and new strategies as needed to ensure success in the future.
Signs that your organisation needs additional project-based support for communication initiatives
Most businesses have retained agencies that manage their communication strategies, but successful businesses rely on expertise to deep dive into project-based strategies. There are a number of different factors that indicate if your organisation requires additional support in creating health-specialised marketing communication initiatives.
Did you know that it is entirely possible to partner with a boutique agency that complements the scope covered by your organisation’s existing retainer agency? The most pressing indicator that you need additional project-based support is when the theme or content of your proposed campaign is outside your retainer’s specialisation or scope of work.
A retained generalist agency can be incredibly useful for national and global communications work, but it’s still best to get additional support from specialised agencies when you want to develop expert initiatives within the health sector.
Four methods of project-based support offered by QUAY Communications
QUAY Communications can work alongside retained agencies to help support an organisation’s business objective via its specialised expertise.
Within an existing retainer model, QUAY can provide support on project-based work, complementing the work of a global or national agency and in the areas where specialist local health sector knowledge and expertise are needed.
For example, your business may be engaging with media or stakeholders in regards to a specialised health campaign in which discussing evidence-based claims with stakeholders may be needed or hosting industry roundtable meetings and capturing specific insights relating to a health challenge may be required. QUAY can complement the support provided by a retained generalist agency.
1. Insight generation roundtable meetings
Do you need to understand the barriers and knowledge gaps relating to a particular health condition? Are you looking to drive greater awareness and educate parents, educators and healthcare professionals? QUAY Communications can help capture these insights.
Generating insights and developing subsequent business intelligence is a valuable service for any growing or established business, particularly one that is centred around the health and science sectors. Having insight into a particular topic or issue is more than analysis. It is about connecting the key message and thought processes to provide insightful solutions for focused business issues.
Calling on the expertise of a strategic and specialised communicator will enable detailed information to be conveyed to your target audience in a succinct and clear way. It will also arm your team with the knowledge and opportunity to enhance research and convey that information successfully to grow your business.
When it comes to elevating health and science communications, it is important to identify and address the gaps in knowledge for your audience. The term “health and science communication” is not universal, and understanding the role it plays in business is vital in particular fields. Having a communications team that solely focuses on this topic, will further enhance your business’ knowledge and product delivery.
Adding to this, having a communications team that has the knowledge and understanding of the health field and your business relationship to it, will take your business offering to the next level.
2. Stakeholder engagement
Are you needing to make engagement with stakeholders more meaningful? Do you need to inform, strengthen trust and shift perceptions? QUAY Communications can advise on the best approach to adopt.
Building a rapport with your clients will strengthen your reputation and engagement within the community. People want to be heard, they want to be seen and they want to be understood.
Engaging a professional company that has a thorough understanding of the science and health sectors, to find out exactly what your stakeholders require and desire, will pay dividends in the near future.
So, how can stakeholder engagement help you make a significant impact to your business? For starters, it can create guidelines that have the potential to affect a wide range of people and organisations by influencing behaviour, changing practice and impacting policy, legal or funding frameworks.
There are six key ways to best engage stakeholders when it comes to conveying healthcare and medical messages.
- Planning. Plan in advance for when and how to engage stakeholders.
- Expectations. Set clear expectations by explaining what their role is and how their contribution will inform the guideline.
- Communicate. Make it easy for stakeholders to be involved. Think about language, culture, age, disability or financial barriers.
- Understanding. Be aware of stakeholder objectives, expertise and level of influence.
- Acknowledge. Respect stakeholder views
- Fairness. Treat stakeholders equitably.
Working with a specialised team that has skills in stakeholder and community engagement, as well as communications and marketing, will complement your existing strategy.
3. Health media engagement
Do you need to communicate the impact of science in layman’s terms? Do you need to discuss the evidence-based claims and what they mean to the consumer?
Translating complex medical messages to a public audience can be challenging. Removing superlative text and using simple, easy-to-understand language is key, as well as thoroughly understanding media management. Of course, doing this can be a challenge if you are not highly trained in the field of communications and marketing, or understand the different media segments, and how to shape the story effectively.
Health messages need to not only be understood, but they need to be trusted by your audience. This comes down to the delivery and the platform on which it is delivered. Taking into account inclusivity, diversity, appeal and approach are also important aspects in building a confident content strategy and delivering key messages through a strategic communications framework.
This is where QUAY comes into play. QUAY Communications bring science and communications together to communicate the impact to relevant media, and through the relevant channels.
4. Strategy or discovery workshops
Discovery-driven learning – there is a reason so many companies are investing time and money into this method. Continued education and learning from outside the four walls of your business will ensure you stay relevant and up to date not only with data and knowledge bases but with the needs and wants of your target audience.
Whether you seek internal feedback, or direction and advice from a business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-commerce (B2C) cohort, engaging diverse participants to provide insights, ideas and feedback into decision-making groups, can reap benefits for your business.
It is easy to fall into the same routine and it is where some businesses come undone, failing to create a competitive marketplace of ideas and subsequently preventing promising projects from being pursued.
In some cases, employees may feel stilted – too polite or nervous – to share their opinions or views for fear of being ridiculed or not taken seriously. By investing in corporate communication strategies or internal workshops, the expert team will be able to extract the best ideas and feedback from your team.
If you are looking to develop a new strategy to engage or reengage with a particular audience QUAY Communications can facilitate and host a workshop and develop a strategic direction that will deliver back to your business objectives.
Bringing additional communications and marketing support into your business, particularly those with specialised industry skills, will not only support your existing team but will further your market-driven results and market understanding.
As a specialised communications agency, QUAY Communications can help you create initiatives that align with your objectives and demonstrate your expertise. Contact us and we will help you develop the marketing communications you need.
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