Business Models: Tell the World Who You Are Now
You could be pardoned for not finding caterpillars particularly appealing. They’re ungainly, unshapely and sometimes downright hideous. However we also know from science class that many caterpillars will enter a cocoon and emerge as beautiful butterflies. It’s not hard to see how the analogy applies to a business coming out of a restructuring. Like the caterpillar, your business didn’t look particularly attractive. Otherwise you wouldn’t have gone through the painful process of reworking it from the ground up. You have emerged from your metaphorical cocoon and it’s time to spread your wings and show the world who you are now.
It sounds like it has the makings of a great story, but how do you announce that change to the world and more importantly, how do you make sure your beautiful new butterfly isn’t immediately eaten by a new set of predators?
The first thing you need to do is communicate effectively. Communication is such a basic skill that it will serve you well in just about any situation, but the key here is to communicate effectively to your marketing team. They’re the ones on the front lines telling the story about the new you, and they’ll need your guidance as to how to tell it. What form will your transformation take? Are you going to be louder and bolder? More reserved and cautious? More mature? What aspects of this new you do you want to emphasize? Your marketing team needs to clearly understand what your objectives are so they can maintain a clear and consistent message.
It’s imperative that you also have the right technological support system in place before you begin to spread the good word. It’s not enough to have people telling your story. You have to consider how they’re going to tell it. What mediums will they use? Television? E-mail? Twitter or perhaps a series of podcasts? Which ones will be most effective and more critically, which mediums do you have the technical chops to use properly? Especially with social media, it’s often better to not use a platform at all than to use it badly.
How will you know how the new you is being received? Is your revamped message reaching its intended audience and influencing them the way you want? Before you set about to tell a new tale you’re going to have to have some way of measuring its effect on the audience. Decide beforehand what metrics you’re going to use to gauge the effectiveness of your message. Is it going to be an uptick in leads? New clients? Sales? There are tons of analytical tools out there. Before you can decide which one is the best, you need to know exactly what it is you’re looking to find out.
It’s a tough world out there for even the most beautiful butterfly. Communicate effectively, make sure you have great technical support and a good system in place to accurately measure your results and you’ll give it the best chance of success.