A communications consultant can help you and your company decide upon a coherent message and communicate with and relate to customers effectively.
A Sounding Board
You might be looking for a sounding board to help you clarify and refine your communications plans. Sometimes you just need an experienced and encouraging professional who can listen to your goals and provide guidance to help you implement in a way that allows you to be empowered to be the face of your business and to share your story in a way that is authentic and makes you money!
An Independent Assessor
Do you know what you don’t know? A Communications consultant can be a great resource for analyzing communications needs and gaps. For example, they might suggest the need for a brand or voice guide, assist you auditing your social media output and relationships, and help develop clear guidance for dashboard metrics to assess the effectiveness of your communications plan.
A Trainer
You might need an external professional to teach you and your employees how to communicate with each other or how to use communications platforms (including traditional and new media) effectively. This could be on a one-off or on a regular basis (think staff in-service or training meetings). Use of a communications consultant can be particularly effective in improving customer service as the return on investment is high.
Expertise
The best laid plans are bound to fail if you don’t have the internal expertise and experience to execute effectively. A Consultant can help you succeed by training you and your employees so that your capacity is increased or implementing your communication plans alongside you. The goal is to make your budget stretch further and do the most good for your bottom line!
A Neutral Mediator
You might be looking for productivity gains through clearing up internal communications confusion. Maybe you need to make sure your team has the same understanding of expectations, shorthand or acronyms, or needs to work through some minor interpersonal “stuff” – a communications consultant with a background and training in mediation and negotiation can expertly help your team get on the same page so they can get back to getting things done!
Help in a Crisis
So something went awry and you’re in need of someone to help guide you through the crisis. You need a cheerleader, but you also need someone who is going to tell you the truth, even if that’s not what you want to hear. Some communications consultants specialize in reputation management (and restoration) – either internal (think: team morale) or external. A Communications consultant can provide strategic planning advice (or bespoke plans) for you to implement or can walk alongside you every step of the way, helping you with media buys, contingency plans, and adjustments based on reception.
A Truth-teller
An independent perspective to provide you with a broader view. This is not neutral, a great communications consultant will offer you an opinion based on experience, expertise, and training.
An Economical Addition to your Team
It can be a challenge to know when to bring a full-time communications professional into your team. A Consultant can give you time to work out the need and scope of work in your company for a communications professional. Maybe you don’t want to add an employee, but have projects where you need help to implement your communications plans. You can also bring in a communications consultant to help you execute a client project – you get the firepower of a professional without the overhead of an additional employee.
Speaker. Reader. Thinker. Writer. Traveler. Advocate
Anna Blanch Rabe, founder of Anna Blanch Rabe & Associates, works with Law Firms, socially responsible businesses, and non-profit organizations to develop and effectively execute strategic, digital, and narrative initiatives to educate prospective clients, develop community-capacity, and reach new customers. Anna is an Australian-born speaker, writer and advocate. Connect with Anna on Instagram, facebook page, & Twitter.