The benefits of proactive rather than reactive strategic communications

In the fast-moving world of business and public relations, it can sometimes feel impossible to develop proactive communications for your brand’s every initiative or offering. However, proactive communications are a critical part of every strategy. While reactive communications may help stop or minimize a crisis, limit damage to your brand or re-establish your brand’s credibility and trust, proactive communications should be used to build brand trust and recognition, increase brand awareness and drive your strategic messaging. I’ve listed some of the key benefits of proactive communications below, in addition to some examples.

Control your message

Instead of waiting for your brand to receive positive publicity, creating a proactive strategic communications plan will help you shape your brand’s narrative and will be beneficial to any in-market campaigns. In The Strategic Communication Plan: An overview, Les Potter discusses the idea of a strategic summary that includes, goals, objectives, strategy, and tactics. Using each of these elements in a proactive strategic communications campaign will help reach your target audience.

According to Lauren Smith of the Calypso Agency, “many smart organizations practice proactive PR. Rather than fighting or accommodating to change, they try to influence change by orchestrating the process. They influence the public perception of their brands rather than taking a passive approach.” Proactive communications are vital to developing your brand image and showing your target audience what your brand stands for.

Establish brand loyalty through transparency

Crafting your own strategy and messaging and then sharing with the public will help your brand seem authentic and personable. Public Relations professionals who build in time to develop proactive communications will be better equipped to think through potential risks and issues. By allowing more time for developing and review of messaging, you can mitigate risk and better reach your target audience. In general, the public will perceive proactive communications as more credible than any advertisements that are paid for or any reactive messaging.

Examples from brands doing proactive communications right

Daily Harvest

Daily Harvest is a subscription-based company that delivers farm-frozen, superfood based, no-cook recipes to their customers’ doors. Everything they deliver is plant-based, nutritious and has minimal ingredients. Their brand is known for delivering the highest quality, organic fruits and vegetables, and the best flavors — with nothing unhealthy added to their recipes.

Daily Harvest’s social media accounts are full of breakdowns of their recipes’ ingredients. Posts may share how meticulous the company is in sourcing the best ingredients from sustainable farmers and suppliers or may give information on how certain ingredients are beneficial.

The company has done an excellent job with proactive communications on all of its platforms. Instead of waiting for a customer to ask about a recipe or ingredient, Daily Harvest shares the information proactively. This proactivity makes it easy for customers to trust the brand.

Amazon

Amazon is a great example of a company that utilizes proactive communications to solve potential customer service issues before they’ve even begun. Amazon anticipates customer questions on delivery dates and times and sends notifications to customers in advance of any delays. They reach out, usually via email, letting the customer know what the new delivery date will be. If the customer is an Amazon Prime subscriber, Amazon will sometimes credit them one free month of the service for this inconvenience, all without the customer ever making an inquiry.

Do you have an example of a brand that’s expertly utilizing proactive communications strategies? Share your thoughts on social media or in the comments below.