Virtual Assistant – Brave Publicity Ink!

One of the most challenging aspects of Corporate Communications and Public Relations is being able to execute your campaign strategy effectively and in time, while meeting all targets. Such that the client or customer’s expectation are met or even exceeded.
When success is achieved for every mile stone of a campaign, it brings much satisfaction and reinforces confidence in one’s abilities.

However, when things don’t pan out as planned, with errors, delays, time lapses and poor delivery and engagement of automated messages or poor engagement and conversion rates or sales via the various communication assets.
Then this becomes a big concern.

Re-examining the strategy implemented is critical to understanding and identifying the improvement opportunities available for achieving success with subsequent campaigns.

It is also imperative to take into consideration feedback from clients and the receivers or the target audience (where available).

Some of the following are suggestions that should be taken into consideration when PR efforts don’t go exactly as planned or yield poor results:

Strategy and Execution:

Re-examining the mapped out plan helps one understand what may have gone wrong in the execution of any campaign.

From the conception stage on to the execution stage, to what the campaign entails (the drivers and enablers / partners of the campaign at the various stages), to the resources required to drive the campaigns (both online and offline efforts) is essential.
Understanding how each of these factors inter played and the influence they exerted on a campaign is very important.

This enables one to identify those areas of strengths and weaknesses by the drivers or personnel involved at each stage and the kind of support or adjustments that would be required for subsequent campaigns.

Communication Assets and Automation Platforms:

Planning and timeliness is paramount to effective communication and the efficiency of the communication assets and platforms utilized.

Sometimes the failure or success of a campaign is largely dependent on this.
This may include CRM platforms, SMS platforms, Email Marketing platforms, and other virtual communication, including automation applications for social media and corporate communication.

It is also important to ensure that the chosen platforms perform optimally and the internet connection remains strong and secured, especially when running campaigns, scheduling bulk messages, email, posts etc.
This ensures that such scheduled messages are delivered in time without lags or delays.

Analytics and Data:

Feedback about the status of a campaign at various stages is largely dependent on data and taking informed decisions based on the information obtained.

From the type, volume and conversion rates, to the intensity of engagements such as: clicks, navigation, interests, duration of time spent on landing pages or websites, demographics, sales etc.

All of these analytical information helps one adjust a campaign accordingly, especially campaigns that are scheduled to run at different intervals or periods of time.
Information from analytics helps one know if a campaign is meeting the set goals and how it can be adjusted for better performance online and offline.

Feedback:

Feedback from receivers, target audience and customers whom the campaign or services are designed to serve must be taken seriously, if there will be any changes to enhance performance. This is irrespective of how great one thinks an idea is or beneficial to people or the target audience.

This includes complaints, suggestions and grey areas that one may have overlooked, but keep coming up in conversations by the target audience, customers and potential customers.

“Noise Listening” is a skill that must be honed for success and continuity in business.

Often, areas of complaints make good improvement opportunities.
It is also important to take note of areas of success in all of one’s campaigns, communication, marketing and PR efforts, and find ways to replicate such strategies or results in subsequent campaigns.

Attention to Detail:

Many times, campaigns go wrong from not paying attention to some of those minute details.

This can be very costly especially when PR efforts are channeled to a very large audience and the communication efforts have multiple errors that cannot be retrieved nor rectified on time without incurring damage or a huge cost.

This includes errors such as: wrong content of sponsored ads that cannot be rectified once flagged off, wrong SMS messages, email marketing efforts with wrong links or landing pages, wrongly printed or branded materials etc.
Many of these things kind of errors come at a cost.

They are also often misleading and defeats the purpose and goals of the campaign at the end of the day.
However, when careful attention to detail is given, the stress level on execution is drastically reduced and the probability of recording success becomes higher.

Conclusion.

The bottom line is this.

Feedback and a re-examination of any Communication and PR campaign strategy is important, and identification of improvement opportunities after such campaigns have been executed is key to being able to have repeat and successful PR efforts, all achieved via informed decisions.
Thus creating a success model that can be replicated and adjusted across a variety of projects.

It worthy to note that, no experience is ever a waste and as one continues to work on a variety of campaign and PR projects, mastery is obtained to know what could potentially work best for each unique campaign project that comes our way.

Thank you for reading.

Article by Opeolu Adeyemi.
Corporate Communications and Public Relations Consultant
Founder, Brave Publicity Ink!

Organization and a well rested mind is key to achieving success as a virtual worker or coordinator.

Today’s jobs no longer entail just physical coordination, but also a handful of virtual responsibilities, since a lot of job roles are beginning to get more automated and entail a lot of digital tools and applications for successful operations.

For a person whose sole work entails virtual coordination or for a person who has a mix of both virtually responsibilities and physical responsibilities, some ground rules and balance have to be established in order to achieve success.

Here are seven (7) things to consider:

Structure:

Just like a physical workplace, your virtual work place also needs to be well structured to function optimally.

From the devices needed for your execution, to the resources and tools such as the internet, power supply, your work space and furniture, applications and software that are required to get the work done.

The state of all of these determines if you will experience less stress while working. If these are all in good condition, it influences and enhances the mind’s productivity and reduces the number of hitches that may be experienced.

Coordination and Prioritization:

To stay organized virtually implies good organization and coordination.

From proper naming of files to grouping of relate items or files, to effective and clear communication about tasks to your virtual team, to prioritizing on the urgent and important tasks that need to be attended to before others, etc.

When all of these are properly aligned, it enhances greatly the success and speed of execution of tasks that you may have for each day. Creating a “To-Do-List”, scheduling tasks and setting reminders for your activities will certainly help you achieve better coordination and prioritization.

Automation and Activities:

Working virtually can be a very huge task, especially when multiple minute tasks are lined up for execution daily.

Many of these monotonous tasks would be more enjoyable if they were automated.

It is very easy to fall into the trap of thinking these things would take very little of our time, however after a while, it can become tiring, especially with others physical tasks that need our attention come our way. It is also very easy to lose interest in the monotonous ritual and we find that some crucial details in communication may become mixed up often or lost when working virtually.

All of these can be avoided when software, applications or structures that aid automation or reduces the daily stress or responsibilities are used. Some of them include cloud services such as (Google Drive, Dropbox etc.), file sharing applications (WeTransfer, Google Drive), Content automation Services (MailChimp, Hoote Suite, Buffer etc.) and any other applications that enhance your workflow virtually.

Third parties and Team work:

Having a strong and reliable team, that understands the work process, the purpose of a project, the urgency of various task and the cooperation required for execution, is very important.

It also helps greatly if the team members are equipped with the relevant hard skills for execution.

This is very important especially for rainy days, when you need the total support of the team or their assistance in getting some things done on your behalf.

To achieve this will require effective communication, sometimes training and a lot of patience as the team grows. In the long run, time with a steady team helps you understand each member, their strengths and weaknesses.
This eventually leads to the establishment of a workflow that empowers you all to work in sync without too many corrections, back and forth conversations or confusion on how to get things done virtually.

Activity follow-up:

Working virtually can many times entail multiple communication platforms and tasks with a variety of people.

As an enabler or driver of a task, it is important to do a regular follow up regarding diverse responsibilities assigned to the people you work with virtually.

This is because as humans who have other needs that require our attention daily, we sometimes forget virtual conversations that require our input or feedback.

So, it won’t hurt to do a follow up or send a subtle reminder regarding tasks and responsibilities. This way, you would be able to meet the timeline assigned to various projects or responsibilities.

Boundaries and the close of business:

It is easy to fall into the “Superman” and “Wonder Woman” trap.

Meaning, getting caught up totally in work without adequate breaks or short walks instead of long hours sitting and other self-care routines.

Many times, we find ourselves working late into the day or night and this could sometimes be a strategy for urgent projects for short periods, but the long run effect of such a work culture is “Burn-Out” and “Ineffectiveness”.

So it is important to draw the line without guilt and set some boundaries and switch off from the work mode, like you would for a physical work place. Effective virtual work requires that these rules and boundaries be adhered to achieve success.

Some of them could include: having a check-out time from work without taking work home virtually and creating a system that accommodates your lunch breaks and other rest periods as required.

Relaxation and mental health:

Sometimes working virtually or remotely can be hard and lonely, especially when your team is located in a different geographical location or if you work alone as a consultant or an entrepreneur.

This sometimes affects your motivation to keep working effectively and consistently. So a leave from work or a period of long rest is always welcomed after a long sessions of work, because it is really important to get refreshed and get the necessary rest required for the long haul.

This time off virtual work, creates room for you to bond with friends, catch up with colleagues or with other more relaxing and fun activities. This certainly is a good investment for sound health (physically and mentally) and enhances productivity at work.

In conclusion, working virtually at optimal performance can be achieved, but not without the required efforts to ensure your virtual work experience and that of your team becomes enjoyable and effective.

The above highlights are only guides that can enhance this process, however, what counts most, is being able to have clarity of purpose and establish a virtual structure that works for you, one that is sustainable and can be replicated.

Thank you for reading.