Crisis Communications
We live in an uncertain world where a crisis can damage your brand, reputation or business in a split second. It could be something you see coming, or just as often, something out of left field you never anticipated.
How will a crisis communications plan for businesses help me prepare?
How do you plan for something that can inflict serious damage to your brand and may not even be your fault? We’ll help you be ready for whatever life throws at you with our three-step process:
-
Plan
-
Prepare
-
Practice
The best crisis communications plans are proactive, not reactive. We’ll help you create a flexible crisis plan to handle anything that might damage your business. Our 360-degree Brand Protection™ Tool helps identify the most likely threats and helps you focus your time and resources on formulating responses that prevent missteps, build trust with your audience, and protect your bottom line.
That’s the plan.
We know this from our award-winning Brand Protection™ experience managing crisis communications-- from the ego-bruising to the mob-motivating to the outright dangerous-- the best way to protect your brand is to nurture supportive communities and build a reservoir of trust to draw on when something goes wrong.
We’ll help you tap into the power of building relationships to create a supportive community that can amplify your message. We’ll help you think through communication channels, draft placeholder press releases and statements, and walk you through if/then scenarios. We’ll help you design a crisis communications team that knows what to do when something happens.
That’s being prepared.
The best crisis communications plans aren’t sitting on a shelf, gathering dust. They’re short. They’re concise. And they’re powerful in practice. We’ll help you feel confident and prepared to handle any media situation with our Insider Media Relations™ media training and media coaching.
We’ll help your team be on the lookout for new threats with our powerful digital landscape analytics software and social media monitoring tools. We’ll use our 360-degree Brand Protection PR™ process to look at a situation from every angle to take advantage of opportunities to showcase your forward-thinking and preparedness. Whatever happens, you’ll be ready.
That’s putting a plan into practice.
Let’s get started.
Creating a robust crisis communications plan can feel overwhelming. Where do you start?
M&C Communications is here to help. Our crisis communications planning approach is different: it’s about skills, not scenarios. You’ll learn:
-
How to recognize a crisis you need to respond to immediately, and differentiate it from an issue you should only monitor
-
How to create a robust and flexible crisis communications plan that reflect the core values of your business
-
How to harness the power of the 4 Cs to make sure your message rises above the noise
-
How to confidently handle the media, even in the most challenging situations
-
How to create a reservoir of goodwill and to rebuild trust with your audience
M&C Communications specializes in crisis communication strategies that put you in the driver’s seat
We think of crisis planning as business insurance: you wouldn’t think of doing business without insurance, so why would you take a chance with your business reputation? That’s why we created the Brand Protection PR™ process- to help companies take control of their reputation and leave nothing to chance.
From the emerging CBD oil business looking to create customer loyalty and trust, to municipalities trying to build rapport with their constituents, to nonprofits that survive and thrive based on their credibility, we help businesses of all kinds protect what’s important, activate community of supporters, and craft messaging that resonates with their audiences.
What is the Brand Protection Tool™?​​
We’ve developed the M&C Communications Brand Protection Tool™ to take protecting your business a step further. We walk you and your team through a process to discover your three most vulnerable areas, so you can make the most of your crisis management plans. The results will help you protect your brand and know where to focus.
The Brand Protection™ Tool features two work sessions with skilled experts in crisis communications and planning. We’ll bring your entire leadership team to the table to brainstorm the most likely threats and start the planning process to mitigate the impact on your business. You’ll walk away with a clear threats forecast, a roadmap for crisis communications roles across your entire team, and an integrated strategy involving your entire leadership team for what happens if. You’ll feel focused and prepared to start the tactical planning process based on data, with the support of your team.
Why is media training critical to crisis communication planning?
In business, you know that the enemy of profitability is uncertainty. In crisis communications planning, we know the only certainty is that being prepared improves your outcomes and helps deflect the damage. Our crisis communications strategy is simple: prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
Preparation is the key. It helps you move quickly to mitigate damage that’s occurring- and critically- helps prevent self-inflicted damage. There’s no faster way to damage your brand than to fumble a media interview or do something to elevate an issue to a crisis in the public’s mind.
Remember: “No comment” never makes a problem go away, and it always makes you look untrustworthy. The M&C Insider Media Relations™ media training process takes the anxiety out of working with the media and helps you spot opportunities to bring the conversation back under control.
It’s right there in the name: crisis communications is all about communication. As former journalists who’ve spent time in the glare in front of and behind the camera asking tough questions, we can help you navigate the challenging terrain of any media interview and give you the confidence to handle any situation that comes your way.
Brand Protection PR™ begins with solid preparation. Let’s get started!
The M&C Communications team is here to help with crisis communications consulting based on your needs. Get in touch and we'll design a plan to help you protect your business with our 360-degree Brand Protection PR™ crisis communications process.
