The first step in determining what is working and what needs fixing is to ask customers.  In addition to being the lifeblood of your business, many of your best customers are more than willing to help you construct effective messages and reach out to the people who are the best targets for those messages.  Reaching out to this group and acknowledging the difficult environment is a good starting place.  Asking a customer to share their thoughts about concerns or difficulties may seem a tad counterintuitive, but I have used this technique to good effect in the past.

In a previous economic downturn, I was assigned to revitalize publications as part of an overall strategy to attract new constituents and grow during a recession.  When I went out to stakeholders, they were not only happy to tell me of their frustrations and obstacles, but also gave me some incredible advice, which was to stop making everything we printed big, slick, glossy and four-color.  These people looked at our printing choices and saw a reflection of how we spent our money overall - what they wanted to see was an organization that produced publications that were nice, but not so nice that it looked like we were taking money away from providing services for sick children.

We decided to print our newsletter in two colors, on uncoated, non-glossy stock from that point on.  And I never would have known about those concerns or viewpoints if I hadn’t asked.  What do your customers think about you?  Are the communications they recieve a reflection of your organization’s deeply held values, or are they disconnected from what makes your company great?

Stuart McCammon is the founder of FundWorks, provider of business development resources and communications tactics and tools that will represent your organization in its best light while achieving bottom-line goals.