PR’s Top Pros Talk… Viewing Communications from a Business Perspective

Steve Hirsch, CEO and Co-Founder of Hirsch Leatherwood, shares his insights on how top-of-the-funnel content can make a big impact on clients, audiences, and stakeholders. He discusses what makes a successful communications leader and what to look for in new hires. Steve also shares the importance of messaging.

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TRANSCRIPT:

DOUG: Steve, what is the value of what you call top-of-the-funnel content?

STEVE: It’s a great question. The value of top-of-funnel content really comes down to elevating two aspects of your communication. One is marketplace education, creating a source of truth for what is your brand stand for? How does your product work? How do you cater to, different audiences and, giving your different stakeholders a sense of what it is your company does every day and the role you play in the industry. The second purpose is really around catering to that diverse group of stakeholders. When you’re a head of communications, you need to be talking to partners, employees, investors, sponsors, customers. And all of that warrants its own set of top-of-funnel content marketplace education. So you can be that authoritative voice on whatever topic you’re trying to speak to.

DOUG: You talked about the value of top-of-the-funnel content, but does that affect how you view communications from a business perspective?

STEVE: It does it. It creates a more bespoke approach to catering to all different audiences. Generally, in the PR world, we think of media, we think of consumers, and we think of you know, sort of the B2B aspect, of catering to audiences. The truth is, it’s much more complex than that. And whether it’s analysts, whether it’s employees, all of those different stakeholders need a bespoke intentional communication strategy. And that always starts with top-of-funnel content.

DOUG: It’s great that you’re looking into sort of the nuance and not just putting one group out there and thinking everything needs to be the same, but obviously there needs to be connectivity in those messages because there’s so much leakage, if you will, from silo to silo. If you think of it that way. So how do you make sure the messages are relevant for specific employee groups but aren’t really running counter to other messages that are being put out there?

STEVE: That’s a great point. And yes, a CMOs worst nightmare is mixed messages, and we try to avoid that at all costs. For any company that we’re working with, there is generally what we call an enterprise narrative that sets the tone and the foundation for everything the company says for how they describe their product. That foundation then has offshoots of, okay, well, how does our story nuance when we’re talking to an employee versus an investor versus a sponsor, and depending on what pain points those stakeholders are facing on a particular day, week or month, that informs what the communications is going to emphasize and focus on and cater to. But it always ladders up to a greater story that can be used.

DOUG: So much change in what the business environment has been, what the pandemic has done. Do you find there’s change within but still under that same narrative or sometimes the narrative has to be adjusted. I think his business conditions evolve.

STEVE: The reality is business changes so quickly and every, every messaging point, it becomes up for debate three, six, nine months down the line when an acquisition has been made or a funding round has been announced, or a product’s being unveiled that we didn’t know about three months ago. And so, the narrative needs to be relooked at and refocused on every few months. Otherwise, you lose control of your story.

DOUG: Yeah. And if the communicators aren’t better leaders, that makes it much harder to keep a focused narrative, I would imagine. How can communicators be better leaders? Are there keys that you can suggest?

STEVE: It’s not so different like any other function, and that the ultimate key for being a successful comms leader is to put your shoes in the role of the CEO and think about what is it that’s going to move the needle, affect the bottom line, create impact, drive tangible business outcomes? If you’re a head of communications and you’re focusing on how do we get a Wall Street Journal article, you’re not asking a bad question, but you’re not asking the most relevant question. And what you really need to be thinking about is, how are we going to drive those business outcomes that are going to take our company to the next level, and then using those answers to inform, okay, what are the tactics that are going to be best to support those outcomes? Sometimes it’s a Wall Street Journal story, but oftentimes it’s many other paths as well.

DOUG: Right. And that would only be a piece of it that you’re talking about. You like to use the expression well-furnished mind, especially when it comes to the people that you would want on your team. I don’t know if I’m eliminated because I’ve stopped at Ikea in the past, but what are some of your suggestions about one how to identify well-furnished minds? How to sort of promote them and build them up within your company, and how that applies to the communications work that you do.

STEVE: We don’t have a lot of traditional agency people, and that’s not to say that agency people are bad, but we really strive hard to find the most culturally literate and diverse perspectives that we can find, which sometimes come from the traditional marketing and PR world, and sometimes we get them from the world of screenwriting or politics or public affairs, and finding those mind, very curious minds who have the ability to be generalists, who have the ability to work across different disciplines and different industries and doing many different tasks on a given day. You know, that’s been our secret sauce into putting together teams that really moved the needle. And also think about businesses and brands from a true business outcome standpoint versus how many impressions did we get today?

DOUG: It seems like you’re taking a really smart approach as we wrap up the discussions. Any other points that you want to emphasize for the audience that they should think about? Maybe mistakes to avoid?

STEVE: Communications is very loud these days, I think. You know, oftentimes, you know, in terms of things to avoid, I would say it’s pretty clear over the last several months that mixing things like business and politics in communications is really challenging. And we often have a lot of people asking us, what do we say on this topic? More often than not, we’re advising people right now to not create situations where they’re going to be polarizing audiences or alienating different sectors or, you know, irking off different stakeholders. We were living in a period where a lot of companies felt a lot of pressure to say a lot on every issue. And I think we’re beginning to see the pendulum swing back a little bit from that. And it’s okay not to feel the pressure to say something at every, you know, on every issue of every day in terms of things to avoid. I definitely would challenge companies and communicators to think about the value, of the words they’re putting out there and making sure that it’s really in service of the greater brand and long-term growth.

DOUG: That sounds like great advice. Any final thoughts you want to wrap up with?

STEVE: It’s going to be a big year for the comms world. A lot of growth already seeing it. Very exciting. And just, no, I’m excited to see where things go.

DOUG: Well, I’m excited to have had a chance to have this discussion with you. Really great, insightful stuff.

STEVE: Thanks so much, Doug. Really appreciate it.