It’s the stuff of nightmares for anyone who leads a marketing and/or communications department.
The CEO comes into your office and proclaims that due to some accounting errors, your budget is now zero. But you’re still expected to get attention for the company and brand.
After you get done freaking out, what do you do?
You march right back into your CEO’s office and tell him he needs to step it up, that’s what!
CEO stories have power
You might not have realized it, but the most powerful force for generating attention for your company, brand, and products was just in your office. People are more interested in hearing from a company’s CEO than the brand itself.
- Sara Blakely has morethan 2 million followers. Spanxhas around 100,000.
- RichardBranson has 18 million followers. VirginAtlantic has 402,000.
- Don’t even get me started on Elon Musk.
Those may be extreme examples, but they demonstrate an important fact. People like people more than brands. They can relate to them and trust them more than a faceless logo.
So if your marketing budget has been reduced to zero, you should start harnessing the power of your CEO (and other leaders in your company) to build relationships and trust with customers and other key audiences.
It costs basically nothing. Just some of your CEO’s and your time. And it’s a direct line to the people you need to reach.
That’s what I call a bonkers ROI.
What people want to see
So I’ve convinced you to start using your CEO’s social media platform (and other platforms, like email) to market your company. But don’t make the mistake of turning your CEO’s LinkedIn feed into a billboard.
Personal, emotional, story-driven content is what works, because it’s what people want to see. The possibilities are endless, but here are some ideas to get you started:
Celebrate employees
One by one, share stories about each employee, why what they do matters, and what makes them great human beings.
Share personal journeys
People love to learn from CEOs. Have your CEO share first-person accounts of mistakes made, lessons learned, and mountains climbed.
Pull back the curtain
Provide a behind-the-scenes look at how your company lives its culture, mission, and values.
You’ll notice there’s no “selling” in any of those ideas, and that’s intentional. Your CEO’s content needs to be above that.
But if you do it right, your CEO’s content will…
- Attract attention of customers, prospectivetalent, partners & investors
- Build trust with stories coming from a realperson with a face, not a logo
- Make future branding, recruiting &retention, reputation management and almost everything else easier, because you’ve built a foundation of trust
Everything gets easier
Having your budget reduced to zero is an unlikely scenario. But having to do more with fewer resources is not.
Harnessing the power of your CEO’s message should be the foundation of your marketing, communication, employee engagement and recruiting strategies. Because when your CEO talks, people listen.
And when you have the right messages and stories, it can make everything else you do easier.
If you’re in that position and this approach makes sense toyou, I can help you make it happen. Let’s meet for a free assessment.