Following the successful running of the first “B2B Corporate Communications Workshop” in the Silicon Valley headquartered co-working space OnePiece Work, which opened in Shenzhen last month. The reception was resounding, the participants wanted more workshops and trainings;
“Some ideas have not been thought of before, it is very interesting! If you can communicate with you soon, that would be great!”
In the August edition of the B2B workshop, LEWIS cooperated with TechTemple- a well-known global entrepreneurial community – to hold the second “B2B Corporate Communication Practicum Workshop” at TechTemple’s Shenzhen space. Business representatives and entrepreneurs discuss and explore how B2B companies can develop communication strategies in the digital age!
The workshop was run by Kate Kwan, Associate Director at LEWIS, whose 12 years of experience span from public and media relations to public sector work, Kate shared her thoughts on Greater China’s current PR and communications climate, expanding on the intricacies of how brands are choosing to promote themselves as well as B2B’s communication strategies, and the expansion of sales leads.
The following are some points discussed at the workshop
The greatest difference between B2B and B2C companies would be the speciality and complexity of their products and services, as well as the particularity of client requirement and diversity of customers’ needs. Therefore, for many B2B companies, effectively communicating complex B2B corporate messaging, while accurately and effectively capturing the eye of the target audience and positioning the client as an industry thought leader is often a challenge.
In this workshop, LEWIS also specially led attendees to practice the Message House system of marketing. Through the analysis and breaking down of corporate messaging, LEWIS aims to help students learn to turn complex and cumbersome information into intuitive, news-oriented “stories”. The discussion also delved into how to organize “story” content to ensure that the media and the audience can accurately understand the corporation’s whole “message”, and understand the key information that the company wishes to deliver.
In the real-world exercises provided to the attendees, we saw that many B2B companies had excellent technical advantages, but at the stage of disseminate information, the companies had a tendency to fall into the trap of wanting to spread all the strong points at once. One of the things to consider is that a large amount of professional information will cause the overall content to lose focus. At the same time, simply listing their own advantages and ignoring the concerns of the media and the industry will also lead to the failure to convey information that the audience actually needs. Regarding this issue, Kate suggests that you can think in several directions:
- Think about who you want to communicate with, and dig deeper into what they care about, what pain points are currently encountered, and what preferences and communication channels are available. These are all elements that need to be incorporated into your communication strategy for a comprehensive approach.
- Try to locate your company in one sentence. This sentence must be able to highlight the difference between you and other competitors and can let your audience quickly understand your strengths.
- Think about the factual information such as situation, data, or introduction, and what the point of view is, whether it is connected back to the final theme to be delivered, this is the most important.
In response to the PR and communications needs of different companies, LEWIS launched a small workshop program designed to help companies take the first step towards efficient communication by providing targeted and systematic training. For more details or to discuss how to cooperate, please contact us!
