The tumult in the weather in my region this week, from the double-inch rainfall to the 100-mph winds in a derecho, got me thinking about crises: Is your business prepared? And I’m not talking about weather troubles.
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— Ann Gynn
The Hotline
Do I Really Need a Crisis Communication Plan for My Small Business?
🟩 ATTRACT → 🟧 convert → ⬜ RETAIN → ⬛ amplify
I run a small business. I know something could go wrong, but do I really need a crisis communication plan? I’ve always thought of them as necessary for big companies with PR departments.
Too often, companies think about crisis communication after something happens. And that’s understandable. You don’t want to spend time now on something that may never happen. But if that thing does happen, your business reputation or even its survival could be at risk.
A client publishes a bad review or criticizes you in a social media post. A partner does something that conflicts with your brand’s values. A comment you wrote years ago resurfaces that doesn’t reflect your current opinion.
For over a decade, I handled media relations for the Cleveland National Air Show. We updated our crisis response plan every year and reviewed it with all key stakeholders. Fortunately, we never had an incident require a full-scale response. We implemented the media component only once when a pilot had a minor crash during a practice session.
I've also created multi-page crisis communication plans for major events, outlining responsibilities and preparing responses for different scenarios.
You don't need anything that robust, but you do need a crisis response structure with answers for several common scenarios.
Ground your response in three questions:
What happened?
Who is affected directly and indirectly?
What do I need to do right now? What needs to happen after that?
Let’s walk through the scenario where someone posts a bad review about your brand.
What happened? A customer posted a Google review saying they were disappointed in my services.
Who is affected? The customer, obviously. Plus, prospects and existing customers who read the review. Search and AI engines may surface that review when people search for my business.
What do I need to do right now? What needs to happen after that? Respond to the review publicly without arguing or trying to resolve the entire dispute. Let the customer know I'll contact them directly. Then, contact them, understand what went wrong, and determine what I can do to address it. Afterward, I should decide whether anything needs to change in my business to prevent the same problem from happening again.
To get ahead of a potential crisis, answer the questions for these common scenarios:
A customer publicly criticizes your business.
You make a mistake that seriously affects a client.
Confidential or client information is exposed.
You suddenly can't deliver what you've promised.
A client, partner, contractor, or other business you're publicly associated with creates a reputational problem.
You won’t have the exact response ready. You can’t because the facts will dictate that. But you will have the framework to guide what you do. Because when something goes wrong, figuring out how you’ll respond should not be another part of the crisis.
Got a question you’d like me to answer in a future edition of The Hotline? Call or text Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.
The Challenge
This week: Pick one crisis you hope never happens. Spend 15 minutes answering these three questions:
What happened?
Who would be affected directly and indirectly?
What would you need to do right away? What would need to happen next?
Save your answers in a folder labeled CRISIS COMM PLAN so you can easily find them if something arises.
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What I Did With AI This Week
I feel like AI is like the good intern and the poorly performing intern. I experienced the latter this week. In Canva, I asked its AI tool to replace an image in a document with the one I attached to the chat. It didn’t do it. It replaced it with some photo I had never seen before. So I tried again, and I got another photo that I hadn’t seen before. I gave up.
I did find a good intern, or at least a moderately OK assistant, in ChatGPT, which integrates with Canva. It didn’t replace the photo, but it told me how to do it.
Have any AI tricks of your own? Hit reply, call, or text the Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.
The Marketing Minute
Add a link
Open one of your most-visited website pages and add a link to another relevant page on your site. It helps visitors discover more of what you offer and helps search engines understand the relationship between your content.
The Shortlist
💬 Reddit reality: Half of U.S. shoppers verify AI recommendations on Reddit before they buy.
🎯 Ranking relevance: LinkedIn’s now ranking comments based on relevance to each user’s signals.
🤝 Reliable results: Adam Holmgren shares how to scale trust as a founder-led business.
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Got a question you’d like me to answer in The Hotline? Email me or DM me on LinkedIn. Even better: Text or leave a message on the Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.