Are there differences in the way companies manage communications and marketing compared to public administrations?
In this article, I outlined 10 differences between managing social media for businesses and public administrations, where some of them were mentioned. If I had to choose just one difference, it would surely be that the objectives of businesses and public administrations are different.
While the ultimate goal of any company is economic profit, in the case of public administrations, the objective is much more diffuse, and under the umbrella of “public service,” multiple objectives can be encompassed depending on the type of administration or public body in question.
This lack of precision regarding the objective is accompanied by a difficulty in measuring or quantifying whether we are achieving that objective, since in many cases we don’t even bother to measure it, but that is another matter.
Furthermore, in most cases, except in cases of oligopoly, companies operate in a scenario where if they are not competitive and do not achieve their objectives, they can be swept away by the competition at any time.
This doesn’t happen to public administrations, however. They have no jurisdiction in their own area or sector, and therefore can organize, establish, define, manage, and even behave as they wish, while respecting the legal and regulatory framework, but without the fear or threat that comes with having competitors watching over you.
In this environment, companies know the importance of communication and marketing in achieving their objectives. In fact, it was back in the 1960s when McCarthy proposed the famous 4 P’s of marketing, which were increased over the years to 5, 7, and even 9. This type of marketing has always been ignored by public authorities.
And the same thing that happened with marketing has happened with communication, hence much of the reluctance we still find in public administrations to have a website, open social media profiles, use new formats, simplify administrative language…
And the truth is, public administrations continue to believe that it doesn’t matter what our users, clients, and citizens think about the services and care we offer. In fact, we don’t even bother to listen to them because we’ll always have users, clients, and citizens, because they’ll be “forced” to come to us, like the oligopolies that we are.
It doesn’t matter if our city council’s website, for example, is cumbersome, slow, or doesn’t display on mobile devices—our citizens will have to put up with that because they can’t choose another city council website. It’s easy to think we’re doing things right and that our communications efforts are more than enough.
But what would happen if a company suddenly appeared offering the services we offer for free, but they managed them much more quickly and easily, even though they charged for it? What do you think citizens would choose?
Well, to the surprise of many, a vast majority of citizens prefer to pay rather than have to process their paperwork with the administration for free. It’s that hard and it’s that real.
And here are two examples where this is already happening.
1. Public employment services vs. temporary employment agencies or personnel selection
Public employment services offer companies the ability to manage their job postings, offering, among other things, the largest database of candidates for their selection. No temporary employment or recruitment agency will ever have the candidates that the public employment service has, as being registered with the public employment service is a mandatory requirement for, for example, collecting unemployment benefits or entering a public employment program.
In addition to being able to access the largest candidate database, public employment services offer companies advice and access to recruitment assistance, among other benefits, all at no cost to the company.
Well, despite this, the majority of job postings in Spain are not managed by public employment services but by private companies. This is curious because temporary employment agencies are even allowed by law to post job postings in the public service.
In other words, a temporary employment agency is going to charge a company to provide candidates when they could go directly to the public service and get it done for free. And yet, companies prefer to continue paying. Something that should make us think.
2. Management of public housing rentals vs. real estate agencies
What happens with public employment also happens with other public services, such as housing rental management. Those who want to leave their homes to be managed by the public housing service can apply for tax assistance and benefits, counseling, or access to renovation grants, to name just a few examples—and all of this, free of charge.
Well, despite all this, most homeowners prefer to go through a real estate agency that will charge them for these procedures.
Faced with this reality, these public services are thinking about and developing new proposals and assistance, hoping that this will encourage more people to use public services to manage or process their job offers or rental properties.
But the reality is that despite the efforts being made, citizens prefer to continue paying private companies.
Why does this happen? Because citizens don’t trust the administration. And they don’t trust it in the sense not that we’re going to deceive them, but that we’re going to cause them a ton of headaches, that we’re going to bog them down with paperwork, requirements, and bureaucracy. They don’t trust us to make this process simple, easy, and quick.
I’m not saying that such cumbersome and slow management doesn’t exist, but it’s also true that in recent years the management of many public services and citizen services has greatly improved, becoming simpler and more streamlined. But how do we convey this to a citizenry that initially distrusts the administration?
What can we do then?
Well, among other things, we must start looking at the strategies that companies have been using for decades: communication and marketing.
But not only that, we must adapt it to the circumstances and characteristics of the administrations because, as we said at the beginning, companies and public administrations are different.
What type of marketing and communication can we use?
I propose focusing on what I call trust marketing, that is, we have to generate enough trust so that citizens can trust us as a public administration.
A confidence not only when you have to choose between public service or private enterprise, but also the confidence of knowing that the government will offer you the best service and attention.
What are the keys to trust marketing?
a. Regain trust
Confidence in any aspect of life, whether personal or professional, is not easy to achieve, especially when it has already been lost once.
And that’s what’s happening to us in public administrations: we’ve lost the trust of the people we’ve served or who have interacted with the administration at some point.
It’s true that in recent years, public administrations’ attention and service to citizens has improved significantly, but we must be aware that we’re starting from a situation of distrust and discredit on the part of the public, so it’s going to be very difficult for us to improve that image and, therefore, regain that trust.
I am a public employee and I admit that when I have to deal with a public administration, I start to tremble.
b. Long-term investment
Trust marketing is a long-term strategy, a very long-term one, even longer than the duration of a legislative term, which is the period during which projects are carried out in our public administrations.
We have to accept that we won’t change the administration’s image overnight, but one day without change will take us further away from our goal.
In this way, we will have to work on trust marketing every day and know that we need to design communication strategies and plans, and that results will take time to arrive, but they will come.
c. People are the key
Trust marketing isn’t just a strategy designed and developed by the communications department or management. It’s something that encompasses every single person working in the administration.
From the first person to the last, and it’s possibly that last person, whom we barely remember, who has the best chance of making that trust marketing a reality.
I discovered this last point once in a public administration where they weren’t sure why an initiative they had launched had such a poor reputation. After much analysis and interviews, they realized that the people who were at the point of contact when people requested information about this aid empathized with the citizens and ended up saying, “Very few people will actually receive this aid because it requires so many requirements.”
Therefore, trust marketing must be both an external and internal strategy. In fact, we must first gain the internal trust of our administration so that we can then transfer it externally to the general public.
This commitment to trust marketing is undoubtedly a challenge for most public administrations, but it is a strategy and a way to address some of the main problems our public administrations face, which distance us from the citizens we work for.
If you work in a public administration, whether in city councils, provincial governments, ministries, or in healthcare, education, or the police, and you want to develop your personal brand and generate new professional opportunities, this is your guide: Personal Branding in Public Administration.
If you need help developing a communications plan for your city council or public administration, this guide may be helpful: “Guide to developing a communications plan for a public administration” here.
If you want to stay up to date with all the latest news in digital marketing, social media, and communications, you can subscribe to my newsletter here: Digital Marketing, Social Media, and Communication Newsletter.
And if you like listening to content while running, driving, or cooking, here’s the link to the #30minutos podcast with interviews on topics related to communication, social media, marketing in public administration, and other public sector-related topics. You can subscribe to the podcast here.
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