Leaps’ Post

A lot of comms teams are going about gathering SME insights the wrong way. Especially with larger companies and bigger PR agencies. From our conversations with comms teams, they're having these issues: ❌️ They’re finding it hard to get SME participation at all. ❌️ They’re not getting SME insights on time. And they’re hoping a tool like Leaps can magically fix everything. But after digging deeper, it’s clear the issue isn’t first about tools or processes. It’s about relationships — or the lack of them. If your SMEs don’t know you, or worse, haven’t agreed to contribute, a tool won’t make them respond to your requests any quicker. We had a conversation with a comms team at an enterprise company not too long ago. And they had thousands of potential SMEs and wanted a tool to help them gather their insights. But they didn’t want to introduce themselves or ask the SMEs to opt in beforehand. Spoiler: That approach doesn’t work. Here’s what does work: ✅️ Build relationships or get opt-ins from SMEs first. Ideally, your SMEs should know who you are. Which is where consultants and boutique agencies usually have no issues. But for larger teams, this isn’t always possible. So if you have a lot of SMEs, I’d suggest using an opt-in process. That could mean creating a form or sending them a Leaps’ SME database invite link. Let SMEs fill out their basic contact info and specialty and get added to your SME database. This serves as their agreement to participate. Trust me, this initial step would save you a lot of headache down the line. Once you’ve done this, that’s when Leaps can come in to simplify your process of collecting, organizing, and using their insights. On the SME side of things, Leaps makes it easier for them to respond so you have a higher chance of getting faster and timely responses. 👉🏽 Automated reminders to keep your request at the top of their inbox, reminding them of the deadline. 👉🏽 No learning curve or signups required for them. 👉🏽 They can respond with voice-to-text feature so no typing necessary. All they have to do is click and talk. 👉🏽 They can respond on the go, on the phones, without needing to be on a laptop/desktop. 👉🏽 They can respond when it’s convenient, save their progress, and return to it so it doesn’t feel like it’s taking up a lot of their time. But for this to work, it’s relationships/SME buy-in first, tools second. That’s how you increase your chances of getting timely, quality SME insights. What has your experience been getting SME buy/in or opt-ins as a comms pro? #Communications #PR