What are stakeholders, and how do they affect your company?

What are stakeholders, and how do they affect your company? When it comes to the improvement of your company’s performance, you must understand the importance of marketing in this sector. Regarding, stakeholders, they are your audience of interest. In other words, everything related to your company, such as employees and clients. Because of this, you must know the kind of impact your stakeholders will have on your company.

In fact, both marketing and stakeholders are concepts made up of several elements that you must know. Of course, you have probably already heard about or learned about what marketing is and why it’s so important to your business. But what do we mean when we mention stakeholders?

What are stakeholders?

To start, you must learn about the origins of this term, created by the American Philosopher Robert Edward Freeman in 1980. When he talked about stakeholders, he meant the individuals or organizations whose decisions have a great impact on a company.

Stakeholders also mean interested parties, so for Freeman all the interest groups in a company are important. Because of this, you must take them into account when carrying out a strategy to improve your company.

Now that you understand what this term means, you must know that any action implemented in a company can led to quick success. However, this can also lead to failure. In this case, partners, workers, competitors, and clients will be affected. So, as you can see, stakeholders carry a lot of weight in your company, even more, than you can think of.

How can stakeholders impact your company?

Your main goal when carrying out a strategy for your company should be to achieve the satisfaction of every one part of that result. This way, you won’t have stakeholders. As a result, this means that no one will be affected by the decisions made in your company.

Your shareholders, customers, and the entire group that makes up your company have significant value in your brand. For this reason, you must listen carefully to their demands and wishes. The problem is to guarantee that all the stakeholders of your company are pleased with the work done. However, worry not, since this isn’t impossible.

On the other hand, when facing stakeholders, you will face a great challenge. This will be to seek all the common objectives among the people or companies who influence your business. Once you have them, your goal should be to keep those objectives aligned. This way, all your actions will coincide and lead you to your success.

Can your company be successful by taking stakeholders into account?

The answer is definitely yes. However, for this, you will have to be aware of the people or organizations that make up your company. Once you determine that stakeholders aren’t satisfied with your products or services, you should focus on the actions implemented by your company to promote sustainable growth.

Types of stakeholders

There are many types of stakeholders, and every single one of them is important. If you want your company to run smoothly, you must have them in mind. This can be either because of their economic link or other factors.

There are two types of stakeholders:

• Primary stakeholders: are those who have a direct link with the company, such as workers, shareholders, partners, and clients.
• Secondary stakeholders: are those who don’t have a direct stake in your company but are just as important, so your performance results aren’t affected. In this category, we can mention the general public, competitors, and the market.

It’s also relevant to mention that stakeholders can be classified as direct and indirect:

• Direct stakeholders: owners, suppliers, clients, workers.
• Indirect stakeholders: competitors, customer advocates, media, specific groups.

How to manage stakeholders in your company?

One of the main objectives that you must set for your company is to achieve a positive impact. That’s why you must know how to manage internal and external stakeholders. How to do it? First, you need to know your interests when it comes to your company. Then, you can start to develop a strategy that can meet your expectations.

On the other hand, you must also figure out the common interests of all your stakeholders. In other words, before starting to manage them, you must identify each one of them to proceed with the development of the corresponding strategy.

To identify and satisfy stakeholders, you can ask yourself the following questions:

• What do stakeholders think of your company?
• What do stakeholders expect from your company?

Managing each group will be the main objective 

All the groups within your company are vital, and none of them can be left out of your marketing strategy. So, you must understand their thoughts and expectations when it comes to your business. For this, you must establish the best communication channels to keep them up to date.

For stakeholders to have a positive impact on your company, you must worry about knowing their interests. Only in this way, will decision-making be much easier for you. When creating your digital marketing or communication strategy, you shouldn’t leave out the interests of any groups.

Besides, you must keep stakeholders informed of everything related to your company. That’s why the offer of information must be very clear, and no data can go unnoticed. After all, they add value to your company when they feel integrated with it, and that’s why you must show them that their contribution is also a fundamental key to achieving your business goals.

There are other types of stakeholders interests you need to decipher, but one of the most important is that you show your business transparently.

Tip: 

All stakeholder levels are important to your company, and you shouldn’t ignore any of them.

Stakeholders have a great influence on your company 

Stakeholders are a key factor in your company, especially when starting a project.

Because of this, before carrying out your strategic plan, you must determine the role of each of these stakeholders.

This way, you’ll be able to get the value that corresponds to each of them.

To achieve their satisfaction, you must identify their needs to offer them the best solutions. Besides, you must also understand that the more your strategies progress in your project, the more people will be part of it. At this point, the use of communication channels will be essential.

What’s the difference between stakeholders and Shareholders?

Even if both terms are similar, they’re not the same. Now that you know what stakeholders mean, it’s time that you learn about shareholders.

What are Shareholders? As per its name, these are the people who have shares within your company, which also makes them stakeholders. Companies tend to have a great bond with shareholders. After all, since they own shares in the company, they have a lot of influence when making decisions in a given business. 

In the same way, they can also have a say when choosing what will be the best marketing strategy for the growth of companies. Because of this, these may be the most important stakeholders in your company. All because they inject capital into companies for the development of their products or services.

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One detail that you should know is that not all stakeholders could have the same impact on your company. In other words, not everyone will be hurt in the same way when making a decision or carrying out a strategy. The impact of stakeholders on your company is very important, even if some of them can be replaceable, such as suppliers.

As for the main stakeholders, they could be greatly affected by the poor activity at your company. In fact, owners and shareholders are the groups closest to the success or failure of your business, including their family members.

That’s why you must have good marketing strategies in your company. Only in this way will you satisfy the main and secondary stakeholders of your company. Now, if you need a good marketing strategy, you can count on the help of BluCactus. Our specialized group will ensure the satisfaction of all your stakeholders.

BluCactus, your ally in Digital marketing

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