Too sensitive to market? Says who?

Can you market a business that works in secret? 

Whether I'm speaking at an event, walking round a conference or sat at a corporate dinner, the conversation often goes the same way. I tell someone I work for Canny Comms, where we help engineers and scientists explain what they make, and before the starters have even arrived, they tell me they can't do comms or marketing because they work in highly sensitive environments. 

It takes every bit of me to say… ‘Well, that’s not true, is it?’ Because it isn’t. So, I’ve written it down instead. 

Confidentiality is a reason to be careful, not a reason to be silent.  

If GCHQ can do it, why can't you? 

I've worked in teams that have done the comms and marketing strategies of GCHQ and other security services. I was part of the team that got Defence Intelligence onto social media during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022; work The Washington Post covered. And I've worked on campaigns countering Russian aggression in Eastern Europe. 

Some people reading this will flinch at me even putting that in writing. But honestly, it's fine. GCHQ has an Instagram account. If the people keeping the nation's secrets can talk about what they do, so can you. 

The trick was never to say everything. It was to decide, carefully, what could be said and why it mattered. That's a skill, not a risk, and it's exactly the one your business needs. 

What do you have to give away? 

Marketing your business isn't the same as giving away its secrets. Your marketing doesn't need the schematics of your top-secret kit. An article about you in The Times doesn't need the names and addresses of the people you work with. Your social channels don't need videos of your kit in use on the front line. 

Personal safety is a different question. Our CEO, Lindsay Compton, has written this week about keeping people safe; this piece is about keeping information secret. We're making the same argument: decide carefully what you say, but don't go quiet. 

Leave all that out and you can still do so much more. 

What happens when your champion moves on? 

I'm sure a lot of your work comes from who you know and from repeat business. That's great, until your champion gets posted, retires or moves on. In uniform, that can happen every two or three years. Or you might want to expand, go for a tender or win work from people who've never heard of you. 

That's when you need a presence. People need to know what skills your team has, what you make, how you work with clients, what your culture is like and what innovation is happening. Hypothetical scenarios and case studies can show what you do without revealing where, or for whom. 

A company making kit for special forces doesn't need to say which unit uses it, or where. It can talk about how it's tested, the problem it solves and the people who design it. 

What does your brand say about you? 

Then there's your brand. How does your business present itself? What's its tone of voice? Why should anyone work with you, beyond the contracts you already hold? Marketing isn't just telling people what your product does. It's how, it's why and it's who. 

So what's stopping you? 

You might be happy sitting on what you've got, and fair enough. But what if you could do more? 

The businesses that grow are the ones that can show what they do and why it matters to those who serve, without giving away anything they shouldn't. We help engineers and scientists explain their technology to the people who buy it, fund it and back it, even when most of it can't be shown. 

So don’t hide growing your business behind ‘we can’t do that because of security’. And if you’re still not sold on marketing, that’s fine. You don’t have to believe in it; you just have to want the next contract. That’s why we’d start with a strategy, not a campaign: a piece of work that maps what you can say, what you can’t, what you can say differently and who needs to hear it before your next tender. Drop me a line and let’s work it out together.