Is your communications strategy prepared?
Now more than ever, effective communication is integral to your organisation. Stakeholders are savvier, media is constantly on the lookout for compelling stories, and internal staff have higher expectations of engagement consistency. A comprehensive communications strategy brings all these parts together to ensure coherent messaging, key objectives to work towards, and a plan to measure success.
Below are our top five tips for creating a strategic communications plan that achieves results and paves the way for meaningful connections between your organisation and your stakeholders, including employees.
- Do your research
Investigation plays a pivotal role in ensuring your communications plan has a strong foundation, providing insight into the organisation’s challenges and potential opportunities.
- Develop key messages which align with your organisation’s objectives
Key messages should form the basis of your plan, and it is important that the four or five messages you choose align with your organisation’s objectives. They may be part of your strategic plan, business plan or both. For example, if one of your objectives is to raise awareness of your work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, you should include a key message to highlight your work in this area.
- Ensure your target audience list is comprehensive
Every organisation has a wide range of stakeholders. It is important to categorise these into primary and secondary groups, and to undertake a deep dive to ensure every possible target audience has been identified. You may also like to include a list of prospective target audiences, from advocates to government agencies, that the communications strategy can help you reach.
- Develop strategies and tactics that are not too ambitious or limited
For the execution of a communications plan to be successful, strategies and tactics must not be so over-ambitious that they overload time and resource poor colleagues.They should not be so generalised that they do not push the organisation forward. Think of how your organisation can strike the perfect balance by showcasing impactful stories, while also leveraging digital platforms for engagement.
- Bookend your research with evaluation
The final stage of a communication strategy is evaluation, and it is often forgotten or deliberately left out of execution. Evaluation is vital to measuring success to better inform your next communication strategy, and provide feedback opportunities for key stakeholders.
If your organisation needs a communication strategy, but you are not sure where to start, we can help. Email jo@fiftyacres.com to get in touch with Fifty Acres.