Overview: Communication Strategy
Communications appears complex. But a good communication strategy shouldn't be.
I generally boil it all down to five simple, interrelated tables, defining:
- Who you’re trying to reach: your audiences, including their needs and information preferences
- What you’re trying to achieve with them: your business goals for each audience
- Why they should pay attention to you: starting with you Unique Value Proposition, craft an Elevator Pitch, and from that derive Editorial Messaging for each audience
- How you will get those messages to those audiences: an integrated, mutually supportive communications portfolio
- When you will monitor and optimise those activities: key metrics, analyses and optimisation processes.
There are many ways to go about this. My favourite option is to spend a few hours a week interviewing diverse members of your team and holding one or two workshops. That way we'll develop buy-in together along the way, and I'll be able to mentor your staff so that they can better implement the strategy.
Because the last thing you need is a Word document gathering dust on a shelf.
Need help? Get in touch.
Related services: Content strategy, Online strategy, Online community management, Social media strategy, Content creation and marketing, Online architecture, Innovation strategy, Digital transformation, Change and project management.
Relevant resources
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Scientists often speak of the “general public” as a group that is far removed from the academic circles that they belong to.... Scientists have “othered” the general public... there is no such thing ... except for in very specific contexts (i.e. vaccine developers are not the general public vs those who do not develop vaccines when one is speaking…
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www.niemanlab.org
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The Horror! The Horror! - Enquête de la Commission européenne Survey
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" "It takes courage to talk to customers but you have to do it,” Ritson would say. “First the qualitative, then the quantitative," he repeated. Interview customers (qualitative) before you create surveys (quantitative)."
eu-smartcities.eu
When you want to create a community, asking uses what they need is the best way to start. We launched the 1-page website, with user survey, newsletter signup and social, inside two weeks of winning the project. Everything we developed the following year (2010) was based on the results.