HOW TO: Do Comms Strategies that actually work.
I know what you’re thinking: “Oh good, another ‘how to write a comms strategy’ blog post.”
I get it. The comms-internet is full of them. And here is another one. The thing is for me, I do love comms strategies. They’re my favourite projects to work on, and over the past four years doing them for clients (and several more during my “proper job” period), I’ve learned a thing or two about them.
In my first “How to” guide to mark my 4 years in business, I’m going to share some thoughts on how to do them properly; without referring to any academic texts, models, or (un)helpful acronyms.
This, essentially, is how to do a proper comms strategy that works, delivers, and survives contact with the real world.
1. Don’t get hung up on finding the perfect “model”
You can search for loads of comms strategy models. You can see a million Linkedin posts about what a comms strategy needs to contain.
And, you know what? I’ve never seen one I disagree with. And that’s the thing, they’re all basically the same.
They include details on your:
Outcomes – what you’re trying to achieve, expressed in objectives that you can measure
Audiences – who you’re aiming at
Priorities – the key things you want to draw attention to
Messages – the language you’ll use to express your priorities
Channels – the outputs. The Whizzy stuff. The Magical Comms Fairy Dust.
Evaluation – linked directly to whatever your objectives say.
A comms strategy is literally that simple. Sure you can go into more or less detail on each section. In “audiences” you could include a ton of first-hand research, or you could do an detailed “stakeholder mapping” exercise if you really want to.
You could go into painstaking granular detail on your messaging if you like, or you could just do two or three big ideas.
You could do a super detailed delivery plan, or just an overview of activity over a notional period.
But either way, any decent comms strategy includes these fundamental things. If yours doesn’t have one of these sections, or something very similar to it; it’s missing something important.
2. Ask the right questions
So you know what stages you need to fill in, but how do you get the information to do so?
It’s invariably important to speak to people who ‘own’ the issue you’re trying to solve with a comms strategy. It’s also highly recommended to speak to your end users to, or at the very least understand what you can about them from any research you have about them.
But once you’ve identified these important people, it’s also important to know what questions to ask them.
The questions you need your people to answer are deceptively simple:
Why?
What?
How?
When?
Who?
By answering these, you get a sense of your desired outcome (i.e. “Why” we need to do this), the basic premise (i.e. “What it’s all about), the mechanisms by which the issue at hand will work (i.e. “How” it’ll work), the key timescales of the issue at hand (i.e. “When” stuff is happening on it – Note: not necessarily when they want “a comms” to “go out”), and really importantly the audiences (i.e. “who” it’s aimed at).
These really are the fundamental questions to ask. If you don’t have time to ask any other questions, make sure you ask at least these.
But if you do have the time, it’s also worth probing your stakeholders on what they want your audiences (i.e. “who” you’re targeting) to:
Think?
Feel?
Do?
By asking these questions, you’ll understand the important information for them to take away (i.e. what we want them to “think”), the reaction we want them to have (i.e. what we want them to “feel”) and the call-to-action (i.e. what we want them to “do”).
It sounds simple, because it is.
3. Know your channels
You might notice something about the “questions to ask” bit.
At no point have I suggested you should ask the people you’re talking with to suggest what comms channels you should be using.
I’m quite sure they’d be happy to provide you with an opinion! However, really this is your job, not theirs.
You need to be in a position where you know your available channels inside out, are constantly aware of new ones, and always on the look out for better ways to get your messages across.
This is your specialism and no-one else’s.
And by asking the important questions we’ve talked about you will get to a point whereby it should be pretty obvious which channels you are going to use.
Understanding and articulating your outcomes, audiences and messages will point you very clearly in an obvious direction. By knowing your channels, the solution should be at your fingertips.
4. Make them survive contact with the real world
This step is so important.
You can have the most inspiring messaging going. You can know your audience inside-out. You can have a really exciting programme of comms activity all worked out and ready to go.
But are you totally confident it’ll work in the real world?
Either way, it’s worth checking. I’ve developed another few questions to ask; of yourself, your team and your stakeholders to sense check your thinking, that I swear by:
What are your opportunities and barriers?
Which are structural and which are cultural?
Allow me to explain:
- Opportunities are things that already exist that you can leverage to your advantage in delivering your comms strategy.
If you have buy-in from leadership, that’s great! That’s a cultural opportunity.
If your team or core audience feel like they’ve been involved in the creation of the strategy through attending the workshops you facilitated; great job! That’s also a cultural opportunity.
If you have up-to-date reliable digital equipment with all the right permissions; fantastic! That’s a structural opportunity
- Barriers are things that might scupper you if you’re not careful. They’re not reasons to not to do something, but you do need to legislate and plan for them. They may change your approach a bit once you think about them.
Are your staff too burned out and disillusioned to take on any new information right now? That’s a cultural barrier.
Did you not have time, or forget to involve the right people in your conversations when creating your strategy? That’s a cultural barrier too.
Have you already spent your budget this year and have nothing for the shiny campaign materials you were hoping to launch? That’s a structural barrier.
Basically:
Culture = feelings, perceptions, and relationships
Structure = money, equipment, and infrastructure
There has been many a comms strategy run aground because of these factors not being adequately taken into account.
If you consider these things, and legislate for them – you’ll have a much better chance of success.
5. Make them brief and simple to understand
I could spend all day reading comms strategies.
I have, however, long accepted the harsh reality that I am in a very small minority in this.
I’ve learned this the hard way over the years. Back in my “proper job” years, I would spend literally months writing comms strategies, and they would end up as epic 80-page Word documents, full of research, and every possible message for every possible scenario.
The problem is, they were so dense with information, that they were in effect useless as clear plans of action. They sat on the Corporate shared drive forever in splendid isolation, and years after my departure, are probably still there….
I’ve since started to ensure that every comms strategy I write can be condensed into a single page info-graphic. For some clients, that’s enough. They just need a clear, articulate distillation of those five points I mentioned in my first tip.
Some clients need a bit more information, and a bit more context, which I’m always happy to provide. Some need a clear timed delivery plan alongside them. However, every strategy I do has an “on-a-page” version within it that can be referred to at a glance at any point.
Doing it this way means that everyone has a clear, accessible sense-check at any point of any project. It also means there is room for interpretation and flexibility as time passes – providing a constant source of consistency and sense of direction for everyone involved.
So if you’re working on a comms strategy, these are the stages to go through.
But you know what also is a really useful thing to do?
Get someone impartial to provide an external perspective, with the expertise, and capacity to do it for you.
Clients regularly tell me that having that third-person perspective on developing their strategies is invaluable for them.
So if you’re about to do a comms strategy, and you need some help, please do give me a shout.
Or if you’d like to see me talking about this in more detail, do check out the presentation I gave to “Comms by the Coast” back in July 2020.
Good luck!
