public relations and strategic communicationsJOHANNA MACDONALD & ASSOCIATES |
Why You Need a Communications Strategy and How to Get the Most Out of ItBy Johanna MacDonald, APR When it comes to practicing proactive public relations, a strategic communications plan is key. A strategic plan will help you to focus on your firm’s challenges and opportunities, align goals and objectives, identify your audience or clientele, decide how best to reach these people with your key messages, and demonstrate how your actions are affecting the bottom line. By taking the time and energy at the beginning of your communications process to research and develop a solid communications strategy, you can guarantee the business results you desire. To build your presence with your target audience and create mutual trust, understanding, and commitment, a strategic plan is an indispensable tool. Identify the Challenge or Opportunity and Align Goals and Objectives When developing your plan, set objectives that will ensure that the Communications function contributes to businesses success. To do this, look at your business objectives and ask yourself how Communications currently contributes to each one. What action or opinion do you want the target audience to do or have? Develop a list of contributions that your communications program is currently making for each business objective. If this is difficult to do, it’s probably a sign that you need to focus more on strategic, proactive communications. Next, ask yourself how your communications goals can add value to the business objectives. Is the communications function too focused on tactical work—activities like creating documents, editing memos or writing brochures—or is the focus more on strategic work, such as creating the attention that would have an impact on your corporate reputation and bottom line? Effective strategic communications goals and objectives will:
Once you have aligned your business objectives with the actions and reactions that you desire from your target audience, you're ready to define your target audience and decide how to use your new approach to reach them with your key messages. Identifying and targeting your audience Today’s workplace contains four distinct generations:
Each of these groups has its own unique perspective and expectations. What age groups are represented in your target audience, what are their specific needs, and what types of communication are they looking for? By understanding your audience and their specific needs, you can determine if existing communications channels are effective, and identify new communications opportunities, thereby ensuring that everyone’s needs are met. Online tools and platforms that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives are growing in popularity and usage. These mediums, known as social media, can take many different forms, such as blogs, vlogs, podcasts, instant messaging, (IM) and wikis (an interactive blog that literally means ‘quick’ in Hawaiian), to name only a few. This new social media is free to distribute, has relatively low costs associated with creation, and is very competitive. The content is user-generated, highly targeted to niche markets, two way, and interactive. Who is your target audience? If they are the Gen X or Y they most certainly aren’t looking for a brochure about your product or company. You will need to be much more creative in your communications approach to reach this audience with your key messages. Building the bridge between your audience and your firm Clearly developed and positioned key messages will help to create a specific, targeted approach. By focusing in, you ensure that your strategy is realistic; in other words, that you are able to identify how your specific tactics are going to achieve specific results and how that will happen. Being realistic also ensures that your strategy will be cost effective. The decision on your mix of communications tools depends entirely on the challenge or opportunity you face, the goals and objectives that you have identified, and, of course, your target audience – who and where they are, and how they want to be communicated with. No matter which mix of tools you choose, always try to be creative, innovative, and engaging. In summary, a successful strategic communications plan has these characteristics:
Incorporate these elements into your plan, and you’re well on your way to establishing goodwill between yourself and your audience, and creating results that can be readily measured to see if they have achieved your desired outcomes. ----------------------------------- Johanna is a highly motivated individual who has over 15 years experience in helping governments, businesses, and not-for profits to identify and meet their communications needs. Johanna owns and operates Johanna MacDonald & Associates, a Public Relations and Government Communications firm based in Edmonton, Alberta. Visit her website at www.macdonaldapr.com |
Contact Johanna
MacDonald. 11519 43 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta |