Writing a Communications Strategy

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LUCY MaggsGERONIMO COMMUNICATIONS

• Writing a Communications Strategy

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Reputation

• Your reputation is your most important asset
• Communications professionals are the
  manager/guardian of an organisations reputation
• A communications strategy is about building and
  protecting your organisations reputation

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The way to a good reputation is to endeavour to
be what you desire you appear
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Reputation

• Insurance firm Aon polled 2000 top UKs
• private companies and showed that loss of
• reputation was viewed as the greatest risk

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What is a communications strategy and why do you
need one?
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• To build and protect your organisations
  reputation
• To get buy in and support from other senior staff
• To help them understand what you are trying to
  achieve
• To get them working with you

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• What are the key components of a communications
  strategy?

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Objectives

• Give you direction
• Dont confuse targets and objectives
• E.g.
• To establish the organisation as the local NHS
• To raise the profile of the organisation
• To raise awareness of childrens centres
• Keep it simple dont have too many

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Budget and Resources

• Consider budget and resources when setting
  objectives
• Dont over promise youll lose valuable support
• Think about budget allocation what you will
  allocate to different areas or channels

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Audiences

• Be as specific as possible
• Think about

Who will best help you achieve your goals?
What demographic groups are you trying to reach?
What do you know about the best ways to reach
them?
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Key Audiences

• External
• Public often defined by interest, background,
  geography
• Service users
• Supporters
• Stakeholders and opinion formers
• Internal

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Public

• Defined according to
• Age
• Interests
• Background
• Previous records/responses

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Stakeholders
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Internal

• Staff should be organisations ambassadors
• All staff should be on message
• Fully informed on all communications work
• Range of activities
• Face to face briefings and internal
  presentations
• Staff newsletters
• Intranet

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Key Messages

• Need to be concise and easy to use
• Need to flex to fit different audiences
• When setting key messages you can

Think about what you want the organisation to be
known for
Back this up with facts and figures
Give examples
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Channels

• Balance broad and shallow approach with narrow
  and deep
• Select the right media/channels and make them
  work as hard as possible
• Range of channels available digital, print, web
  2.0, advertising....
• Consider your target audience (s)
• Allow for interactive communications where
  possible, particularly when using digital media

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Integration

• The whole should be greater than the sum of the
  parts
• What do we mean by integration
• Executional consistency or matching luggage
  approach
• Can have same creative idea without sharing the
  same imagery

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Its Not Just Childs Play
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Its Not Just Childs Play
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Its Not Just Childs Play
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Measurement and Evaluation

• Key areas for evaluation
• Input - activity and delivery
• Output - cuttings generated, hits or
  opportunities to see on websites
• Impact

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A Communications Strategy

• Is about building and protecting your
  organisations reputation
• You need buy in from senior staff across the
  organisation remember its not about putting
  lipstick on a pig
• Make sure you invest time in getting the
  objectives right and ensure your budget matches
  your ambition
• Refine your audiences and dont forget staff
• Build in measurement and evaluation from the
  beginning

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Make your strategy a reality

• Make your strategy a reality

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Dont leave it sitting on the shelf
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Delivery

• From strategy build operational plans
• Anything from six months to a year
• Can break down further into different areas and
  campaigns

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• ?