Whether it’s at an organisational level or for a specific campaign, your communications strategy defines expectations and outcomes and the roles people play in achieving them. Here are the basics to include.

It may be tempting to skip the strategy and plough straight into your communications campaigns, particularly if you have a small team. But without a strategy, you’re relying on guesswork to get results.

The work you produce, whether it’s a product, service or information, has an audience or market. To be successful, you need to identify the audience or market that will be interested in what you provide so you can share your work with them.

When you’ve identified who you want to share information with, you should communicate with them in a way they’ll welcome and understand. They may be willing recipients of your offering, or they may have no idea that you exist. How you are perceived is crucial to the success of the transaction, regardless of whether it involves a product, service or research results.

Your communications strategy is the blueprint for this exchange of information. It defines who you are, who you want to reach, the messages you share and the outcomes you want to achieve. It sets out the requirements and expectations for everyone involved and gives a clear set of guidelines. It can be shared with external service providers, shown to new recruits and used as a reference point for stakeholders, board members and potential funders.

You don’t need to produce a lengthy, detailed document for every campaign; your strategy can be proportionate to the size and scope of your project. But there are some minimum requirements to include, even if it’s just a line or two for each.

Current position

Establishing your current position is an opportunity to identify the resources you have, carry out an audit of the material you’re using and name the key players involved. If you’re just starting out, it sketches out the background of your project or campaign for potential funders or new recruits. It also ensures that all the key stakeholders are starting from an agreed position and irons out any potential conflicts before you start work.

Partners and stakeholders

Regardless of the size of your organisation, project or campaign, identifying the key stakeholders eliminates doubt and helps you to establish a clear process for the flow of information. Who is involved and to what extent? What are the legal, ethical and procedural requirements of each stakeholder? Establish a clear process for the approval and release of information to avoid messy situations further down the line.

Internal communications

Be very clear about the processes you have in place to communicate with internal members of your team, organisation or network. The larger the outfit, the more clearly defined the procedures should be. Establish who is responsible for each aspect of your communications activity: your website, social media, any regulations regarding your activities. What’s the chain of command? How do people share ideas and feedback? Who has ultimate responsibility for decision-making and delivery? 

Goals and deliverables

The ultimate role of your communications activity is to support you in reaching your organisational goals and outcomes. Lay these out in a clear timeline, with your expectations for what will be achieved at each stage. How will your communications campaigns and all its associated activities contribute to the success of each deliverable and the overall goals? Every aspect of your campaign should have a clear purpose.

Brand and identity

Your brand and identity are the face and voice of your organisation. Whether you have two people representing you or two thousand, they should portray your identity and values. Are you formal or informal? New and groundbreaking or long-established and experienced? Brand guidelines can run into hundreds of pages for major organisations, and while that’s not necessary for smaller groups, your strategy should include a section that describes who you are and how you want to be perceived. 

Audience and market

Your communications campaigns are a bridge between your work and the audience or market you believe will benefit from it. You need to identify who and where they are before you can construct the structure that will allow you to reach them.

Channels of communication

How does your audience consume information? Do they log into social media every morning before they get out of bed, or do they attend a 7am breakfast briefing with key aides? Are you targeting a mainstream audience with TV ads, or small communities with local newspapers? Identifying your audience allows you to establish their preferences and the media they consume. When you understand your audience, you can share information in a way that will be welcomed, understood and responded to.

Key messages

Before you share any information, establish the messages you want to deliver. The exact nature of the communications will change on an ongoing basis, but what are your overarching objectives? Every piece of information you share should establish or support your position. You don’t need to be specific with every message, but your communications should follow a very clear path.

Crisis management

Online reviews and instant feedback from social media mean no organisation is exempt from a potential scandal. The more people you have within your organisation, the higher the likelihood of someone speaking out of turn. Establish clear guidelines at the outset and implement a system for responding to enquiries, including an out-of-hours emergency contact for your team, so you’re not panicking and unsure what to do if a crisis does occur.

Reporting and measurement

Communications campaigns should support you to reach your business or organisational objectives. How will you measure whether this is the case? Any activity you undertake involves some level of resources. If it doesn’t achieve its objectives, those resources are wasted. The actions and objectives in your communications strategy should be connected to clear outcomes, so you can measure their success and adjust your activities accordingly.

There are no shortcuts to developing and delivering your communications strategy. Investing time and resources at the outset establishes a strong foundation to support the goals of your organisation.