A comms strategy doesn’t have to be a work of great genius. As a tool for making the right people care (and act), all you need are simple building blocks.
If you’re spending time on content (social media, newsletters, pitch decks, yada yada) but the results are unclear, maybe it’s time to check in with your comms strategy.
Here are three refreshing questions to help you focus your comms on organisational goals and develop a comms strategy with real meaning.
1. What will look different in the world when we achieve our comms goals?
Before you make a single post, write one email, or touch a campaign plan, define what success means. Be specific.
This isn’t about “raising awareness.” It’s about real, visible change. For example:
- More school leaders understand the value of our literacy tools and sign up to our platform
- Donors approach us to apply for grants, instead of us chasing them
- Policymakers come to us for advice on reform
Once you define what you want to shift, you can track progress in useful ways. Are the right people reaching out? Are more partners referencing your language? Are funding conversations happening faster?
If your comms aren’t driving change, they’re just noise. This question sets your direction.
2. Who do we need to reach, to make that happen?
Once you’re clear on what needs to change, identify who can make that change real.
Don’t just list “audiences.” Choose individuals or roles with power to act. Teachers? Possibly. But if procurement officers hold the pen, then they’re the ones who need to understand your value. If your donor prospects are in government or philanthropy, focus your message there.
Be precise. “Teachers” is too broad. “School leaders in Qatar working in bilingual environments” is more useful. “Procurement officers in Lebanon evaluating Arabic tools” is even better.
One education organisation we chatted with this month had strong buy-in from teachers, but that didn’t always translate into sales. Why? Because they weren’t always the final decision-makers. Curriculum heads and procurement staff were missing from the picture. This is a gap your comms strategy can help fill (docking in with sales and marketing… or sometimes all in one person!)
3. What can we actually sustain with the team we have?
It’s lovely to be ambitious, but comms strategies often fail because they’re too big to run.
It’s tempting to promise daily social posts and monthly blogs, plus a newsletter, plus a campaign every quarter. A podcast! A documentary film! I hope you have plenty of comms resource and can make all that happen. But in a small team, if no one owns that work, it won’t happen. Or worse, it will happen once and then stop before it delivers any value.
A smart comms strategy starts with an honest look at capacity. How many hours per week can your team give? What’s their skill set? Do you need freelancers, templates, automation tools, and when will you have budgets for those?
A team we spoke with recently had an end-to-end lead nurturing setup in HubSpot. They designed email flows, lead scoring, and automations. But without a copywriter or content creator, they couldn’t generate material to fuel the system. Yes, other people in the team could write the content, but they were busy with product or training or their actual jobs. Upgrading the platform setup is great, but it also needs to be a trigger to check the downstream resources are also in place.
Small and consistent is fine, too. One blog every two months. One email per quarter. Then build from there. If you want some backup, checkout this helpful read on finding a pace that fits.
And finally…
Clarity matters more than complexity. Ask what you want to change. Name who you need to reach. Be honest about what your team can deliver.
Once you answer those three questions, your strategy will be robust, sensible. And – it will be yours.
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If this sparked questions about your own communications strategy, let’s talk. AMS works with purpose-driven organizations to design clear, workable strategies that drive action.
