Evident Productions

The buzz words “Communications Strategy” is being used all over the place today.  For instance you read headlines such as, “White House Revamps communications strategy” and wonder why would you “revamp” something when every 4-8 years the “strategy” changes in that office anyways?

Having a plan and sticking to it while balancing accountability factors to frequently “recalibrate” the strategy is critical with keeping a well tuned “machine.”  This is especially true when considering the necessity of communicating branding, and products.

Some of the following questions are core to development of a strategy that is effective:

• What are my methods of communications currently?
• What are methods that I want to adapt and begin to use for communicating?
• What are the metrics of success that I will use to know if my strategy is successful?

Developing a strategy and having a plan that both accounts for effectiveness in the short term while converting results for the long term will help to CONNECT with your audience, while GROWING the value for your brand.  As trends change, and your viewers shift platforms and connetion mediums your communications strategy should also account for the same adaptation.

The key is balancing cutting edge technology and trends while making sure you’re not on the bleeding edge. Also being too far behind the current trends of where your market is connecting can cost time and energy that results in nothing but burn out, and waste of resources.

Too often marketers, and others think of communications strategies as merely pieces to an otherwise large communications structure. Instead, they should be looked at like pieces to a puzzle that will build a much STRONGER platform of communication as they all work together.

For example here are some questions you should ask yourself:

• Does our company have a method of promoting our social media through current print and other traditional platforms we’ve always used?
• Does my social networking presence promote not only my brand, but is it in places where viewers can CONNECT elsewhere with my products and company?
• How does our plan integrate a schedule that allows all advertising mediums to support each other and build the ad profit results STRONGER?

Many people responsible for communications don’t consider that what they’re doing can have a drastic effect and impact LONG TERM in communicating their valuable messages. Having a 6 month goal that ties into a framework for the following 3-5 years  can help in setting checkpoints to determine success of marketing, or determine if another direction should be taken. Even if having a detailed 3-5 year plan isn’t something you can determine initially, a framework which is built on a vision that reflects the goals of success for your organization can help create this for you.

Sometimes having an outside experienced consultant come in to help you look over the walls of your “normal routine box” can prove invaluable beyond measure. By having someone on your team that sees what is SUCCESSFUL and what is HURTING others, you can save the company valuable time, and costly personnel burn out and take a legitimate shortcut to success.

Back to the White House. When the President and his cabinet came up with a set of metrics by which they consider goals of success to be a must, they wanted to wipe the slate clean when it came to the strategy.  Specific long term and short term communcations needs had changed since the end of the campaign. Political flack, social media integration demands, and international connections were all things accounted for when they determined they needed a change.

When it comes to a strategy, is the idea of “just doing what we’ve always done” the best approach for you, or does coming up with a plan that has a long term FRAMEWORK look like a better solution?  Keep in mind your communcations strategy should be revised as your company and customer base grows. Those that just think, “what’s always worked WILL ALWAYS work,” are the ones that get left in the preverbial dust. What are you and your organization doing to be the BEST success while connecting with maximum results with your audience and market?

To read more about the White House revamping their communcations strategy click here.