Preparing Your Corporate Communications Plan for 2024
In part one of this series, I highlighted five tips for getting the most out of your corporate communications this year.
If you missed it, click here.
Now that you’ve gotten the ball moving, it’s time to ensure you hit a home run for your organization.
Five More Tips to Ensure Success In Your Corporate Communications Plan
Lay out your tactics: Decide which communications activities will help you reach your target audience on your chosen channels. Ask yourself questions such as:
Does a video campaign work better for Facebook?
Should graphics be used on Twitter?
What campaigns will you execute throughout the year? What will they entail?
What will your content be?
Your tactics are the everyday activities and projects you will use to reflect your vision and help you reach your goals. Identify the tactics you need and write them down. By breaking down each tactic into steps, you'll clearly see what needs to be accomplished.
2. Create Your Timeline: Now it’s time to create your schedule. Remember, timing is just as important as your content. It may be helpful at the beginning to build your schedule around existing holidays and awareness dates. Also, double-check for internal dates such as company announcements, shareholder updates, the start of the financial year, etc. These can help you identify the best times to communicate and when you might be required to stay silent (the quiet period before an earnings announcement, for example).
3. Delegate. If You Can: At the end of the day, corporate communication is everyone’s responsibility. Consider identifying the point person if there are potential spokespersons or if you require regular updates from other teams.
4. Money, money, money: Your budget dictates what you can and cannot do. To identify if you can afford it, answer some of these questions:
Can you pay for research to inform and test your strategy?
How much paid media can you afford?
Do you have enough to buy ad space or boost posts on social?
Do you need external assistance with graphic design, photography, or videography?
Identifying how much you have to spend will help you to determine how best to use your resources to accomplish your overarching vision.
5. Brief Your Teams. Get Feedback: Creating a corporate communications plan means that you’re communicating for everyone, company-wide. Therefore your planning shouldn’t happen in a bubble. Share your communications strategy, get feedback, create buy-in, then refine and test it.
What Happens Next
Taking on corporate communications planning is ultimately about assessing the current state of your communication. Identifying areas for improvement, defining your audience and understanding them. Lastly, it's about developing a comprehensive plan that includes clear goals, tactics, and metrics for success.
Once you’ve done the things listed, the only thing left to do is act.
You already have the tools to ensure your organization achieves the desired goals.
If you need further help, book a call with me. Together we can create an effective strategic communications plan that drives results and meets your goals.
Joey Gaskins is a public affairs professional with a formidable record of designing and executing innovative strategies, campaigns, and tactics—turning around negative perceptions, reaffirming trust, amplifying and influencing policies, and achieving unprecedented results.
Connect with him on LinkedIn.
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