A Communications Plan Can Mean The Difference Between Attaining Your Marketing Goals Or Going Unnoticed.
It’s not a marketing campaign without a plan. But where to start? Well – begin with an objective – what do you want to accomplish? What beliefs do you want to change? What is the goal of the effort? Then ask – whom do you want to reach, and what do you know about them? You can’t change people’s minds without know how they think.
Next, what do you want them to know? What messages do you have to share? Try to keep messaging or framing to three simple, but easy to remember messages. And then, what do you want them to do?
So, with objectives, audiences and messaging in place – we can move to the next stage of your communications plan – tactics!
So, this is the fun part – what are you going to do to get your objectives accomplished. A news conference, an event, editorial board meetings, social media, a contest, trainings – there are lots of tactics in the communication tool kit – the trick is the find the right ones for your campaign – and to space things out for the best impact.
Next, evaluation – is it working? What needs to be changed? What should we more of
? Who do we need to reach out to? It is always a good idea to take stock and be sure that makes the most sense. The trick is to stay focused in marketing work – and focus on change in the pocket, not pie in the sky!