Budgeting for comms

Some points for discussion

October 2014

I have a dream....where communications is understood, appreciated and valued, where proper investment and recognition of interdependence on the part of my colleagues results in a properly resourced and supported communications function.

The golden rules

Budgeting needs to

be done alongside

objective setting,

target setting and

strategic planning

Don’t undervalue

your own resources

Remeber

management and the

insidious power of

“where did the day

go?”

Cost everything –

internally and

externally and

consider scaling

Key areas to consider

Agreeing on the

role of comms

Matching activity

to objectives

The tricky art of

evaluation and

return on

investment

Putting a value on

comms

The role of comms

Agreeing the role for comms

• Step 1 – define what you mean by comms and ensure all decision makers and

stakeholders agree to that definition

• Step 2 – communicate the benefits and limitations of comms as a tool for delivering

against your overall objectives

• Step 3 – split the role for comms into two areas:

leading on delivery against an objective (where comms is originator and

steerer of strategy and implementation)

Providing a service to the lead on delivering against an objective or sharing

an overall objective

• Step 4 – Deciding who delivers comms and where ownership (and budgetary

responsibility) and accountability lie

Matching activity to objectives

Matching activity to objectives

Owned objectives –

break down into tasks,

milestones and roles

Shared objectives – do

the same and agree with

shared lead

Supporting other leads –

do the same (for all

comms requirement not

just that undertaken by the

team you lead)

Don’t forget informal

objectives – e.g. requests

from the Chair, the

pointless press release

Bread and butter duties

– be anal and list out

everything done under the

auspices of

communications

Getting stuff done - add

10% for project

management

Putting a value on comms

Putting a value on comms – time and cost as the metrics

Element approach

Activity planning Allow 10% of time put aside for

implementation

Implementation Break down into delivery,

management, infrastructure,

evaluation (allow minimum of 5% of

resource for this)

Bread and butter Review activity from previous year

and make forecast

Informal objectives Review activity from previous year

and make forecast

The business of working allow 10% of time for the stuff of a

working day (wilfing, team

meetings etc)

Putting a value on comms

• External resource requires management – build into budget

• Consider different activity ratios for different roles – for example, we expect our most

junior staff to spend 70% of their time on client work, we expect our most senior staff to

spend 40-50% of their time on client work, 20% on company management and 20% on

business development

• Remember bread and butter costs – newspapers, media monitoring, event attendance,

staff learning and development, networking allowances etc

• Value evaluation – if you have gone to the effort of matching activity to objective, make

sure you budget the time and money needed to see how you are progressing

• Don’t forget the sometimes hidden cost of internal comms – where does it sit, who pays

for it?

Numbers on a page

• Two broad approaches:

• Start with a budget and work backwards versus price the activity and take a deep breath

• List out your fixed costs – staff salaries, bread and butter overheads, evaluation, travel

etc

• Consider the gold, silver and bronze options – scaling up or down activity, with adjusted

outputs and outcomes

• Slay some sacred cows through prioritisation against objective

• Allow for a contingency budget developed through SWOT analysis

• Factor in recruitment costs

The tricky art of evaluation

Forster Evaluation Model

REACH ENGAGEMENT ACTION

What did the audience

see?

How did the audience

get involved?

What did the audience

change? What changed

in the audience?

Increasing levels of audience involvement

The Forster Evaluation Model

COMMUNICATIONS PLANNINGClarifying objectives, audience(s), channels, call to action, competitor

analysis to help benchmark goals, and ideas for activity

Set SMART

campaign goals

Establish programme

milestones

Agree measurements

& metrics

Forster Evaluation Model

REACH ENGAGEMENT ACTION

What did the

audience see?

How did the audience

get involved?

What did the

audience change?

General perception /

brand awareness

Media coverage

Social media

Website

Partnerships and

stakeholders

Events

Public affairs

Fundraising

Increasing levels of audience involvement

METRICS Reach Engagement Action TOOLS

Audience

attitude /

behaviour

Change in perception,

attitude

Become members

Increase or decrease in

number of people

purchasing something /

doing something

Audit/benchmarking

survey pre and post

campaign: ComRes /

Ipsos Mori / YouGov /

Britain Thinks

Organisation’s own

channels/activity – look

for ways to find

information out

Media coverage Opportunities to see through

target media

Key messages portrayed in

target media

Tone of coverage in target media

Percentage of coverage with a

link to website

Specific, identified media targets

Length of pieces e.g. percentage

of pieces over 300 words

TURF analysis (using TGI data)

Comments on online articles

‘Shares’ on social media

Letter responses in media

Contact from target

audience as a result of

media coverage

Cuttings service

TGI data

Website Number of unique users

Number of visitors to a particular

page/campaign page

Google ranking

Proportion of people from certain

traffic sources

Downloads of a document

Sign ups to a database

Desired audience journeys

on a website – track journey

and drop offs?

User generated content

Completion of quiz /

questionnaire

Data capture

Google analytics

Social media Number of followers

Influence of followers

Number of ‘likes’

Number of ‘shares’

Retweets

Number of people using #

Number of comments @

Postive comments in online

conversation

Analysis of the online

conversation, rating

comments as positive or

negative

Number of shares

Engagement with identified

individuals

Follower Wonk

Simply Measured

Klout

Kred

Gorkana Radar

Sprout Social

Partnerships and

stakeholders

Number of partnerships or

strategic alliances

established

Materials distributed through

partners (e.g. mentioned on

website, in a newsletter)

Extended relationship with

partner as a result of project

Changed perception of

client as a result of working

in partnership

Events Number of events held

People sharing information

about event

Number of

volunteers/regional reps

holding events

Number of

volunteers/regional reps

downloading packs

Public affairs Meetings arranged with

identified people

Identified people attending

events

Identified people reading

relevant emails

Issue mentioned in

Parliament (meaning

identified people have

engaged)

Issue mentioned in a policy

document or a speech

Number of signatures on

petition

A legislation change

A change of opinion

ComRes parliamentary

poll to gauge opinion

before and after

Fundraising (Via other methods listed e.g.

media coverage)

Data capture (via

newsletter/event)

Donations

Number of

members/supporters

Client’s CMS system

Internal Communication to staff e.g.

newsletter

Involvement with

organisational

events/initiatives

Changed perception of

organisation

Acting as ambassador for

organisation

Forster Evaluation Model

Immediate Impact

Legacy Metrics

Electrical Safety First – protecting toddlers

• Our overall aim was to reduce the growing number of toddler burns from hair straighteners

• We created a hard-hitting video using the image of a melted doll’s face and the sound of a baby crying that would resonate with parents and encourage them to take action

• Campaign reach: Over 324 million opportunities to see were generated by securing around 160 pieces of media coverage in target media, and the campaign video accrued over 115,000 views

• Campaign engagement: Over 200,000 viewings were achieved on Facebook with additional traffic driven to the charity’s website

• Campaign action: Over 6,500 people contacted the charity to

request one of the 500 free heat proof pouches to protect their children

Two manufacturers are now also changing their product as a result of the campaign

Communications planning

• Our evaluation model is a key part of our

communications planning services, helping

clients to track audience behaviour

For example:

• We worked with Practical Action to create an

evaluation framework to support all their

communications activity, underpinning the

achievement of the organisation’s business

plan

• We have created Groundwork’s first public

facing campaign and the evaluation

framework to measure involvement from

internal audiences, corporate supporters and

the general public

Visit the CharityComms website to

view slides from our past events, see

what events we have coming up

and to check out what else we do.

www.charitycomms.org.uk

Workshop

22 October 2014

London

#CaseForComms

Making the case for

comms: unlocking the

purse strings