Mission Critical: Crafting Your Communications Strategy Workshop

#CommsStrategy

30 May 2012

Towards an Integrated

Marketing

Strategy Lindsay Gormley

Assistant Director of Marketing

30th May 2012

Today’s agenda

•Context

•Why is this important?

•Your brand truth

•Audiences

•Objectives

•Your staff

•Process

•Plan

•Make it happen!

Context

•Integrated marketing – not easy!

•Organisations often not set up to accommodate

•But every one different – some awesome examples out there of people doing this well!

Context

•Aim for this session – drawing on the lessons I’ve learned I’m going to pose some questions to help formulate your thinking

•And suggest a process to follow to develop your strategy

Why is this

important? As charities we need to take as many people as possible as far through this journey as possible.

One communications channel alone can’t do this.

AWARENESS

INTEREST

DESIRE

ACTION

Why is this important?

•Understanding the supporter journey is key

•Economic reasons, yes good stewardship and cost savings

Why is this important?

•But digital world means organisations can no longer say different things to different audiences

•Traditional boundaries are blurring

Why is this important?

•Audiences have access to all kinds of info

•In so many different ways

Why is this important?

•Unaddressed this results in inconsistent and incohesive communication

•How can you avoid this?

Understand your brand

truth

•Being true at every touchpoint is one of our biggest challenges

Understand your brand

truth

•What does brand truth mean?

•What is it that, no matter what, who, why or where you are communicating, is always true about you as an organisation?

Understand your brand

truth

•Understanding this is essential

•Underpin everything you do

Understand your brand

truth

•Allow you to create sticky brand tools for the organisation to use as a framework for communication – not just for communication colleagues, but for all staff

Audiences

•Who are your audiences?

•How do they differ?

•Do you have a core audience?

•What do you know about them?

Audiences

•How do they want to engage with you?

•Is it easy for them to do this?

Audiences

•Which parts of your organisation are talking to the same people?

•Are they doing it in the same way?

Audiences

•Understanding this will help spot crossover points for integration

Objectives

•What are your organisation’s overall business objectives?

•Yours/colleagues/departmental will fall out of these

•Where is the sweet spot that you can work together to achieve a common goal?

Objectives

Focus on the sweetspot in the middle

Don’t forget about your

staff

•Your staff should be the biggest brand champions you have

•Inspire them, excite them, engage them

Don’t forget about your

staff

•Give them tools to use

•And ways to get involved – make your buck go so much further!

•Make your brand values and purpose clear and visible

Process

•How can you make this stuff happen?

•Set out a process

•Set SMART objectives

•For example:

Process

•What’s the business issue that needs to be solved?

•Decide a simple strategy to achieve the objective

Process

•Find and eliminate barriers to achieving this strategy

•Turn a business objective into a clear and achievable goal

Process

•Understand your consumer

•Create a big idea that starts with the business need, not what we want to say!

Process

•Don’t forget about staff!

•Bring it to life at every touchpoint

Plan

•Make a plan and make it workable

•Set SMART objectives

•Agree clear roles and responsibilities

Plan

•KPI’s – be clear on how you will manage success

•Monitor and report on progress at every step of the process

Make it happen

•Consider your own behaviors and those of your team

•Inspire others to work together

•Be clear on what’s in it for them

Make it happen

•What’s the greater business benefit?

•Be enthusiastic – and tenacious!

•Test – and learn!

Thank you!

Any questions?