8 Steps for Creating a Corporate Communications Strategy

Over the past few months several people have asked for pointers about how to develop a communications plan for their respective organizations. In response, here are eight basic steps that outline how to create a corporate communication strategy.

1. Assess Corporate Strategy
A communication plan should begin with corporate strategy. Assess your organization’s current goals and then determine how internal and external communications can best support them. For example, if a corporate goal is to attract more clients in Taiwan, then create communication objectives in support of this goal.

Hint: Be able to summarize your communication plan - and its relevance to corporate strategy - in three to five succinct, compelling bullets.

2. Identify Communication Channels and Initiatives
Consider internal and external communications. How is information delivered/received in your organization? Communication channels include email, a company intranet, an external website, blogs, newsletters and more. Who is each channel's intended audience? It is important to understand the difference between a message and a communication channel. Having a twitter feed and a Facebook page is fine, but once you have one, what do you want to say?

Next, identify existing communication initiatives. This is the time to follow up with that colleague in Asia and ask about the project he was working on a few months back. Then ask if he’s seen any interesting news being communicated in his region. The larger the organization, the higher the probability that there is information already available that you can leverage more broadly. Be proactive about utilizing your network to find it.

3. Assess Current Channels and Initiatives
So department X has a webpage on the company intranet. What was the original purpose of the page? Is it still valid? When was the last time it was updated? How many hits is it receiving a month? Assess the purpose and effectiveness of all communication channels and initiatives.

4. Clarify Objectives
You’ve already identified your high-level communication goals. Now, based on what you’ve learned through identifying and assessing your communication channels and initiatives, outline how you will meet those goals. Note the relative priority of various initiatives; this will help you effectively respond to those urgent, unpredictable and inevitable requests.

5. Create a Calendar
Create a master editorial calendar in line with your fiscal year. This could include external communications such as client letters, website strategies and press releases, and internal communications such as newsletters, intranet features, and educational campaigns. Outline deliverables month by month, and be as specific as possible. Applicable information for your calendar might detail communication owners/writers, project managers, necessary legal or regulatory checks, and channels through which the information will be delivered.

Hint: A well planned communications calendar is the single most effective way to create a streamlined communications pipeline.

6. Build Consensus
This applies to every step of the process; it's placed here as a reminder. Building consensus is the single most important factor in the success of any project, and it’s also one of the easiest to overlook when budgeting time.

Share your plan with key stakeholders and be sure to focus on the WIIFM factor (What’s in it for me?). Back to our earlier example, suppose you meet with the Asia marketing director. Mention the initiative to increase client numbers in Taiwan, then show her mock-ups of the marketing materials and internal education campaign that could support her efforts.

7. Estimate Costs and Create a Budget
Budgets are a standard part of any project plan, so I won’t spend more time discussing them here.

8. Measuring Success
Communication success is measurable, it's just a matter of defining the metrics! For example, success could be defined through web hits, employee/client knowledge as determined through surveys or focus groups, decreased production time of deliverables, or increased number of available resources. Take the time to establish what success would look like for you, establish how and how often you will measure your plan's effectiveness, and then stick to it.

Communication strategies are as diverse as organizations themselves. Use these guidelines as a starting point, but let your company's unique attributes guide what is most appropriate for your particular organization.

Vanguard's Guidelines for Social Media

PAICR hosted a webinar (using their terminology) last week on “Social Media and Financial Services: Good Partnership or Passing Fad?”. The webinar featured Amy Dobra, a principal at Vanguard who focuses on integrating the retail client experience across online, print and social media channels. Vanguard has been a recognized trailblazer for social media use in the financial world, so I was interested to hear from the woman who led these efforts.

Below are the guidelines that Vanguard created when they decided to enter the previously unknown world of social media, and my thoughts on each. For the record, I think these are brilliant—thanks to Amy Dobra for sharing them.

1. Have a plan
How often do organizations toss out a number of communication initiatives and just wait to see what sticks? Good communication requires as much strategic planning as any other business initiative.

2. Stay true to your brand
The primary rule for building and maintaining a strong brand is consistency. I edit for consistency in global message as closely as I edit for grammar and spelling mistakes.

3. Make a commitment: it’s another channel, not a project
Vanguard makes a great point here. I’ve written about the difference between a channel and a message—they take the distinction one step further. A new project is scary. A new channel—one of many—is much less so.

4. Get prepared to cede some control to the community
Once a message has been delivered—whether it’s a spoken statement, a press release, a newsletter or a tweet—it’s out of our hands. The more we realize this, the better we can prepare for unexpected results.

5. Match your approach to people’s expectations
I find this point intriguing. Financial companies didn’t have a presence in social media when Vanguard began its initiative. And I believe in companies establishing their own standards rather than defaulting to those of others. I take this point to be saying know the rules before you break them. And if you’re going to break them, be sure it’s for good reason.

6. Be open, transparent and authentic
Martin Kaste writes that privacy is increasingly impossible. Whether you agree with him or not, it’s a safer bet to err on the side of transparency.

7. Communicate, communicate, communicate
Whenever I launch a new initiative, I ask myself how much communication (training, follow-up, etc.) will be needed. Whatever my estimate, I double it and add two months to the change management calendar. This extra communication has yet to feel redundant.

8. Make it ok to “fail”
This guideline gave Vanguard's team permission to give their best efforts and accept the results. The flexibility clearly paid off.

These guidelines are an excellent starting point for any organization that is thinking about entering a new communication channel.