COMMUNICATION STRATEGY/PLANNING

The Communications
STRATEGY

From Conception to
Implementation

Whether you are supporting or heading a

communications team, just starting out in the
field of communications or entering an
organisation as an independent consultant, you
may find (or remember) an old document
lurking somewhere in your companys hard drive
that outlines the objectives for communications
over the next year or two. Perhaps you wrote
this yourself a while ago, or it may have been
So, where is the time to sit down and written by someone who has moved on from
actually plan for the year ahead? You your company and you have now been asked to
may find yourself in a position where develop a strategy or plan for the year ahead.
you have a sketchy yearly review or
individual project plans for various Obviously, the process of developing or
campaigns in progress. Even in these updating your strategy is dependent on
instances, the time from strategic numerous factors including; where you work,
planning to implementation is getting shorter what role you are currently in, how long you
and shorter. So the question is:
have been working for your company and the
structure of your team and the business you
work for.

From Conception to
Implementation

Part 1 in the Communication Strategy

Series outlines the considerations and
steps required to develop a robust
communications strategy for an
organisation.
Communications professionals know that the
field requires quick thinking, daily multi-tasking
and endless requests. Alongside a continuous
stream of never ending activity, we are often
required to keep the day to day running of a
team and/or our own communication activities
flowing seamlessly.
Juggling our priorities and keeping all the balls
in the air is no easy feat and these days, more
is expected of us. With diminishing resources,
smaller teams and an ever shrinking budget, we
are doing more with less.

How do we build a

firm foundation,
create a strong
strategic position
and develop a clear plan
of where we are going and
how we are going to get
there?

If you are lucky enough to work for a company

that values communications and has given you
ample time to develop a robust strategy and you
have one in place that is working well,
fantastic and congratulations! This article is
written making the assumption that your comms
strategy or plan needs an overhaul, or you are
starting from scratch and have been asked to
strategically plan your communication
activities for the year ahead.

Where to Start? The Communications

Audit
The communications audit is simply a
compilation of everything you have at your
disposal. I like to think of it in terms of a tool kit.

build something. The same principle applies

when you are developing a plan or strategy and
compiling a list and observing what you are
working with will give
you an indication of
where you are
heading and what you
will need to get there.

What Channels do
you have?

As part of your audit, it is useful to sit down and

list all the communication channels that your
company utilizes to communicate to
stakeholders. Even if your role is specifically
internal or externally focussed, I would suggest
that you make note of all channels as there may
be some overlap.
It is important to know what you have before
you start to plan and although we use these
channels to disseminate information on a daily
basis, you may be surprised at what crops up
when you conduct your audit. Is that old,
outdated newsletter still floating around and
being sent to a select group of people? Are there
communications being disseminated that you
had no prior knowledge of? (What I would refer
to as rogue communications!)
Even if you work in a company that gives their
employees a certain amount of freedom in
regards to communication activities, it is still
beneficial to have an overview of what is being
sent out and where it is being sent to. Its as
simple (at this stage) as making a list outlining
the communication and the channels being used
to disseminate them.

Before you tackle a project, you need to find and

locate the right tools to construct or

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Stakeholder Mapping

Alongside a review and audit of your

channels, you may find that reviewing your
stakeholders and looking at any stakeholder
maps that you have in your company will
coincide nicely with the timing of your
communications strategy.

If you are working for a profit making company,

stakeholders are the most important factor to
consider and have a direct correlation to profit
and reputation, so your strategy should contain
information about how they have been taken in
to consideration.

Sometimes this is developed using a

prioritisation code and very much depends on
the ethos of your company, as well as how your
company views and interacts with their
stakeholders. It is always a good idea to
ensure that you are well informed and up to
date regarding your stakeholders and there
are a number of categorisation processes to
choose from. Take into consideration that your
companys structure will play an
important part in how you choose to map or
list your stakeholders.

From this point the picture is getting clearer and

you can begin to make decisions about what is
currently working and what no longer works or
is outdated and no longer needed. Whilst we are
the eyes and ears of a company and our role is to
ensure that appropriate communications is disseminated to the right individual or group at the
right time, we may not know how other teams
and departments work, as well as how the
company is perceived by external stakeholders
so it is always important to get a 360 perspective by opinion testing and research. Sometimes,
the changes we need to make are very obvious
and decisions can be made without the need for
research, however it is easy to assume that we
know what works and what is required without
asking the people we work with and for (including external stakeholders) what their preferences are and what works for them.

Again, whilst you are at the hub of all

communication activities in the organisation
and probably have a good idea about who your
stakeholders are, sometimes just checking in
and compiling a list can actually
highlight people or groups that are important
to your company who you may have missed.

This moves us onto monitoring and evaluation

planning and the data which comes from
developing a criteria (or using one which is
already in place), subsequent analysis of
responses and integration of these responses
into your strategy. This is an important factor in
your decision making and strategic planning.

In a similar way to monitoring and evaluation,

a comprehensive stakeholder mapping process
can take considerable amounts of time and
resources, however if this is not available to
you then it is still possible -at the very least- to
update a stakeholder database and understand
who your stakeholders are and what interest
they have in your company.

Monitoring and Evaluating

Stakeholder mapping goes beyond ensuring

that your database is up to date. A
comprehensive map also looks at the level of
interest your stakeholders have in your
company.

We know that we need some evidence of what

works and what does not, so the next step is to
find out if there has been any communication
monitoring and evaluation conducted in your
organisation, prior or during your strategy
development and preparation phase.
You may need to dig through the archives if you

do not have the time or the resources to

develop a monitoring and evaluation criterion
and template and look at this from a
different perspective. What you look for
depends on whether you are an internal or
external communications professional or a
combination of the two.
If you are an internal communications
professional, what can you draw from your
annual employee survey? Has HR (or any other
part of the organisation for that matter)
conducted any research which - by proxyincludes employee perceptions of
communications? If you have any involvement
in planning your next annual employee survey,
and it coincides with the development of your
strategy, perhaps you can suggest and advise on
the development of the questionnaire and
ensure that there are some communication
perception specific questions included.
If you are an external communications
professional, are there web statistics that show
readership and interest in particular areas of
your organisation? Are there teams who work
directly with stakeholders who may have
conducted some research you may not be aware
of? Has any evaluation been carried out on
traditional as well as digital channels and if not,
how easy is it to gather some useful stats from
your digital channels which will give you some
indication of your stakeholders interests - again
think outside the box. You may not find
communication specific research (and by this I
mean research you and your team have led on
and developed), however, you may find some
research which has looked at a particular
element of communications that may be
useful.

If what you find is relevant (and recent enough)

think about how you can compile your findings
to create a picture that will enable you to draw
data comparisons at a later date. You may even
come across a template you can use to develop
your own monitoring and evaluation criterion.
With less and less resources to play with,
statistics and evidence can support you in
pulling together a case for more resources if
you require them. Evaluation can also help you
strategize effectively and demonstrate what
works.
Dont have any evaluation processes in place
and not sure where to start ? Depending on how
deep you want to dive and what resources
(human, technology or monetary) you have,
monitoring and evaluation can either take the
form of a quick survey conducted at regular
intervals, a longer survey which you may want
to do on an annual basis or email questionnaire
that will give you some indication of
perceptions, preferences and opinions about
current or past communication activities.
Alternatively, monitoring and evaluation can
actually become a separate ongoing project in
its own right. (Monitoring and Evaluation Techniques Article - Coming soon!) Again it depends
on the company you work for and your role
within that company and the time and resources
you have to dedicate to research.
In whichever way you choose to plan, it is
important to remember evaluation should be
consistent and conducted on a quarterly or
annual basis with data comparisons and
analysis made along the way at agreed specific
time-frames to evidence progression and
effectiveness. If you like to create your own
monitoring and evaluation criterion and
template (as I do), then ensure that you know

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COMMUNICATION STRATEGY/PLANNING

what data you want to draw out in order to

help inform your strategy.
The main benefit in creating your own criterion
and template is that it gives you an element
of control about what data comparisons you
want to highlight and what questions you need
to ask in line with your strategy and if you are
clear about which direction you want to take
communications activities then developing
your own Monitoring and Evaluation
methodology and criterion can help support
your rationale and gives you the opportunity
to really hone in on key areas of your choice. If
time is pressing, find a template that works for
you and simply embed your own criterion or
add an established criterion.

Focus Groups - Qualitative Data

If you prefer to take a more qualitative

approach to data gathering and analysis, (and
I would recommend that you conduct both
quantitative and qualitative research in
order to get a balanced perspective), you could
hold a focus group, either specifically for the
purpose of writing your strategy - (a time
limited group meeting over a short period of
time), or request/add a bolt on session to an
existing meeting if appropriate.
Focus groups can be quite useful in gaining
insight about what works in different areas of
your organisation and it is always a good idea
to get different people involved in developing
your strategy.
Remember that success from conception to
implementation partly depends on team
collaboration and effort, so the more people
feel involved, the more likely they will be to
support your efforts. (I would also suggest that
you broaden your invites beyond a
communications team if you are working with
or leading one).

I have gained some very useful insights by

creating, developing and chairing these types of
forums, and as long as I have been clear about
what I want to know, these groups have helped
to shape and inform a plan or strategy.
Remember that, although it is useful to have
different perspectives, ideas and opinions - and
it has been my experience that everyone has
something to say about the way a company
communicates- ultimately, you are the
communications expertise for the organisation,
so inform everyone from the outset that, whilst
their comments and opinions are useful, you
may not be able to implement all the ideas that
arise from this group.
Focus groups are especially effective for
internal communications professionals and this
is a useful way to engage people and get them
involved and interested in communication
activities and planning. These groups are also
useful for external communications (dependent on the structure of your organisation and
your ability to get the right people to attend the
group).
Interestingly, I have found that people like to be
involved in communications planning and the
sessions I have conducted in previous assignments have been fun and informative. Keep a
log of discussions and ideas that arises from the
meeting and if you have admin support, or you
have someone in your team who is available to
take notes, invite them along. This will allow you
to focus on chairing and leading the meeting.

Timing
We can look at the timing of your strategy in 2 ways;
1, How much time you have been given to write your strategy and
2,What time-lines you will embed into the strategy ensuring that you set yourself
realistic deadlines for the implementation of your plans.
The first factor depends on how much time you are dedicating - or how much time you
have been given to dedicate to your strategy.
There have been many times in my career where I have spent evenings writing a
communications strategy simply because there was not enough time during the day to
fit this in alongside the everyday running and supporting of a communications team,
however this may not be necessary and if you think outside the box and pull together
the resources you have at your disposal finding the time to develop a clear plan and
strategy is a lot easier than you think. (see Monitoring and Evaluation pg 3 and focus
groups pg 5)
The time lines you choose, (or agree with your line manager) again depends on what
your priorities are and how many resources you have to dedicate to the implementation
of your strategy. Remember to set SMART (Specific Measurable Achievable, Realistic
and Time-framed) goals. In other words, dont over promise and under deliver!

Offering incentives - such as providing lunch

during a lunch time meeting, usually generates
further interest and can provide useful
discussions in a more relaxed atmosphere.
Remember to provide feed back and let people
know how their suggestions will have a positive
impact on communications in your company.

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STRATEGY/PLANNING
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STRATEGY/PLANNING 6

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Alignment - Correlations and

Organisational Interdependences

Developing a communications strategy is like

drawing a landscape. The smaller details and
the bigger picture should be integrated. I like
to think of this in terms of micro, meso and
macro perspectives.

A communications strategy is like a

landscape. The small details make up the
larger picture.

From a micro perspective, we are all cogs

making a wheel turn, but the role of the
communications professional is to look at how
those cogs work together and how well they
are working? We could view the micro
perspective in terms of the day to day
communications functioning in your company.
(Think about the communication activities we
need to do everyday, as well as unexpected,
last minute requests that arise). Strategic
development helps to ensure that these
activities are conducted in an organised and
productive way and that each member of a
comms team is aware of what they are
required to do and the time they have to
complete a task. For example - media monitoring, requests for information, uploading information onto digital channels, the regular

meetings we attend and conduct and the

I have also worked in organisations that have
general ongoing support that we offer to teams one corporate calendar covering the whole
and departments.
organisation which is published on internal and/
or external channels.
From a meso perspective we look at this in
broader terms. What are your organisations There have been times where I have been asked
aims and objectives, mission and KPIs and how to embed a corporate calendar into a
does communications ensure that these
communications specific calendar and advise on
objectives are clearly defined? Examples of the the most appropriate channels for this
meso perspective are business plans and
document to sit on.
annual reports as well as narrative development
and CSR considerations. From a macro
In whichever way your company operates,
perspective we would ask ourselves - Where research all the calendars in your company even
does your organisation fit into the market, and if they are not communications specific. You
how do the principles outlined in your corporate may want to make decisions (or at the very least
material (business plans and/or annual reports) make suggestions) regarding how calendars in
translate into real world concepts? In other your organisation are integrated and how
words, what is the bigger picture? Examples of people can interact with them effectively.
this would be stakeholder perceptions, the
Perhaps this will form part of your strategy and
market reputation of the company, as well as there are lots of interesting and innovative
satisfaction levels (from both internal and exter- techniques you can use to allow people to
nal stakeholders).
interact (if appropriate) with your companys
calendar which will benefit the company and
Effective and robust communications planning the people that work there. Make a clear
takes all these levels into consideration and if differentiation between what your internal
you have a few years of experience under your stakeholders require and what your external
stakeholders need to know. (depending on your
belt, this concept and practice is probably
role).
second nature to you.

Embedding The Corporate Calendar

Communications is varied and works

differently within different companies and
structures. I have come across so many different
methods of developing, creating and embedding
calendars that they are too numerous to
mention. Most communication calendars highlight communication activities and key dates
affecting the company and may be specifically
designed for the communications team (in other
words this document is only made available to
certain people who have an interest in knowing
those key dates in order to plan ahead).

The Ta Da moment - Presenting your

Strategy
You have laboured away, involved and engaged
the right people, monitored and evaluated,
reviewed your channels
and stakeholders and
developed a comprehensive document outlining
your strategic plans for
the year ahead. Even if
your organisation has
not asked you to present
your strategy, you may still want to show people
what you plan to do in the time-frames you have
set.

This doesnt mean that you will necessarily need

to publish your strategy through your internal
or external channels, (though you may want to
highlight any imminent large scale
communications projects that may have a
noticeable or potentially disruptive effect on
your company, for example website, intranet or
brand changes that could be noticeable and will
affect the way people access your channels or
perceive your company), however, even if you
decide that you do not need to publish your
strategy, it is important that you let the right
people know about your plans because even the
smallest change can have quite a big impact on a
large number of people. Whether you are
disposing of old channels, adding new ones,
changing or revamping your brand, adding new
technology, or anything else.
Depending on the structure of your plan (and
it could be as brief as a 2 page summary or as
lengthy as a 40 page document), you will want
to highlight your key objectives. If you have
involved people in the planning and preparation
of your strategy, you may want to ask them to
read the document before it is finalised and take
any comments and suggestions into
consideration.
If you want to ensure that senior stakeholders in
your organisation are aware of what your plans
are (and they will probably have a vested
interest in your strategy), set up meetings and
present it in a way that is engaging and
interactive. Get people enthused about
communications and importantly show the ROI
(Return on Investment beyond the monetary
meaning of the term) and how this will benefit
your organisation.
Remember to take your audience into
consideration when you present your strategy.
Some stakeholders prefer to see statistics

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COMMUNICATION STRATEGY/PLANNING
and evaluation processes and you should always
have a strong rationale behind any changes you
want to make and be able to show and
demonstrate how you envisage the impact these
changes will have.
Some people are more visually orientated, so
take this into consideration when presenting
your plans. Think about ways in which you can
show a before and after picture literally or
figuratively -depending on what you are trying
to demonstrate. Be creative in your presentation, show your time-frames and ensure that
you agree a time to feedback on progress.
If you have a template for your monitoring and
evaluation methods and statistical analysis, you
can use this to show a before and after picture
even if it is speculative at the preimplementation phase. For example, if you have
web statistics highlighting readership of a
specific page, forum, website etc. and you are
making changes to this particular channel, you
could show a definitive before and a speculative
after picture before implementation comparing
this data to the actual difference when you have
evaluated the real data after an agreed period
of time. Remember to be realistic, the
objective is to gain support before
implementation and show how well your
strategy is working during implementation.

Implementation - The doing.

Your company will want to see your strategy turned into tangible results and if you have
planned meticulously, this should not be a problem. Hopefully you have given yourself some
space in your strategy for unforeseen circumstances, resources that may have been there
at the time of writing your strategy, but are no
longer available, as well as factored in the day
to day communication activities that will need
to continue whilst you implement your strategy.

A Few Points to Consider

Remember to meet your deadlines
and if there is some scope creep (especially if this is likely to affect people)
let people know what is going on, why
you have decided to change your plans
and what you intend to do within a
new proposed time frame.
Sometimes it is about the quick wins,
and hopefully you will have factored
this into your strategy and are ready
to demonstrate how your planning
will enhance communications in a
very tangible and visible way from the
outset.
Monitor the effectiveness of your
strategy. If something isnt working
in the way you anticipated,
investigate the reason why this may
be the case and make some changes.

Writing and developing a communications plan

or strategy and ensuring that this document is
kept up to date and relevant will ensure that you
are developing communications on solid ground
and will give you the option to look at how you
can improve and develop communications for
your organisation.
2016 Jo Samuel All rights reserved

About the Author

Jo Samuel is a Strategic Marketing and
Communications Consultant with 10 years
experience in managing, leading and supporting
organisations with their Marketing and
Communications requirements. For consultation,
advice and general enquiries contact;
Email; josamuel@mail.com
UK Mobile; +447921 097727
Japan Mobile; +81 050 3136 0396
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