5 questions I'd ask you to start your comms strategy

Nearly half of charities in the UK don't have a communications strategy.

And it's not because they don't care about communicating well.

It can feel overwhelming. But it doesn't have to be.

You don't need a 40-page document or 6 months of stakeholder mapping and focus groups. Sometimes the simpler, the better.

I've read (and admittedly written) so many comms strategies during my 20 years in comms - too many go into such dense detail that they're essentially unusable. In my opinion, the best strategies can be condensed to a page, easy to digest and accessible to everyone (not just your comms team).

To get started, these are the simple questions I'd ask you over a coffee.

1. What are you trying to achieve?

Good communications align with and support your broader business or organisational goals - which one/s are we focusing on?

2. What will success look like?

   
   

What measurable outcome will tell us we've succeeded? Not media coverage or going viral on Tik Tok, those are tactics. It could be 'we want to increase individual donations by 20% over 12 months', or 'double the number of people accessing our service over the next 2 years'.

3. Who is the audience and what do we want them to think, feel, do?

We'll have to get specific. 'The public' isn't an audience. Whoever has the power to create that change? That's your primary audience. And your secondary audience is whoever influences them.

4. What is the context?

Before I go away and develop the strategy, I'm always mindful to find out as much as I can from the people who are closer to the work than I ever could be. You'll give me valuable context, insights and other people who I should talk to. What is happening, when, and who is involved.

5. Is this actually doable?

The best strategy on paper is worthless if no one can deliver it. Do we have the resource to carry it out? What are the risks, opportunities, potential barriers? Examining the real-world context is super important.

If you'd like some support putting together your comms strategy I'm here to help.