What is strategic communications?

We’ve all been there. Your organisation has an important message that needs to go out yesterday. So, you craft the comms to cover the basics – the who, what, where, when and why – and send it out to your audience.

As an individual piece of communications it does the job, but have you considered where this sits in the bigger picture? Specifically, how does this message support your organisation’s wider strategy and is it doing what you need it to do? This is where strategic communications comes in.

So what is strategic communications, and why is it vital to a successful organisation?

In terms of a strategic communications definition, it is about crafting and conveying messaging that supports an overarching narrative and builds towards a specific goal. Think of it like parts of a jigsaw; each individual message serves as a piece of a larger image.

As competing communications approaches become ever more sophisticated, and as organisations grow more complex, leaders are increasingly seeing the importance of embracing strategic thinking in their communications.

Through effective planning and understanding, you too can unify varied communications approaches and disparate teams in support of a shared objective. By engaging in strategic communications practices, you can ensure messages serve a larger purpose in support of delivering your organisation’s objectives. Here, the individual message – along with crucial elements like timing, medium, audience and tone of voice – can be useful tools in support of a wider overall strategy.

Here are a few steps to consider when incorporating strategic communications into your approach.

Understand the mission

In building a communications strategy, it’s important to utilise purposeful messaging. Messages in support of a clear, defined mission are what set strategic communications apart from messaging for the sake of messaging.

So, before you do anything else, it’s important to build a clear understanding of what you are working towards. This could be raising awareness, changing perceptions, issuing instructions or persuading people towards a viewpoint. Having a good understanding of your objectives is a good starting point.

Plan ahead

Once you know what you want to achieve, next comes planning out how you intend to achieve it. Consider what steps you need to take to move from where you are to where you want to be. This should include your intended audiences, what different stakeholders are likely to want to know and the best channels to reach them. Stakeholder management is crucial – building relationships can keep your key players onside, build brand advocates and avoid crises. Equally importantly, identify how you plan on measuring success.

Think holistically

Understand that everything your organisation puts out serves as a form of communication, and all communications, however trivial they might seem, should be considered as part of a whole. Map out all of your intended messaging and build a good understanding of how they all work in supporting each other – both internal communications and external communications.

Expect the unexpected

Nothing’s guaranteed in this world and the one constant is change. However, with a little extra planning, even unanticipated, short turnaround communications can support your top-line objectives. Think ahead about what kind of messaging you might be expected to deliver and be prepared to think on your feet when the time comes.

Evaluate

The job’s not done once the communications have been sent. To maximise your strategic impact, it’s important to close the loop by assessing the results. Did your communications achieve what they set out to? How well do they support your strategic objectives? How can you use your learnings to improve on your future direction?

Work with the experts

Here at MIH, we have a team of strategic communications specialists ready to assist you in planning, executing and evaluating your communications in support of your objectives.

Reach out to the team to find out how we can support you.