If you haven’t had a great deal of experience in formulating a Marketing, PR and Communications strategy for your business, you’re not alone. Some businesses happily work with the same strategy for years (even decades!) and only revise it when something triggers them to do so. For Marketing, PR and Communications though, having a strong, goal-led, measurable strategy really is the key to success and can make the difference between a campaign flying or failing spectacularly.
Many assume that in the fast-paced world of Marcomms, planning isn’t a priority. This is rarely the case though, the quality of the results you generate comes down to the plan, and that plan rests on strategy. So, what do you need to do? To get you started, we’ve been round the office and collected the team’s top tips for successful strategies:
They support goals that are specific
When we work with businesses, we take their objectives and transform them into specific, tailored goals. The business might ask us to help them generate interest in a new service or product they are offering, so we’ll work with them to turn this objective into fewer, clearer goals. Think in terms of increases in website traffic, lead generation, or even specific deliverables, like speaking opportunities generated for the CEO.
They’re actionable
A strategy is a map of specific tactics chosen and tailored to support your goals. You may be looking to position your business as experts in your field, but that’s meaningless until you have the media pitches, speaking opportunities and content to support and showcase that expertise.
They involve tailored messages
A successful plan will include your brand’s vision and messages, which are specific to your product, offering or service and make you stand out from the crowd. These will need to be reviewed and revised regularly, ensuring you’re ahead of any market changes, trends and new developments.
They’re informed by research
At times, we underestimate the time and research required for a successful campaign. Marketing, PR and Communications is much more than a one-way broadcasting of information or storytelling, with the right research it works as a two-way channel by creating conversations, responding to and persuading the right audiences to take action.
They’re measurable
New tools make measuring outcomes far easier and more precise than in the past, making it easier to demonstrate your campaign’s measurable contribution to your business strategy and goals. Effective measurement of campaign results not only allow you to track the performance of a campaign and justify your budget spend, but also make any necessary adjustments to increase success in the future.
They’re in sync with your other marketing, PR and communications activity
Co-ordination between all of your campaigns will not only add value, but also ensure your various activities are working harmoniously together and complementing each other. It’s surprising how many businesses have campaigns which are fighting each other rather than working together towards business-wide targets. The emphasis should be in getting prospective customer into the purchase funnel, where they are then drip-fed marketing messages raising awareness to a level where they are then ready to engage or make a purchase.
They include a contingency or crisis plan
Similarly, it pays to think through potentially damaging scenarios and be prepared with a defensive strategy in the event of unexpected developments. The key here is often quick access to decision makers and a clear chain of communication, allowing you to react quickly and respond to a crisis in a well thought out, professional way.
If you want to give your Marcomms strategy an overhaul and make your campaigns fly, please get in touch, creating successful strategies are our speciality and we’d love to help!