If you don't have a plan, you'll never get there
Making a strategic communications plan
Strategic communications planning is like making a to-do list for your organization. It forces you to think about the message you want to send, and provides a roadmap for doing so. It’s possible to do public relations without a plan, but its also possible to waste time and money pursuing opportunities that don’t make sense for your organization. Many organizations spend money to have a plan developed and then fail to follow it, or change pr firms and start from scratch to devise a new plan.
At Draper, we think strategic communications planning is important, but we don’t think it should bust your budget or take a year to complete. It doesn’t matter if you scribble your plan on the back of a napkins as long as it sets out your goals, matches your organization’s style and gives you concrete action steps to follow.
Successful communications strategic plans have these characteristics:
- They are simple enough to be useable.
- Those who will live by them were involved in developing them.
- They are unique to each organization, not developing using a cookie-cutter approach.
- They build upon past planning efforts instead of starting from scratch.
- They are based on both statistical projections for the future but flexible enough to adapt to change.
- They are built upon the core values and guiding principals of the organization.