www.dance4life.com

IN 8 STEPS

BUILDING A COMMUNICATIONS

STRATEGY

DANCE4LIFE COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

There are multiple benefits to having a formal, written communications strategy plan. First of all a written plan means that everyone is following the same playbook and working towards a clear, common goal. That is needed to keep your messaging consistent, which helps to get the message resonate with your target group. It sets the tone and direction so that all communication activities, products and materials work in harmony to achieve the desired change. A work plan – the final step in your strategy - will help make clear what people’s tasks and responsibilities are.

Secondly it helps you to understand your key target audiences. In an overloaded media landscape relevance is key. All messages you are spreading should be relevant to the different audiences, therefore you need to understand who they are, what is important to them, what your relationship is like and what makes them tick.

Also, planning in advance and creating schedules helps organize how to execute individual tactics and the overall plan and with timelines in place, it is easier to identify if you need to add outside help to the team (for example visual designers, social media specialist, content creatives, photographers) and how to budget based on the strategy.

Finally, a plan allows you to measure whether you’re meeting your objectives and continually improve your communication strategy.

A communications strategy clearly identifies the objectives and processes of your organization’s outreach activities. It covers what the organization wants to share and whom to share with to meet its goals. It frames media activities, defines priorities, time frames, target audiences, staff assignments, and resources.

WHAT IS A COMMUNICATION STRATEGY?

WHY DEVELOP ACOMMUNICATIONSTRATEGY?

COMMUNCATIONSTRATEGY

To work towards a clear,common goal

To understand yourkey target audience

To help organize how to execute individual tactics and the overall plan

This toolkit was created by Dance4Life, as part of the Right Here Right Now! Partnership.

COMMUNCATIONSTRATEGY8 STEPS OF YOUR

COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

Mapping your current situation Messaging and formats

Communication Objectives

What are the media channels?

Target AudiencesHow do you measure your efforts?

Desired Action for Change Work plan

Who are you? What is your DNA? And what do you offer that is unique? What makes you stand out?

What are the key messages that you want to get across? Will we address recurring themes daily/weekly? For example: 50% news; 15% advocacy campaigns; 15% fun, quirky stuff; 5% inspirational quotes; 15% testimonies. And: which formats are most suitable to get your message across?

What do you want to achieve with your communication efforts? This should be as concrete/SMART as possible so you can measure it. For example, create awareness about an issue, increase # of people you reach/supporters, grow your list of email subscribers, bring in % new donors,promote X, Y or Z.

Which platforms are you using? And how to use them effectively; in other words: are these the best channels for your target groups? Who are you trying to reach through each one? How frequently will you be messaging through each platform?

Who are you trying to reach and what do you want them to do? Here it’s useful to think of both your primary target audiences (policymakers, beneficiaries or donors) and the people who influence them, also known as your secondary target audiences (parents or local businesses, for example).

Regularly monitor and measure the impact of your communication efforts. Both in terms of intermediary benchmarks, like the size of your Facebook following or email list) and organizational objectives (like total supporters or total donations.

What concrete action do you want your target audiences to take? Do you want them to take action? Donate? Become a member? Sign up for events? Spread the word about your campaign?

Bringing all the insights together inone clear overview.

DANCE4LIFE COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

GETTING STARTEDBEGIN WITH YOUR MISSION STATEMENT

A mission statement defines the reason your organization exists and serves as a point of reference to evaluate current and future activities. The mission statement is closely linked to your organizational values. As it is the fundament for your key messages, it should be brief, non-jargon and attractive. Also, the mission statement is useful in relation to your communications strategy. It helps you to explain why you develop this strategy and what you hope to achieve with it. This does not need to be very detailed, it’s just as a reference and reminder for those using it in their work.

GETTING STARTED

DANCE4LIFE COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

MAPPING YOURCURRENT SITUATION

A useful tool when assessing your current situation is to look at what your competitors are doing. This can be a relatively simple exercise where you identify your main competitors or “colleague organizations” (meaning other NGO’s in the field of SRHR who work on the same topics) and rank them against certain criteria. Examples

of criteria are: what are their key objective(s), product(s), target audience(s), target countries, what is their image/identity/USP etc. Try to be objective when assessing current strengths and weaknesses. This helps to get insight in your DNA and unique product. What niche can you serve. See example below.

To develop an effective strategy, you also need to take a deep dive into understanding your operating environment, strengths and weaknesses, competitors, audiences, and how to message based on goals.

Two useful tools that can be used to help analyze your organization’s current situation are a SWOT analysis and a Competitor analysis.

The introductory part of your communications strategy should briefly outline what your organization does, what its main functions are and where it operates.

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

COMPANY NAME KEY OBJECTIVES PRODUCT(S) TARGETAUDIENCE(S)

Our company

Competitors

...

...

TARGETAUDIENCE(S)

TARGETCOUNTRIES IMAGE/IDENTITY USP PROMOTIONS/

OFFERS

Another useful tool when assessing your current situation is to look at what your competitors are doing. This can be a relatively simple exercise where you identify your main competitors or “colleague organizations” (meaning other NGO’s in the field of SRHR who work on the same topics) and rank them against certain criteria. Examples of criteria are: what are their key objective(s), product(s), target audience(s), target countries, what is their image/identity/USP etc. Try

to be objective when assessing current strengths and weaknesses. This helps to get insight in your DNA and unique product. What niche can you serve. See example below

/ Things your company does well

/ Qualities that separate you from your competitors

/ Internal resources such as skilled, knowledgeable staff

/ Tangible assets such as intellectual property, capital, proprietary technologies etc.

/ Things your company lacks

/ Things your competitors do better than you

/ Resource limitations

/ Unclear unique selling proposition

A SWOT Analysis involves listing your organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses (these two are about internal factors), Opportunities, and Threats (these two are about external factors). Think about what this means in terms of your communications priorities. How could threats be turned into opportunities? How can you increase your strengths through effective communications?

S W O TSTRENGTHS WEAKNESSES OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

/ Underserved markets for specific products

/ Few competitors in your area

/ Emerging need for your products or services

/ Press/media coverage of your company

/ Emerging competitors

/ Changing regulatory

/ Negative press/media coverage

/ Changing customer attitudes toward your company

SWOT ANALYSIS

DANCE4LIFE COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

The example below shows how communications can contribute to delivering the objectives.

Any communications strategy should closely reflect your overall organizational/advocacy plan. In this section you should look at your organization’s overall vision and core (advocacy) aims and objectives. You should then suggest how communications can help deliver these goals.

The Back to School Policy is implemented at community level.

Safe abortion to be legalised in thenational policy.

Health clinics to be non-judgemental, non-discriminatory towards young people that have questions around sex, sexuality and relationships.

COMMUNICATIONS OBJECTIVES

COMMUNICATIONS OBJECTIVES

ORGANIZATIONAL/ADVOCACY OBJECTIVES Create awareness about the content of the

Back to School Policy amongst secondary school teachers.

Communicate about the risks of illegal and unsafe abortion for women’s health.

Young people need a safe space to openly discuss questions and issues related to sexuality.

Try to formulate the communication objectives as SMART as possible. It will help you better identify what you want to accomplish.

A mission statement for your goal that clarifies what you want to accomplish

Think about meaningful metrics that will create a tangible way to measure progress 

You and your team agree on what’s attainable

Focus on what makes sense within broader business goals and realistic resources 

Target timing, along with interim schedules, for deliverables  

SPECIFIC

MEASURABLE

ACHIEVABLE

RELEVANT

TIME BOUND

EXAMPLE OF A SMART COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVE

SMART OBJECTIVES

In 2019 secondary school teachers have a 20% increased knowledge and positive attitude about the content of the“Back to School Policy”.

DANCE4LIFE COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

Many organizations will find that they have lots of audiences who they need to interact with. One part of the strategy might be to look at which audiences will be interested in which parts of your organization or activities. Understanding this makes it easier to prioritize your communications work.

Another element after identifying your target audience(s) is to gather as much as possible information about them: how do they live, what topics matter to them, what is their socio-economic background, what kind of media channels do they use, do they know you already? etc. The more you know about your target group, the better you are able to communicate with them.

Now it is time to give a detailed description of your main audiences. These might include politicians, the communities you work in, the general public, parents, and other (i)ngo’s. You might also identify potential audiences that your organization is keen to connect with but has not reached out to so far.

TARGETAUDIENCES

DON’T FORGET YOUR INTERNAL AUDIENCES – STAFF, BOARD MEMBERS, PEER EDUCATORS, ETC. INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS IS A CRUCIAL PART OF ANY COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY!

TOP TIP;

DANCE4LIFE COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

What do you want the audience to learn or know after listening to you or reading your information?

What emotion or response do you want to evoke with your communication?

What specific action do you want the audience to take?

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THINK FEEL DO

If you look at your communication objectives you may have indicated that you are aiming to change behaviors, skills, knowledge, policies, norms or attitudes.

DESIRED ACTIONFOR CHANGE

Another way to look at it is to ask, “What do we want our audience to know/feel/do in response to the communication message?”

“What do we want our audience to know/feel/do in response to the communication message?”

DANCE4LIFE COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

Once you have identified your audiences, the next task is to translate your communication objectives into language that your target group(s) will understand and resonate with. Start with the audiences that are the highest priority.

Remember that your messages should be appropriate to the audience. You might want to speak to your supporters and donors in much more outspoken language than you would use for local authorities or other funders. But it is very important that there is a continuity across the messages. It is important that all of your stakeholders understand what kind of organization you are and what your objective is, so your messaging always needs to link back to your key organizational objectives and values (think about your mission statement). FORMAT Next to the content and the wording of your message, you have to think about the format you use, to get your message across. There are many formats, such as a newsletter, press conference, workshop, leaflet, press

release, theatre show, policy brief and the one(s) you choose, should be closely linked to the preferences of your target group.

RECURRING THEMES + KEY DATES

It’s a good idea to roll out themes regularly (for example weekly or monthly). Then you maintain momentum and keep building interest in the next messaging whether it’s email, radio, TV or social media. You also need to consider key dates for your organization like, UN days, conferences and specific events, anniversaries or seasonal activities. Map these out so your communication team knows when they’re coming, can plan to generate excitement in the weeks beforehand, and report back when they’re over.The table below sets out some examples of how messages can be tailored to different audiences.

AUDIENCE WHAT THEY NEED TO KNOW KEY COMMUNICATIONS MESSAGES

Local MP or councillors

Supporters of the key issue of the organization

/ What we want to see changed in policy terms

/ Our strong evidence base and supporter base

/ We have the ability to make change if they help us

/ We have a strong evidence base and our calls are grounded in robust evidence

/ We have a good knowledge of the policy environment

/ We are a well-respected, authoritative organisation

/ We need you to support our campaign by writing to your MP, signing our e-petition, donating to us etc.

MESSAGES & FORMATS

KEEP IT SHORT AND CONCISELimit key messages to three and keep them brief. A good test is to see if they take 30 seconds or less to read out loud.

THINK STRATEGICALLYDefine, differentiate, and address your benefits/value proposition.

BE RELEVANTConsider what your audiences need to know as you balance what you must communicate.

COMPELLINGStimulate action with meaningful information that incites a response.

KEY MESSAGING TIPS

KEEP IT SIMPLEAvoid jargon and acronyms, and use easy-to-understand language.

MEMORABLEAvoid lengthy sentences, and make the messages easy to remember and repeat.

BE ACTIVEAvoid the passive voice. Get your message across briefly, but don’t use tricky advertising style slogans

BE SPECIFICTailor communication to different target audiences.

DANCE4LIFE COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

For each audience identified in your previous section, you should now indicate the most appropriate channels for communicating with them. These might include a newsletter, conference, workshop, leaflet, press release, event, social media and your website.

The media channel(s) you choose, is also related to the format that you have chosen to communicate your message. For example, on TV you can better report a pamphlet and theatre campaign than on radio, however press conference could be reported by radio too.

MEDIACHANNELS

This is just an illustration to indicate that different target audiences might be reached by different media channels. When using Social Media to reach out to a specific audience, don’t forget to check the online Dance4Life Social Media guide!

Twitter + e-mail

Radio and billboards

School pamphlet

POLITICIANS

COMMUNITY

PARENTS

EXAMPLE

THE MAGIC IS IN THE MIX!

There are pros and cons to all of these channels, which once again will vary depending on your organizations needs and resources. Try a simple internal analysis of the channels you have at your disposal to see which are the best to use for getting specific messages to particular audiences. Also, don’t be afraid to test and experiment

to get to the right media mix. Once you found a good mix, also make sure that you listen to and interact with your target group. With social media channels it is not only about sending information, but it’s important that you keep listening and respond in real-time. Only then you create engagement, which helps you activate your target audience. You can use a free tool like Hootsuite to monitor everything that is going on and you can pre-plan some posts.

Your communication strategy should definitely include a section on evaluation. What does success look like and how will you know when objectives have been met? 

MEASURINGSUCCESS

Here you should indicate the tools you will use to evaluate various sections of your communications and the indicators that make it possible to measure. Indicators could be simple, such as: the number of responses to social media actions or e-bulletins, the number of phone calls, number of hits to your website or increases in donations following a mailing. More complicated indicators are the (increased) level of knowledge on an issue, the shift in attitude, the raise of awareness.

More concrete, the indicators could be focused on policy changes, for example have the key calls of your campaign been achieved? You could also include measures of media coverage; not only in terms of volume, but also breadth and depth. How often were your key messages mentioned and has there been a shift in public attitude on issues you’ve been campaigning for?

Several tools are possible to measure your indicators: follow the statistics on social media, use a tool like Hootsuite, make use of a research institute that measures knowledge, awareness or attitude.

BASELINEWhere are you starting in terms of your social media community size, website traffic volume, total donors, total members, etc.

INTERMEDIARY GOALSEvery three months, what type of growth would you like to see?

END GOALSWhere will you be in 12 or 18 months?

METRICS FOR EACH PLATFORMYOU’RE USINGMake sure to monitor and analyze your website analytics.

BE SURE TO INCLUDECLEAR GOALS:

DANCE4LIFE COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

With your audiences and key communications methods identified, you can begin to construct your communications plan, linking audiences, messages, channels but also budget, and resources allocated to delivering the strategy. 

WORK PLAN

Teachers Secondary schools

Radio, Social media, Talk show on TV

Weekly check and adapt your communication efforts

Create awareness about the newly adapted Back to School Policy (young pregnant girls/young moms can go back to

school after delivery).

Radio: every Monday morning during 3 months, TV: weekly,

Social media: daily

1.000 euro/dollar

Young teenage moms welcome back in school!

NGO + respected community leaders + journalists

Make use of UN Days, for example the

UN Day of the Girls

TARGET AUDIENCE

CHANNEL

MONITORING

OBJECTIVE

WHEN DELIVERED

BUDGET

KEY MESSAGES

WHO DELIVERS

CALENDAR

Plan the preparation time, Start, Milestones, End of the

campaign

Who is doing which tasks? Who is responsible?

What to do with negative comments? Who will be

spokesperson?

PLANNING TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES CRISIS COMMUNICATION

The work plan should also include proposed timescales or a calendar, responsibilities and information on crisis communication. Below you find a filled in example.

GOOD LUCK!Support for this project was provided on behalf of the RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW! Partnership. The partnership is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

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