The Ultimate Communications Tactic
by Cynthia Fontayne
In marketing communications, the single most important tactic is…Strategy. This is a deliberately paradoxical statement. Too many marketers leap right into the details of communications without formulating a truly strategic plan.
A sound strategic communications plan should include establishing goals, conducting or compiling research, identifying key audiences, defining messages, targeting media, and developing creative, cost-effective ways to combine all these components to maximum effect.
Seems obvious. So why doesn’t everyone take this approach? The escalating pace of change that can render long-term strategies obsolete overnight? The familiarity with basic tools such as familiarization trips and press releases? Inertia? Or perhaps its opposite: the urgent impulse to Do Something Now!!!
The constraints and uncertainties of the economy and the marketplace seem to conspire against strategic thinking. But without a communications strategy, one is doomed to operate at a disadvantage no matter what the current business climate or latest industry challenge.
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