The benefits of a marketing and communications strategy
Strategy and planning can be decidedly unsexy.
It’s way more fun to jump right in and start playing with the shiny new marketing tool.
Sadly, that method rarely gets results.
When it does, they were a lot more expensive and time consuming than they needed to be.
There are decided benefits to having a marketing and communications strategy.
Saves you money -
It’s SO easy to get drawn into thinking each new and shiny marketing toy is THE thing. A strategy can help you make thoughtful, data-driven decisions about what tools you use and which ones you don’t. When new ones come out, you can analyze them through the lense of the strategy. Asking the question, “Will this help further our strategic objectives?” can effortlessly weed out a lot of non-essential and potentially expensive services.
Increases efficiency -
Increases efficiency by eliminating duplicated efforts and streamlining workflow. Instead of re-inventing the communications wheel every-single-time you need to post on social media, update your website or send a newsletter, you can simply act based on decisions made previously. A good strategy will provide clear direction on each and every communication, leaving you more time for other things. Bonus: you’ll also have all your web asset access details stored in one document. Yay for not wasting time searching for and endlessly resetting passwords!
Helps train new team members -
The process of creating a strategy will culminate in a set of specific guidelines that can be used to train new team members. Detailed documentation provided in the strategy helps new hires get access and start contributing far earlier than with ad-hoc training.
Gets better results -
Consistency is key to creating results. Communicating using a strategy will deliver your desired message to your target audience frequently and coherently. Every single iteration will contribute to achieving the messaging and results you want to achieve.
Know what’s working -
By identifying what success looks like, and what metrics contribute to that success, you create a data-driven process that helps to understand what’s working and what isn’t. After all you can’t improve what you don’t measure.
Builds trust and community -
Success comes to organizations that create spaces for communities to gather and engage. Often, these gathering spaces are public and online for all to see. Proactively developing a strategic process to manage irregular situations, conflicts and differences of opinion that occur provides three benefits. First, leadership can rest easy knowing there is a plan for the worst case scenario, that a PR nightmare has been handled even before it occurs. Second, a well thought out process for managing human conflict provides a safe space for all community members. Third, team members don’t need to exercise on-the-spot judgement in heated or uncomfortable situations.
Enhances teamwork -
By inviting team members to participate in the process of creating a strategy, the organization provides a valuable opportunity to increase team member buy-in. Through a collaborative approach, all opinions are heard, different strengths are noted, and together, a plan of action is created thereby getting the best out of the people that work there.
