It’s a little bit ironic — your communications team struggles to communicate. But I see it all the time. Email marketing operates in a world of its own, separate from website content, organic social media, and paid media.
Uncoordinated communications is the leading cause of missing performance targets.
Whether you’re part of a large organization with different teams responsible for each segment or a smaller group that has a hodgepodge of duties sprinkled in with other job functions, the parts of the whole have to work together to achieve optimized results. These are the most common tools for success that we’ve seen.
1. Project Management Tool
For some reason, communications teams tend to operate independent of any formal project management system. Often, this is the result of each segment needing their own platform for accomplishing their day-to-day tasks, like an email marketing tool or social media scheduler. Pulling all of the functions together into one project management platform can help coordinate outbound messaging and keep everyone on schedule.
2. The Comms Meeting
If you’re not tracking at the micro- and macro-level on your content calendar, you’re missing out. Communications is one of the only fields where we have to work in parallel on our short-term and long-term goals. We find that a weekly or bi-weekly meeting can help keep sight of the long-term goals. Day-to-day management is better served without a meeting (it can be email) and we all have so much to do that time is better spent “doing the doing” than talking about doing.
3. Brand, Style & Voice Guide
It seems obvious and basic, but so many organizations we’ve worked with haven’t invested the time in building out a basic set of tools for their communications projects. Our team is routinely using the guides we develop for day-to-day operations, as well as larger tasks. Everyone is replaceable and by building out these basic tools you are creating back ups to the talented team in case something out of the ordinary pops up.
4. Ad Planning
In the advocacy world, paid social and organic social tend to operate as two completely different tracks. This harms KPIs (known performance indicators), especially for establishing virility with content. Instead, the two teams should be working together from start to finish, developing concepts around one another’s plans. And yes, paid and organic are equally important.
5. Hardware & Software Investment
Budgets are tight and things are not going to get easier in the near future; however, investing in the right tools can improve efficiency and increase the effectiveness of your communications. There’s no reason to keep dealing with “computer problems” that push back your content schedule. Empower your team by investing in the tools they need to succeed.
Breaking Down Communications Silos was originally published in Thoughts? for Jersey on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.