If you’ve been following along and implementing the RADD process, it’s time to Develop plans for communications success.
Everything is different. The way we communicate, how we protect ourselves, how we shop, and how we run our businesses.
The Coronavirus Crisis is likely the biggest crisis many of us have faced in our careers, to say nothing of the personal impacts on our lives. As with the financial crisis in 2008, there will be business success stories that come from this crisis, and you can be one of them.
We’ve been discussing how we find success following this crisis through the RADD approach, which is Recognize, Adapt, Develop, and Deploy. Check out our previous posts:
– Get RADD And Plan For Success Following Coronavirus Crisis
– Prepare for Success and Get RADD, Part 1: Recognize
– Finding Success By Getting RADD, Part 2: Adapt
Time to Develop
Today’s we’re digging in to how we can DEVELOP our plans for success following this crisis.
The good news is that the process isn’t unlike a typical strategic communications plan development process. The tricky part is understanding that things have changed so you need to adapt and evolve your view on what these elements look like.
But if you’ve followed the RADD process (Recognize, Adapt, Develop, Deploy), you should have already RECOGNIZED the situation for what it is and ADAPTED your short-term operations to prepare your business for this moment.
Here are the elements you need to remember when developing your new communications plan following a crisis like coronavirus:
1. Don’t Reinvent the ENTIRE Wheel
If you’ve followed the RADD process, you’ve had to adapt quite a few things to this point, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Use what you can from your existing plans, as some things will still be applicable.
For instance, what your audiences expect from you may have changed, but your audiences are likely still very similar from when you started. In fact, you may even have more people to communicate with now.
Build on what you had, but with the adapted mindset that we’ve discussed throughout this process. Use the tools that exist, but plot your course based on new ideas and the recognition of the situation you’re in, and where you need to go.
And if you didn’t have an existing plan, that’s ok, it’s time to start developing a new plan with a new mindset. But whatever you do, have a plan!
2. What’s Changed?
So, you’ve made your adjustments for the short term, and you’re starting to think long term. There are tons of questions to ask, but the trick is asking the right questions.
Those will vary from business to business, industry to industry, but the goal is to determine exactly what’s changed, or is changing, with your audiences, your business, and your industry.
For instance…
On the business operations front:
– How has your business model changed?
– Have you had to adjust operations, or the way you conduct business?
– Were you able to add new revenue streams to replace the temporarily reduced ones?
– How will those play into our new operations when this is over?
For your audiences:
– Have audiences’ behaviors shifted? If so, how?
– Has this crisis changed what your audiences now expect from you?
– How have you adjusted to their expectations now?
– How can you reach them in new ways (let’s face it, everyone is more digitally active now)?
For your staff/team:
– How has your staff changed?
– Are you going to continue remote working, even in some way?
– What are staff expectations of your company now?
– Many of us had to reduce staff, which means we need to change how we execute, which has an impact on how we develop our plans. How will you evolve?
Ask as many questions as you can to help you clearly identify what’s changed with each of these areas so you can create a fully integrated and comprehensive communications plan.
3. KPIs and How Much
KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, are crucial to understanding how we are doing to measure success. Some businesses prefer vanity metrics, while others dig much deeper to understand how our efforts are truly impact the business, revenue and success (which is how we should ALL be measuring).
We won’t go into what metrics you should use and why, that’s for another time but something everyone should clearly understand. Those get specific to your campaign, so today we just want to talk about the approach.
If you’ve already created a plan, hopefully you have a solid understanding of your KPIs. Regardless, it’s time to reevaluate, or determine, how you’re measuring success.
Remember, if you hold yourself accountable to the KPIs pre-crisis, these could likely be unrealistic expectations and you’re setting youself and your business up for failure.
Start by understanding what success looks like for your business.
– Are you focused on conversion right now, engagement?
– Where can you realistically be in three months, six months and 12 months?
– Are the established KPIs enough to determine success for your campaign?
– Do you need to add others, based on your new reality and situation?
This is the opportunity to think strategically, and likely it’s going to be a combination of things. Strategic communications isn’t always a straightforward process.
Sometimes you need to focus on engagement, which can lead to acquisition, which can lead to conversion.
The point is you need to determine which metrics work for you and accurately represent your goals, given this new reality that we’ve Recognized and Adapted to.
4. The Timeline
This may be one of the trickiest elements of a strategic communications plan. It drives your actions, forces you to evaluate yourself even when you don’t want to, and is always lurking in the background.
But don’t worry, we can always adjust the timeline, so it’s not as scary as many people fear.
So, what’s a realistic timeline for success in this new climate that you’re operating in?
The best advice is to be realistic with yourself and your team, but still push for results. Some things to keep in mind:
– Don’t be afraid to challenge your teams, as long as you provide the resources to get the job done and are honest about what can realistically be achieved.
– Identify milestone markers throughout the process so you can reevaluate the work and what needs to be done to achieve success.
– Set short-term goals that build into the larger long-term goals so you can measure along the way.
– Stick to your timeline as much as possible. It’s easy to just push things back and blame it on external factors, but avoid doing that if you can. It may be necessary sometimes, but you’ll be surprised how you can adjust and still stay on target.
– Give yourself time! Don’t rush your campaign. Be honest about how much time it will take and push for the time you need to show real results.
5. Messaging
It’s time to reevaluate your messaging approach to ensure it represents your brand accurately and delivers on the promises to your audiences. You may already be spot on, or you may have some significant changes to make, but either way, you’ll want to spend some time on this.
Given the new normal and expectations of your audiences (see above) are you delivering on what you’ve promised to your audiences?
If you haven’t been focused on conversation over conversion throughout this crisis, you’ll likely have some work to do to bring your audiences back into the fold.
Your messaging strategy will depend on which audience you’re talking to, but again, be honest with yourself and ensure that what you’re saying matching what you’re doing and what your company stands for.
People are expecting more from brands so be prepared to deliver on it through your words AND your actions.
6. Channels
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear that everyone is communicating more digitally these days. How much this continues beyond this crisis is yet to be determined.
But what’s certain is that we will absolutely need to prioritize digital communication and digital channels into the future. This is a trend we’ve been seeing, and this crisis has helped to expedite the process.
Not to say you shouldn’t also focus on traditional communications methods, but be prepared to add digital elements into each area.
For instance, media outlets from TV to print have rushed to launch digital storytelling efforts that are likely to remain following the crisis. How will you integrate those in to your campaign?
Add to that more and more people are engaged on social media channels, and the necessity of owned channels like your website, and it’s easy to see that we’re operating in a digital world.
Recognize that, prepare for it, and be ready to integrate digital in to your channel mix.
As we’ve said, this crisis will end at some point and you need to be ready for the growth and success that is waiting on the other end. The RADD approach will help get you there!
There’s More!
Here are some additional resources for your crisis planning efforts as you adapt to your new worlds:
– There’s Still Time To Communicate During the Coronavirus Crisis
– Isolation Is Actually Connecting Us In Meaningful Ways
– Is Pitching Media A Good Idea During COVID-19?
– Internal Communications During A Crisis
– The Art & Science Of Making A Public Apology
– A Meaningful Message, Or Pandering Without Purpose
– Tips For Working From Home As Your New Normal
And here are some additional blogs to help with your strategic communications planning:
– Pitching Media Like The Pros
– 7 Tips for Successful Media Interviews
– Don’t Let Perfect Be The Enemy Of Effective
– Wake Up. Kick Ass. Repeat.
– How to Create Content That Engages Audiences and Builds Brand Trust Quickly
– 7 Tips to Measure Your Strategic Communications Campaigns
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