Want a cracking communications campaign? It all starts with sound strategy, effective key messages and planning. Once those building blocks are in place we bring it together with great design.
Here’s tips to creating a great communications campaign:
Target audience:
Identify your different audiences and what they are required to do within the campaign e.g. managers may need to cascade information down to employees, and employees may need to participate in an activity/survey/competition.
Also identify differences within your audiences e.g. if a large portion of your audience is non-English speaking create simple messages or include a toolkit with assets they can translate.
Channels:
Find the communication channels within your business you can use e.g. email, intranet or website, social media or an internal chat system like Chatter, Yammer or Skype Chat.
Tip: Identify opportunities and understand the metrics before including a channel which may not be well used – just because you have the channel doesn’t mean you should use it.
Messaging:
Your messages are as important as great creative. Good messages are:
- Simple, free of jargon and easy to understand.
- Have a clear ask: they tell your audience what they need to do and what could happen as a result of their actions.
- Compelling by explaining why action is needed within a timeframe.
- Consistent with your overall business or organisation style.
- Repeated across channels – your audience will need to see the same message a few times preferably across different communication channels for them to absorb and action it.
Campaign planning:
You need a plan for the rollout of your communications using your channels in an integrated way. An email introductory message can link to more information on a website or intranet site. Social media or an internal chat is then integrated into the site to achieve a fully integrated campaign.
Interactive elements are always a winner: competitions, surveys, sharing stories, liking and commenting on articles, voting are all great ways to interact with your audience so that you’re not just pushing content.
And don’t forget video and animation – max 3 minutes long.
Remember to conclude your campaign with results from actions your audience were required to take, success stories or outcomes. Often campaigns are launched to achieve a goal but the audience isn’t told of the success or outcome. It’s a simple story or note sent to all to round off the campaign, often months after the fact once the results are in.
Creative:
Bring your great strat, messaging and planning together with great creative. Our process of design starts with brainstorming and idea generation after we’ve absorbed your strategy or helped you craft key messages.
Your campaign identity needs to include:
- A colour palette
- Logo or icon
- Strapline or hashtag
- Design elements – icons or shapes and patterns
- Photography or illustration
- How it all comes together
We hope this helps you understand the basics of creating cracking campaigns. If you need help you know who to call.