Do You Need a Communications Plan?

Look at your marketing materials, including your business card, letterhead and news releases. Do they all look different? Does each describe your business or agency differently? Is there a logo on your letterhead, but not your brochure? Then you need a communications plan.

The Need for Consistency

The public is bombarded with more media and marketing messages than ever. For your target audience or customers to remember you, your messages and identity must be consistent. The problems I describe above are usually caused by the failure to plan what and how you will communicate information about your organization. Your brochures, web site and other marketing materials should share language, messages and a design theme. If your organization has a logo or slogan, they should be included on all materials, including your letterhead.

Developing an Identity

An identity is more than just a logo. While identity is often thought of as graphical, organizations have also built identities around words, jingles or colors. e.g., UPS brown.

The first step in developing an identity is to determine what you want your business to stand for, in other words, what do you most want to be know for? When someone hears your organization's name, what is it you want them to think? Write down your thoughts. Bounce ideas around with colleagues. Then focus on writing one concise sentence, that in a few words, states what you want people to think when they hear or see your business' name.

The Next Step

The sentence you wrote above can become the cornerstone for a communications plan. A well thought out plan contains measurable objectives, strategy, tactics and implementation measures. More on developing a communications plan in future issues of PR Tip of the Month. In the meantime, strive to be consistent.