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Newsletter Archives
Don’t Touch That Mouse! Plan Before You
Communicate
Just as you plan your
marketing program or your calendar of events, you should outline your
visual communications strategy in advance. An effective plan should
reflect your organization’s overall communication goals while
continuously striving to capture and retain the interest of your
audience. The key is to gather and consider carefully as much
information as possible about your messages and your viewers.
A well thought out visual communications
plan doesn’t require lengthy documentation. In fact, a cluttered written
plan can be restrictive and can work against a lively, impactful
messaging program. The important thing is to work through the process
and have a clear idea of what your communications will consist of, what
their purpose is, when and how you will deliver them and how you will
measure their success.
In general, most
processes work on a structure of goals, objectives, plans, strategies
and tactics. Know the difference between these items and also that the
focus, or level of detail, increases as you drill down.
Goals
– Overall, what your organization hopes to achieve
Objectives
– Within organizational goals, specific benchmarks being strived for
Plans
– Outline of strategies and tactics within defined objectives and goals,
considering all available input
Strategies
– Programs, campaigns or communications within a plan to help achieve
objectives
Tactics
– Specific tasks related to strategies
Possible structures for
your communications plan could include:
Calendar.
The traditional and most popular
organizational method for communications plans is chronological. By
outlining your strategies in an annual, quarterly, monthly or other
calendar-based sequence, it is easy to plan, execute and review your
communications in a logical timeline. Other methods may include
organizing under a topical system but still listing communication
tactics in chronological order within those topics.
Event.
Planning your communications around
important happenings that define your industry can be very useful. Some
entities have high seasons or special events that consume the bulk of
their communications. If your messages are centered on pre-promotion,
advertising and follow-up for specific events, you may want to organize
your communication plans within those categories.
Departmental.
Allow each contributing group to form a
plan and then combine them for overall effectiveness. This will allow
you to develop themes or compare/contrast various campaigns that are
planned, providing needed cohesiveness. It makes sense to also consider
your visual communications plan within the scope of other organizational
marketing, communications, Human Resource, and IT plans.
No matter how you choose
to organize your plan, remember to always reference your goals and your
resources. Each visual communication should support a clearly defined
purpose, whether it is a stand-alone message or part of a larger
campaign. Resources, such as design personnel, bandwidth, administration
and messaging hardware/software capabilities need to be considered
within the scope of your strategies.
Just as planning will
improve your communications, information gathering will improve your
communications strategies. The level of detail to consider when
formulating your plan depends on how much information you have at your
disposal and how you are able to organize it:
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Who is your
audience? Do you have statistical information so you can plan more
effectively?
Plan around viewing
patterns, style and content that appeals to each audience segment.
Remember to address internal as well as external audiences.
Gathering basic statistics can help you determine when and how to
attract viewers.
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Where is your
content coming from?
Try to get as much
information from contributing sources and/or map out your own
sources for content in advance. This will allow you to approximate
the quantity, type and timing of content that will be available to
you.
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How many separate
channels of visual communications you will use at one time?
Consider the number
of content blocks, tickers and other publishers being used. Try to
determine the quantity of bulletins, videos, tickers, data feeds and
graphics needed for a consistent flow of dynamic communications.
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What is the best
delivery method for various communications?
You may want to
assign content to specific forms of display or ensure saturation by
delivering to combined endpoints. Some content is ideally suited for
a certain endpoint (video = plasma), where other communications are
more versatile (text bulletin = displays, cell phones, desktop
pop-ups, tickers, screen savers, etc.)
This attention to detail
doesn’t mean that spontaneous communications should be quashed. On the
contrary, your plan should be formulated with flexibility that allows
for adjustments as needed. Last minute communications are often
essential to the timeliness of your bulletins and the subsequent success
of those messages being viewed by your audience.
Keep your plan handy and
be sure to reference it regularly. Count on making changes as your
goals, objectives and environment changes. Adjust when needed to
increase the success of your communications based on feedback from
specific campaigns.
No matter how you
organize it, having a plan specific to your visual communications
program will help you to more efficiently and effectively reach your
goals and your audience.
Copyright 2006. Visix, Inc. All rights reserved.
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