Communications Toolkit: Follow-Up: How Is Your Strategy Working

Resource: Learning Materials

Follow-Up: How Is Your Strategy Working?

Step 1: Launch.

You’ve done the hard work of identifying your audiences, crafting specific messages for them and preparing your communication approach; now it’s time to launch! 

Refer to your media list that you’ve assembled. (There is a sample template included in the Worksheet that follows.) Are there specific groups, institutions, or individuals that you can reach out to with your work? Next, distribute to your networks—e.g., on social media, LinkedIn, via email to colleagues, through listservs that include relevant audience members, in newsletters you subscribe to, on your website, to the communications or public relations team of our company or institution, if applicable, etc. 

Step 2: Track.

Not every communication product is going to work perfectly. It may take several iterations or different approaches to ultimately reach your audience. Be sure to track your progress so you can understand what is working well with and what is missing the mark. Part of this process involves setting benchmarks for your products. For example: 

  • We hope to have X amount of followers on our social media platform in 6 months, while aiming to post twice a week.
  • We hope to have X number of subscribers to our newsletter in three months, which we will send out biweekly.
  • We hope to have X number of views each month on our blog or website, which we will post new content to weekly.

Once you have set these metrics, you can then gather your data to determine whether the frequency with which you’re communicating and the content you’re sending out are helping you reach these numbers. There are many ways to measure your success. For example you can:

  • Set up Google Analytics on your blog or website to determine the number of people visiting your site, the length of their stays, the number of pages they visit. the popularity of individual pages, etc.  
  • Use a newsletter platform like MailChimp or Constant Contact, which will let you keep track of the number of subscribers, rate at which people open the email and click on its content, bounce rate, etc. 
  • Use the built-in analytics of social media platforms, like YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., to gauge number of views, number of followers, engagement levels, etc. 
  • Conduct surveys to gather feedback on your products and outreach efforts.

This information can all provide valuable insight to help you tailor your message or approach. 

Step 3: Revise & Update

What lessons are you learning from the communication attempts that miss the mark? How can you incorporate that feedback into the next communication product? Don’t be discouraged if one attempt to communicate your message flops. On average, it takes a person three interactions to be influenced or informed by a product’s marketing, and your communication attempts are no different. Don’t be afraid to change things up as needed. Communications is a constantly evolving process.

Continue to the next step of the toolkit: Worksheet

 

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