How do you know if your strategic communication campaigns are working?

It’s simple! First of all, define and interpret your audience’s interests. Then, think goals first, tools last. Finally, tie your content metrics to lead quality improvement as you measure behavioral change. Enjoy the process!

L'efficacité de la communication ne se limite pas uniquement aux chiffres. Il est également important de prendre en compte l'impact qualitatif de vos campagnes sur la perception de votre marque et la satisfaction de votre public.

Assessing the effectiveness involves multiple facets. Firstly, observe audience reactions and engagement levels. Are they actively interacting with your content, sharing it, or asking questions? Secondly, track measurable outcomes aligned with campaign goals. This could include metrics like website visits, click-through rates, or conversions. Thirdly, evaluate the overall sentiment —are people responding positively or negatively? Additionally, consider qualitative feedback and anecdotal evidence from stakeholders. Are they expressing understanding, enthusiasm, or confusion? Lastly, analyze the campaign's impact on broader organizational objectives. Are you seeing improvements in brand perception, customer retention, or sales.

Ensure the issue(s) is genuine interims of being a documented issue, it’s impact on the audience, and it’s overall relevance. Never create an artificial narrative just to gain attention or create a fictional demon just to score political brownie points.

Some of the greatest fails in current communication is a lack of understanding the correct media for your audience and over written communications. Be brief and reach your audience where they are at. Corporations still play old school in how they communicate with their teams and leadership. Often doing better with their clients then their own teams. Being out of touch with leadership and teams will drive this lack of connection. We are in a world of brief, to the point, high level engagement driven media. Corporations over explain for minute communications and under explain for the most important.

?? If a communication campaign resonates, it will be apparent in the coming weeks/months based on mentions, likes, recommendations, etc. ?? Significantly, if it fails, the shock wave will be swift and immediate. The powerful word-of-mouth catches like wildfire which is why detailing and assessing a #strategiccommunications plan in collaboration with various stakeholders is necessary.

Setting objectives and indicators is good but also remains flexible about expectations. Once an initiative is begun no one knows how it will be received to determine the indicators, objectives, or milestones either by the public or a specific constituent based on ethnicity, political views, or common cause. Notable examples of ideas that were supposed to be great successes but tanked are: “New Coke” and “Howard the Duck”; but when the first Star Wars movie was being produced in the 1976/77 no one knew how influential the “Star Wars” saga/genre/sci-fi opera would really become.

This is the key. Many a times we fail to recognise it. Audience mapping is critical, one can do it by deep diving in data to understand the audience. Also, don't ignore common sense to understand your audience.

Often channels can be used in different ways to promote the same content, but the copy and strategy are different for each. It's different approaches for promoting the same content rather than promoting completely different content on each platform. For example, if you have a YouTube video that you want people to see, knowing that many platforms provide favor direct content uploads over links, you could do this: - Take a 30 second clip from the main content that is fun, interesting, and curious. Post directly to TikTok or the platform your audience most expects this style from you. Also share the link for the entire content. - Pull quotes from the video and share on another platform with an image pulled from the video.

Don’t' make assumptions about age in terms of how to reach an audience. First, ask the audience what preference there is not only with the goal of getting attention but also how to keep their attention. Second, remember a social media posting can be attention grabbing - but not in terms of information - be extremely shallow and leave the reader with limited knowledge based on a 10 second read. So, ensure any social media posting/email etc. Has links to more Indepth information.

Strategic communication works when it is done "strategically" - Look out for the "Aha!" moments. Are your followers having those lightbulb moments where they go, "Wow, this company/org knows their stuff!"? - If comments section is on fire. Are people engaging, sharing their thoughts, and asking questions, Quoting or DMing? - Keep an eye on the metrics which you have set for yourself. Are those metrics going North or South? - Last but not the least, are people clicking, learn More, button, signing up, or buying your product or your mobile keeps buzzing with notification or calls. - Also whether your communication has gone beyond your intended communication channels & platforms.

Want to improve your analytics game? While going deep into the data can be valuable, getting broader can bring equal and sometimes more value. For example, when I often create Looker Studio reports that focus on ALL social media channels, not just analytics on channels the business has and manages. I will look at how Facebook, Google, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Threads, Reddit, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc. brings traffic whether or not the company initiated the content. This helps discovery sources and audience we would have otherwise overlooked. It also tells us how powerful a channel can be as a whole. A great example is my recent discovery that client gained significant from Reddit, although they don't have an account.

But don’t forget the human component either. Involving your team, clients, and partners for their thoughts and suggestions adds depth to your data. Their input becomes a cornerstone for refining your existing or future communication strategies, adjusting goals, and methods. It becomes a collaborative process that facilitates buy-in from all impacted and ensures your approach stays relevant and effective going forward.

Setting realistic and measurable KPIs is essential for accurately assessing the impact of your communications campaign. Given that many aspects of communication are challenging to quantify, it's important to acknowledge the subjective nature of their impact. However, it's equally vital to establish KPIs grounded in hard data. This balance allows for a comprehensive evaluation, blending qualitative insights with quantitative results, and ensures a well-rounded understanding of your campaign's effectiveness.

Don’t over analyze this information. In an era of available information with more software that can break down who is doing what, why, etc. with that information. Some people like to see such results daily or hourly, others are more content with an annual or semi-annual review. The point of gathering and analyzing such information is to improve the message/product so don’t look at every leaf through a magnifying glass and don’t just look at the forest from above. Ensure any person or team that is doing such work can do both.

Additionally, in the final phase of the strategic campaign, maintaining a "lessons learned" record proves both helpful and vital. This resource helps identify what worked and what didn't from your data analysis and acts as a point of reference for future campaigns. Use the format that works best for you and your team but don’t miss capturing this essential knowledge.

How do you know if your strategic communication campaigns are working? Well, it's simple! If people start confusing your brand with a famous rock band or mistake your jingle for the latest chart-topping hit, congratulations! Your campaign is rockin' and rollin'! But if folks start asking if your ads were secretly written by their cat, well, it might be time to rethink your strategy. Remember, laughter is the best KPI! ??????

Given that strategic comms exists to achieve a specific goal, Emmi Kavander's is absolutely right that "if your strategic communication campaign is working, the people you intended to target are taking action towards what you wanted them to." If you can't see people starting to take the action you need, then you need to understand why, reassess your strategy and your tactics, and keep checking. In the end, your stakeholders won't care if you held 20 events or posted 100 articles if there is no change in the outcome. Sometimes it can be hard to admit (even to yourself) that your carefully thought out strategy isn't working. So, instead, try to see it as a fluid work in progress where you keep learning and adapting to get the right results.

In short, if your strategic communication campaign is working, the people you intended to target are taking action towards what you wanted them to.

Keep it simple: tap into your audience’s pulse with surveys or other listening tools. This will be your go-to approach to learn what’s sticking and making an impact and what’s not.

Are the right people engaging with your brand, acting as your ambassador, saying what you want them to say and are they taking the action you wanted, in response to your campaign? If any or all of this is a resounding YES then your campaign strategy and comms is working for you.