Set Clear Objectives

I've found that it's vital to have established objectives prior to commencing with any business or communication strategy. Having clarified the objectives can make a world of difference when it comes to aligning with expectations and deliverables.

‘Creating brand awareness’ or increasing sales’ need to be articulated further to have any marked impact for the brand. These types of objectives are too vague, and don’t provide direction for the brand. In addition, they offer no metric(s) for evaluation, which has implications on ROI (Return on Investment) reporting.

Objectives should clearly identify who the brand is targeting, when, the channels to be used, and for how long (among other things). My suggestion is to be more specific with your objective setting, and include the specifics which will help guide any activities undertaken to achieve said objective. Using the acronym SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound), as criteria for objectives, can be invaluable in locking down exactly what you want to achieve in your strategy. I found this tool to be very helpful in objective setting.