A communications strategy would be easy to create if it didn’t matter how true it was to an individual institution. But of course the main goal of such a strategy is to align a specific place with specific messages to specific audiences to inspire specifically desired actions and emotions.
From a certain distance, for example, all colleges and universities are basically the same. But the closer you get, the more the similarities of such attributes as mission, culture, campus and means break down. No strategy should aspire to provide the definitive expression of such enterprises—they have too many shifting dimensions. But if a strategy effectively defines the distinctions that matter at a certain time, there should be a frisson of recognition among those who know it well. They should at least be able to say, “Maybe that’s not exactly how I would have expressed the core of this place, but I recognize it when its story is told that way and it makes me proud.”
Whether I’m formulating a communications strategy for a large public university with many campuses, a small independent school that serves middle-school students, or a liberal arts college with extraordinary financial means, for example, I’m still aiming to get that reaction from their own close allies.
The challenge then becomes building out the tactical plan that connects the strategy’s key ideas to different audiences. Because in the end, a communications strategy expresses the connection between the school’s vision of itself and how others can help it get there.
Alumni and admissions prospects, for example, obviously experience the same university in markedly different ways. Within these two large constituencies, there are meanwhile many sub-groups—among alumni, for example, older and younger alumni, donor and non-donor alumni and so on. If a communications strategy hopes to shift perceptions and inspire action in these distinct audiences, its tactical plan will have to carry the strategy’s core ideas across two interconnected tasks:
In communications with large groups through messages they all consume, such as via websites, alumni magazines, presidential communications and major events.
In targeted communications sub-divided by manageable cohorts. This might include tailored print mailings, social media and curated events. These would deliver the strategic messages in ways that bridge the gap from where that audience is today specifically (e.g., age, income, location, familiarity with the school’s latest happenings, level of engagement) to how they particularly can be part of the institution’s future.
In the end, alignment encompasses four parts:
Mission—including the formal mission as well as history, evolution and culture
Institutional strategy—which presumably prioritizes how the institution will build on what it has become for major advancement
Communications strategy
Communications tactics, segmented by large and targeted audiences
In a future post I’ll suggest some of the key questions that it is essential to ask in building this alignment.
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