Strategic communications pop up in our minds when we mostly think about corporate communications and political PR.
Planning, execution, and evaluation of communication efforts.
Strategic communications mostly deploy planning, execution, and evaluation of communication efforts to achieve specific goals within an organization or target a particular audience.
Public relations, marketing communications, advertising, internal communications, and digital media are the directions for a careful elaboration of the specific messages for being decoded by specific audiences. In most of the cases, it is elaborated to gain a predicted outcome such as playing a crucial role in shaping public perception, influencing behaviour, and achieving organizational objectives through effective communication strategies.
Audience analysis, followed by message development and channels selection.
Strategic communications start with audience analysis, followed by message development and channel selection. Goal setting and measurement combined with an integrated approach result in stakeholder engagement. The process of strategic communications is cyclic, and its continuous improvement should be considered constantly.
Examination of the cross-cultural aspects of the target audiences.
Nevertheless, the elaboration of the messages in strategic communications even though based on proper analysis of a target audience, stakeholders and communication channels skips a stage of the examination of the cross-cultural aspects of the target audiences perceiving those as national and not multinational.
Therefore, communication strategists must gain an understanding of the specific communication patterns related to specific nationalities or ethnic groups before the stage of strategic message creation.
Insight into cross-cultural communications since professional teams are mostly multinational.
Besides, the unavoidable globalization of business communications requires a clear insight into cross-cultural communications since professional teams are mostly multinational and those are enhanced by working remotely schemes.
Communication during crises or challenging situations.
Developing plans and strategies to manage communication during crises or challenging situations to protect the organization’s reputation and maintain trust with stakeholders is especially important since any correction of the potential misleading or wrongly interpreted communication requires additional techniques and a special level of professional skills.
Perception of the organization or brand through strategic messaging.
Brand management on the contrary requires building up the perception of the organization or brand through strategic messaging, storytelling, and reputation management in association with the correct positioning of the business in the minds of its stakeholders and customers.
