The results from the Communications Strategy Survey are in. And while they indicate many organizations are struggling to develop a communications strategy, they also indicate many people within those organizations see the value of a communications strategy and are motivated to improve or develop theirs.
No Strategy
The most notable finding is that only 25% of respondents indicated their organization has a written communications strategy.
That means 75% of organizations are sailing their communications ship without a map. No wonder so many communicators are feeling confused and overwhelmed by all the communications options now available!
Breaking It Down
As we delve into the specific aspects of communications strategy, respondents feel best about their understanding of their target audience(s), with 43% rating their org a 4 or 5 compared with 29% rating their org a 1 or 2.
In all other aspects of communications strategy, more people rated their organization negatively than positively.
- On defining & understanding their communications goals, 31% were positive and 38% negative
- On defining & understanding their communications tactics, 31% were positive and 36% negative
- Respondents felt least confident in their tracking of metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of their communications goals with only 17% rating their organization positively and 62% negatively.
Motivated to Improve
Overall it’s clear that the people who responded to the survey are not satisfied with their communications strategy. When asked “Overall, how would you rate your organization’s communications strategy?” only 16% rated it positively while 47% rated it negatively.
On a positive note, though, when asked, “How motivated are you to help your organization develop a better communications strategy?” 70% indicated they are highly or extremely motivated.
I’m encouraged by this because it shows many people see the value of a communications strategy and the potential impact a good communications strategy has to improve communications and dramatically impact the effectiveness of the organization.
Biggest Barriers?
When asked, “What is the biggest barrier to your organization developing a better communications strategy?” respondents were fairly evenly divided between busyness (29%), lack of understanding (25%), and lack of leadership (21%). 17% of respondents indicated “other” on this question, but a closer look at those other reasons revealed nearly all could be categorized as time, understanding or leadership issues.
Where do we go from here?
Based on the survey results, I see at least 3 things we can do.
1) Develop Resources. It’s clear that organizations need and want help developing better communications strategies. That presents an opportunity for the development of better communications strategy resources and guidance – books, webinars, tools, conferences and coaching.
2) Provide Examples. An additional type of resource that would be helpful is examples of communications strategies. Some survey respondents indicated they would like to share their communications strategy online either as an example or for the purpose of receiving feedback. We hope to post and discuss as many of these as possible.
3) Parse Data Demographically. More insight may be gained by parsing the results by demographic factors – type of organization, number of employees, role in the organization or years of experience. We’ll be looking into that ourselves. And if you’d like the raw data (excluding email address) to do your own parsing, just let us know.
For more on communications strategy, read What Is a Communications Strategy? and How to Develop a Communications Strategy – with 6 Words
Discussion
- What comments or questions do you have about the survey results?
- What could be done to help your organization or other organizations develop better communications strategies?
40 Comments
I wonder what tools do the companies use to evaluate their communications. There should be a strategy that puts accent on this important issue and measure the results after trying to improve the values. This will bring awereness of importance to everybody
This is a positive comment, please!
I am not sure that -particularly in religious organizations- people hold the kind of skills or training that grasps the need for strategic business thinking in terms of communications, organization, etc…
The survey's results certainly reflect the above fact. Vic
I worship in a very large (2,500 attendance) traditional church that has Joel Osteen's Lakewood in our backyard. I suspect that has driven our congregation to be focused on effective communication. I am not saying there are no struggles, but the elevator speech is well rehearsed. Our website, TV strategy, social media, and print efforts do a decent job working together.
It is a shame to see congregations struggling because I know that means wasted resources. Here is a hope and a prayer that this survey prompts folks to create effective strategies for their church communications.
>>It is a shame to see congregations struggling because I know that means wasted resources.
Thanks Harold. I feel the same way.
I think that if you want your business to be successful, you need someone in charge of communications, including written. like the saying goes 'Fail to prepare – Prepare to fail' Before they know it, it gets put to one side and then forgotten about and are then reminded that the did too too late when it hits the fan.
I agree with Amidiaetic but its not just someone in charge, more so an involved effort and strategy based communications "fluid" effort. This would result in complete symmetry of communication analytic's and relieve back end burden on all communicable departments in the org.
The 3 businesses and organization I am involved with do not have a communications strategy, 2 of them barely have a website! Inventory is taken on paper and I sent mine via excel and they printed it out! So communications strategy is a mute point!
Ouch!
Insightful results. Hard for me to be too critical as my organization falls right into the middle of this. Unfortunately, urgent trumps important . . time and time again. But not tomorrow. . . tomorrow, we will tackle important over urgent. 🙂
Matt, that is the big challenge – not allowing the urgent to displace the important.
Very informative. I learned early on, that you have to focus on your communications as well as your marketing strategy
we do, but the hard thing for me is that we were just acquired by a company that does not – so I am fighting an uphill battle
Thanks Paul I will share this with my daughter who has founded a Ballet school in a depressed sector of Birmingham. Many organizations want to help but without a written communications strategy, my daughter is shouldering a massive load that my overwhelm her.