Remember when Superman flew around the world at warp speed? That’s a little bit how the world of communications feels right now. Things are moving and changing so fast; it’s difficult to keep up. Having a solid strategy in place is more important – and more complicated – than ever before. Constantly reviewing, evaluating and adapting that strategy to your audience is critical to success. You need to be thinking brand…awareness…segmentation…media mix…key messages…objectives…social marketing…controlled messages…uncontrolled messages…interactive….traditional…non-traditional. Who are you talking to and why? Oh, and by the way, these all need to be carefully watched and monitored and should evolve quickly, frequently and as often as necessary.
Strategically speaking, getting the right message to the right people at the right time is, well, complicated and confusing and frustrating. The approach is changing from saying what you want to say over and over to saying what I want to hear, where I want to hear it, in a way that I understand it and in a way that makes me care about it. Your strategic plan needs to move from awareness to personalized customer messaging faster than ever. Segmenting and relevancy. It doesn’t even sound easy. But I am convinced that the only way to get there is to have a solid strategic plan in place, execute as planned, evaluate constantly and morph as fast as your audience does.
