You’re starting a career in strategic communications. What should you know before you begin?

One Post-It I keep on my wall at my home office is, "What are we solving for?" This is the most important question that you should always have an answer to, and that will help inform your strategy.

Making this specific to the pharmaceutical industry, it's crucial to grasp the regulatory environment governing pharmaceutical communications - the industry is highly regulated. Secondly, understanding complex scientific data and translating it into accessible information is a core skill. Additionally, awareness of the industry's competitive landscape can inform more strategic communication efforts. Finally, mastering digital communication platforms and techniques is vital, as these are increasingly important in reaching and engaging audiences. While this is true of many professionals, what you know today may not define you in ten years time. It's important to have a mindset of continuous learning to achieve your goals.

One thing to remember is that alignment with corporate strategy and objectives is the essence of strategic communication. It shapes the business environment, promotes business causes, and contributes fully to the organization's purpose. Strategic communication is the type of corporate communication that has a direct and concrete impact on corporate strategy and objectives, making it much easier to appreciate by the leadership than normal corporate communication.

When I am writing a comms plan, I first consider the pain points that my plan is addressing. By starting with what isn’t working, it makes it much more clear to craft communications that addresses them. Consider it like this: you start with the ‘why’ (painpoint), offer the ‘what’ as a solution, and fill in the details. Be clear, be brief, be done. ✅

Take the time to learn about your organization and the audience that you will be communicating to. Don't let others rush you in this process. Always be objective driven - never take on work before asking what you're supposed to achieve. Manage relationships well. In communications, you'll be managing big personalities - don't let that overwhelm you or derail you from the objectives of the organization. You were hired to be an expert at strat comm. Act like it. Don't try to be a jack of all trades. Take the time to be creative in your approach instead of reacting to everything.

As you start a career in communications you should know the value of great people. Choose a leader who inspires you, supports, and enables you to learn and grow. Choosing ‘who’ you want to work for / with is just as important as what company / brand. It’s being surrounded by great people that makes all the difference in career success.

Because of the plethora of dashboards, charts and analytics out there - it’s actually surprisingly hard to work out what your audience thinks. Even the best marketers can quickly become overwhelmed by the volume of data. The secret is to pick a few key metrics and mix in some good old fashioned surveys and conversations with people you trust. Also, don’t forget to use your own instincts - you are the audience too.

Understanding your audience is key to a successful strategic communication and can save you millions of dollars in cost and efforts. Especially in this forever evolving world, the best communicator stays close and adapts continuously with his audience in order to stay relevant.

Wichtig, gerade in Kommunikationsbereichen: keine Angst davor haben, den Telefonhörer in die Hand zu nehmen. Die Email passt nicht immer - kann natürlich stets gern hinterher geschickt werden, aber manchmal ist für den ersten Kontakt, eine kurze Nachfrage oder einfach einen persönlichem Draht das Telefonat unerlässlich.

It is not only about the conventional audience analysis. A strategic person, is a curious one. He should be well rounded. The best one is my opinion comes from sociology and phycology background. The best thing to start with is to find a interesting insight which clicks with the audience. If you think about the best brands in the world they answer a hidden insight. To find the right insight you should go beyond the conventional thinking.

Start by clearly defining your objectives and target audience. Understand what you want to achieve with your communication efforts and who you need to reach to accomplish those goals. Tailor your message to resonate with your audience's interests, values, and preferences. Crafting your message involves distilling complex ideas into clear, concise, and compelling language. Use storytelling techniques to make your message memorable and engaging. Highlight the benefits and unique selling points of your offering. Crafting your message is an iterative process. Be open to feedback, measure the effectiveness of your communication efforts, and be willing to adapt and refine your message based on insights and results.

In order to communicate your company strategy effectively, besides focusing on comprehensive communication, try to make it as much personal as possible (what does the message mean for the audience? / what will change? / what is expected from the audience?). Rather than focusing on a long presentation with impressive slides, match the message "to the moment" - an elevator pitch, ain interview with the decision maker, or a highly-visual way of presentation. Also be transparent (because there is nothing worse than gossips) and stick to "repeat, listen, and refresh" habit.

In crafting your message, a communicator must answer the following questions : What? (your key message to convey); Who? (to the audience); Why? (for which intended reactions/objectives); When? (within a right timing to impact more); How? (by choosing the appropriate channels to reach your audience).

My favorite memory as a new writer was how precious I was with my words. As a young student used to good grades, I didn’t think my copy needed editing. The greatest lesson to begin is to know that every piece of text can benefit from a second set of eyes, another pass after some time away, consideration of the final goal for what you want to say. Every draft can be improved. Has nothing to do with your ego or whether or not you’re good at this, it’s just a process. Once you let go of your feelings, you can focus on honing your words and making everything sharper.

The best communicators put themselves in their audience's shoes. Before crafting their message, connect with real people who represent my target demographic. Listen to understand their deepest needs, motivations and objections. This empathy is the foundation for relevant, impactful communication.

When choosing your channels, think about how you can use the COPE content strategy (Create Once, Publish Everywhere) to get important content out via multiple channels.

A strategic communication is a communication with impact, and to do so communicators need to be very selective when choosing channels. Unlike what most think, a strategic communication does not necessarily imply massive financial expenses, with the right choice of channels in alignment with the right audience, a clear key message, at the right time for a particular objective, organizational message can be very effective.

Cada stakeholders tiene su mensaje, tono y estilo. Así como su canal de difusión, por ello es tan importante estudiar a nuestro público objetivo, saber que hace, que le gusta, cuáles son sus actividades favoritas, sus medios más visitados, entre otros. Esto nos dará mejores opciones para que nuestro mensaje tenga más alcanza, en consecuencia, mejor visibilidad y posicionamiento de marca.

In identifying and selecting suitable communications channels, it’s important to keep a flexible approach. Never prioritize the channels or tools over the message and/or audience. Also, listening is very essential here. You have to keep listening to the beneficiaries/partners/audience through out the life span of the project and not only when planing and making a list. Also, don’t be afraid to be experimental.

Data can help identify the right channel but if executed poorly, then it doesn’t matter. Don’t be afraid to reach out to experts to help you refine/format your message to suit the channel and grab the attention of your audience

Sometimes I think we forget that the most important part of implementation is to begin and to take action. Sometimes people are so wrapped up in the planning of the planning that when it comes to strategic communications they forget to do the doing. Take action and sometimes all you need to do is take the first / next step. Often times people think that need to have every step planned (and tested) before they can begin. In today’s fast-paced world, being open to what you learn along the way and taking small first steps is often enough to begin the momentum that results in great accomplishments. But remember, you will get no where, if you never start.

Implementing the plan is the same as testing a theory, take what you’re learning and evolve the plan continuously. Rinse and repeat. Each cycle you’ll improve the outcome.

Implementation requires execution and continuous evaluation of communications. This involves clear delegation of tasks, timelines, and resources to team members. Monitoring progress closely, remaining agile to adapt to unforeseen challenges is very essential. Foster collaboration across departments and stakeholders to maintain cohesion. Utilize analytics to measure the effectiveness of your communication efforts and adjust strategies accordingly. Regularly communicate updates and successes to key stakeholders to maintain alignment and support. By staying organized, adaptable, and data-driven, you can achieve success in implementing your strategic communications plan.

Saiba que você deve manter o espírito de iniciante para sempre, pois estará sempre aprendendo, a comunicação é aprendizado constante.

After you have defined your purpose, analyzed your audience, crafted your message, and chosen your channel, you need to implement your strategic communication plan. This involves executing your communication activities, managing your resources, coordinating your team, and monitoring your progress. You need to be flexible and adaptable to deal with any challenges or opportunities that may arise. You also need to communicate effectively with your stakeholders, such as clients, partners, colleagues, and supervisors.

Yes, it is important to measure your results and quantify overall impact, and yet… Don’t forget to take time to celebrate the interim milestones and individual efforts that collectively advanced the organization toward these goals. At the end of the day, metrics matter (of course), but so do the human efforts, individual accomplishments and challenges overcome behind those metrics. Take time to learn about, evaluate and celebrate these human stories as part of your strategic communications plan and you will be amazed time and time again by the depth and breadth behind the numbers in your strategic communications.

What is not measured, cannot be improved. If we are aiming to be "strategic" within the business, we need to start measure our initiatives. It is always difficult to think about a hard KPI that will be linked to communications' efforts, but it is not impossible. It all begins by understanding the rationale behind the initiative, are we aiming to enhance a business indicator? If so, identify which indicator would be influenced and track the outcome from the initial stage through the campaign conclusion to determine the percentage of improvement. The communication campaign will not be a single actor but for sure, will take a key role to influence behavior in the collaborators.

In my 10+ years of working in PR, I've witnessed a lot of clients either unable or unwilling (mostly unwilling tbh) to properly evaluate their PR activities. I personally think it's most important to figure out/ realize why you are evaluating your work. Whether you do it mainly to improve or to show others how successful you were might change how you evaluate (and report). An example: If you want to write better (aka more impactful) press releases, you should probably evaluate how (often) journalists are picking up the messages you intend to send via your releases. If you just want to show people that your work kind of works, you could evaluate more "surfacy" KPIs like overall reach / number of articles published.

Celebrate great results, learn from disappointing ones, oh, and remember, everything starts all over again with the new strategy.

Evaluation is like saving. No matter how much you earn, set a percentage that you will always devote to evaluation. In optimal days, 5-10% of the budget. Also, evaluation does not come at the end. To measure behavioural shifts in audiences you need to include evaluators from the outset to define KPIs and accompany you throughout the implementation - also to be able to adjust in the interim. Last but not least, evaluation is scary and can be complex. Start small - something is better than nothing!

Gain as many experiences as you can. Building expertise is not about number of years and tenure, it’s about learning through varied experiences and the number of lessons you’re able to learn.

Strategic communications is rewarding, but know that it's often not just about doing the work. A lot of jobs are like this. Speechwriting, for example, often isn't just about putting words on paper, it's about psychology, getting into your client's head and navigating bureaucracies. Similarly, Strategic Comms involves internal persuasion, working with people who think very differently than yourself, bringing people along who don't necessarily want change, fighting your corner, defending your teams, internal politics, and insisting that communications has a seat at the high table without through lines.

Be curious and learn constantly: to be strategic and advise your business partner on the best communication strategy, you have to know the subject. Therefore you have to know about economics and finance, understand politics, be aware about the trends, be able to engage people and communities. This is the best part of being a communicator today: go beyond being a communication expert and become a strategic business partner

- Everyone thinks they can do your job - Your instincts will develop and become your superpower. - Focus on what you can control, and don't worry too much about what you can't.

If you have a low tolerance for bullshit, this isn't the career for you. It's going to come at you from the top, from the bottom and from every side you can think of, and a few you can't. Your job is to learn how to simultaneously dish it out and see through it to the core truths -- don't believe your own propaganda.