What is Strategic Communications?
Strategic Communications is defined as the purposeful use of communication by a brand, business, organization or institution to fulfill their mission and achieve their desired objectives or results. To be strategic in communications is to be purposeful, structured, thoughtful about WHAT you say, WHERE you say it, to WHOM, HOW and WHY.
Breaking it down as follows:
What You Say
The message is the most important part of communication. What are you trying to communicate? What you want the audience to get from what you are saying? What do you want the audience to know, how do you want them to feel about your message? And what call-to-action are you expecting to see after they interact with your message? All of this should influence your messaging content, approach and strategy.
Where You Say It
Saying the right thing in the wrong place is a recipe for failure. Where you communicate makes all the difference to the effectiveness of your communications. Speaking to the wrong audience in the wrong place – or the right audience at the wrong place and time is counterproductive. You need to work towards that sweet spot where you are speaking to the right audience, at the right time and in the right place.
To Whom You Say it
Who is your communications addressed to? This is also very important because sometimes people select channels randomly without thinking things through? If your audience is primarily Gen Z, then why are you posting on Facebook? Why are you not on TikTok? Why is your content designed for a much older audience? What do you know about your target audience? What assumptions have you made about them?
How You Say it
What is the most appropriate choice of words and tone that will communicate appropriately to your audience and ensure they get the message quickly and understand what you are trying to say? This is particularly important in sales and marketing communications when you want the audience to follow up with an action after reading the message. Your message has to be persuasive enough to get the audience to take action to either save your post for future review, click to join a mailing list, make an inquiry or proceed to make a purchase immediately. Communications for information is different from communicating to influence action or change behaviour. The mode and methold of communication differs determining on the purpose or objective.
Why You Say It
This brings us to the most important attribute of strategic communications. The purposeful nature of strategic communications is what distinguishes it from tactical communications because it is a pre-determined approach that makes no assumption about audience, messaging or outcomes. It has a clearly defined objective and structures the approach, design, format and style of communication to ensure that it achieves the desired results to the greatest extent possible. In order to achieve this, it relies on data, insights, observations etc. It invests in research to identify the key audiences and stakeholders that need to be targeted and aims to learn how best to reach them. It also determines what it needs to do to become a credible voice in the sight of the target audience.
Sola Abulu & Associates (SA&A) is a strategy and communications training and consulting firm dedicated to enabling businesses, brands and institutions to achieve their desired objectives through strategic communications, organizational effectiveness and reputation risk management.
Enrolment is ongoing for the 8th Cohort of the SA&A CPDSO-Accredited Strategic Communications Course scheduled for Thursday, August 28, 2025 from 9AM – 4PM West Africa Time via ZOOM.
Register here to join the session: https://www.