19 Apr, 2024

Your communications strategy has now been written, either in-house or with consulting assistance, and the fun part has arrived: It’s time to implement it! 

In 2024, there is an impressive range of accessible tools that can help you save time in putting the plan in place, saving time so you can focus on the important things. We have included some tools below for your consideration, which you can use to help streamline processes and to progress your strategy effectively and efficiently. 

 

Project management

After your strategy has been delivered, it can be challenging to know where to start. Project management tools can assist you to break down large-scale strategies into actionable items. Whether you’re using a consistent favourite like Monday.com or Asana, or a new player such as Productive and Teamwork, allocating strategic tactics to team members will ensure the great work of the strategy doesn’t just sit within the document. 

 

Journalist database

A frequent objective in communications strategies is increasing the organisation’s public profile, often requiring increased media outreach.  Australian media outlets, particularly local and trade publications, are generally under-resourced. Journalists often move roles, cover different beats or change emails, making it difficult for communications professionals to keep up. 

Thankfully, tools like Telum, Medianet, and Prowly are available to assist PRs in identifying the right journalist at the right time. This process maximises the chances of a journalist resonating with your pitch, assisting in landing coverage in a top media target, and increasing awareness of your organisation. 

 

Design

In a perfect world, we would leave all design to the designers. However, in today’s communications roles, we are often required to whip up quick design assets, particularly for owned channels such as social media, newsletters, and websites. 

There are so many graphic design tools available and easy to use in 2024, a far cry from the extensive skills needed to navigate Photoshop or InDesign even ten years ago.  While Canva was the breakthrough for bringing design to non-designers, Figma is a new player in the game, offering elevated tools without venturing into Adobe-level difficulty. 

 

Evaluation 

Often forgotten, evaluation is the most critical element of the communications strategy. This process proves the impact of strategic communications and justifies the investment in communications work. Communication tactics can be notoriously difficult to evaluate. Many results are unconscious, implicit, and stretch over long periods, unable to be tied to a specific lead generator. 

Consider a tried-and-true favourite like Meltwater, which provides reporting templates for earned media reporting, including reach, mentions, sentiment, and key themes. While Meta and LinkedIn provide effective in-app analytics, Buffer and Sprout Social are elevated social media evaluation tools that track impressions, growth, engagement, and audience profiles. Sentiment surveys are crucial to understanding your organisation’s perceptions following stakeholder engagement and community consultation. Google and Microsoft Forms can integrate smoothly into existing systems, or you can use SurveyMonkey and Typeform with some additional design and analytic capabilities. 

 

If your communications strategy is not yet written, we can help.

Fifty Acres is Australasia’s leading full-service agency for purpose-driven organisations, offering a unique combination of strategic communications and government engagement to achieve your objectives. 

Get in touch today via jo@fiftyacres.com.