Q&A / Strategic Communications: How to Drive New Growth for Your Organization

Healy & Schulte is a marketing and public relations firm in Chicago that was founded in 1990 on a simple yet powerful premise: To provide all clients with the vision, skills and savvy acquired through big-agency experience, combined with the pricing, attention to detail and agility of a much smaller firm. Healy & Schulte has developed a unique, research-based process for strategic marketing and PR planning that forms the basis for most clients' programming. Much Shelist spoke with Ann Morris, a Senior Vice President at the firm, about the value of strategic marketing communications in driving new growth for a business. She may be reached at 312.765.8770 or amorris@healyandschulte.com.

Much Shelist: How can strategic marketing communications benefit a business?

Ann Morris: For starters, I should explain that strategic marketing communications begins with a thorough review of the challenges and opportunities facing your product, service or organization. Even the most successful companies can benefit from this difficult but rewarding process. When properly planned and executed, a research-driven strategic marketing communications process can generate tangible results against defined objectives, ultimately driving new growth or helping achieve other types of organizational goals.

MS: How does one go about driving growth through strategic marketing communications?

AM: The first important step is to take an in-depth look at the existing perceptions of your target audiences and influencers, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of your business and those of your competitors. Start by talking to the people who play an integral role in the success of your business, including existing clients or customers, lost clients, prospects, employees, media and thought leaders, and referral sources. It is important to identify what these groups think of your business, product or service, including areas where you excel in meeting their needs and those that need improvement or reassessment.

In the case of sales targets and prospects, identify what they think and how it connects to or disconnects from the reality of your business. You should work to determine what their sales triggers are and how you can get them to change. In the process, you might confirm existing beliefs, or discover fresh insights that can help drive your business in new directions.

At the same time, conduct a thorough assessment of your competitors–especially those that keep you up at night. Determine what they do well, and what marketplace needs they are leaving unmet. Identifying how your competitors are viewed can help you pinpoint ways to differentiate your business (or product or service).

MS: What should you do with the findings of this research?

AM: With critical insights into all of the important audiences you have chosen to examine, you can now put this information into a conceptual "funnel" and draw down actionable conclusions that will powerfully energize your organization on many levels. These conclusions ultimately will help you create breakaway positioning and programs based on the marketplace realities you face. Programs can range from a small project to a complex, multi-faceted communications plan geared to a variety of audiences. Whatever the scope, you can use the research findings to design communications strategies and tactics that will deliver powerful and consistent messages about your product or service, helping you achieve success, regardless of how you define it.

MS: Speaking of success, how do you measure the results of a strategic communications plan?

AM: It is critical to establish measurable criteria for success up front, and ensure that your efforts are tailored accordingly. Having clear objectives and defining what success means to you are important steps in this process. Your goal may be to boost revenues, expand into new markets or simply generate higher levels of name recognition. Whatever the objective, your communications program should incorporate checkpoints for monitoring, quantifying or otherwise accounting for the success of your investment in strategic marketing communications planning.

Finally, remember that the key to marketing and PR success lies not only in preparation, but in securing outside points of view. In the end, augmenting your own instincts with insights from your key constituencies could prove to be the winning combination that will take your business to the next level.