Lessons Learned Key Success Factors in Public Relations, Marketing, Branding

• Do market research to understand your target — who they are and what they want — and craft powerful and engaging messaging accordingly. Don’t think about what resonates with you – rather, think about your market segment. Plan what kind of tactics you will use and track the impact of your communications…

• Do market research to understand your target — who they are and what they want — and craft powerful and engaging messaging accordingly. Don’t think about what resonates with you – rather, think about your market segment. Plan what kind of tactics you will use and track the impact of your communications.

• In developing your Communications Plan think long and short term, program specific and agency wide. This “roadmap” will focus your efforts on communicating who you are, what you can do, and how you can do it by establishing activities, responsibilities, timelines and a budget.  Monitor results to continuously improve your marketing efforts.  However, you should continue to be flexible – by revisiting your plans regularly, you can modify activities as required, to stay on course.

• According to The Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society (IMPACS) a strategic communications plan provides clear direction for an organization in terms of:




o The communication environment (internal and external) for the organization
o Clear, measurable, achievable communication objectives
o Identified and priorized target audiences
o Communication messages that reach these audiences
o An action plan of specific communication tactics and vehicles
o An evaluation or feedback mechanism that allows the organization to measure success

• If you are changing any part of your brand identity (logo, messaging, mission statement) or are undertaking a promotional campaign, and don’t have in-house expertise to execute it, hire a professional. This doesn’t require a tremendous investment, and it will be worth it in the long run.  Charity Village www.charityvillage.com is a great resource for all types of strategic communications consultants. Even better, get a referral from other agencies.

• Consider negotiating pro bono work with advertising and PR agencies. Often they will take on this work as a part of their agency’s corporate social responsibility. Other options are partnering with a corporation on a joint initiative. Again, be clear about how this work fits in with your strategic plan and your communications plan.

• Be very clear about your brand identity. Central to your brand is your mission, vision and values – it’s the value of what you do and how you want to be perceived by your stakeholders. Your visual brand identifiers (logo, name, tagline) will flow out of your mission and vision.

• Be consistent in your messaging. Ensure that all types of communication are “synergistic” or working in harmony to creative effective communications. One person should be responsible for protecting the brand identity and all external communications should flow through her/him.

• Look at opportunities to liaise with community partners on joint marketing and/or communication activities to create a more effective message to clients that is more cost effective. These activities could range from developing joint advertising campaigns, joint media relations initiatives, or collaborative promotional events.

• Focus groups with a sample of your target audience is always a great way to test a new campaign, message, advertisement.

• Identify key media contacts in your area. Keep those media contacts up to date and foster an ongoing relationship by providing up-dated information on a regular basis. Use these sources to announce new programs and services; promote your success stories.

• Identify one or two (and no more) key individuals in your organization that could respond to media requests.  Never respond immediately to a journalist cold call. To prep for an interview, ask key questions about the story idea and ask to call them back in 15 minutes (and make sure you don’t take more than 15 minutes, they are working on a deadline). Ensure ALL staff (not just the reception) knows who to direct the call to if a journalist calls.

• Use your website as a promotional tool and stay abreast of new technologies that are making online communications easier and more engaging. 

• Develop Communications procedures and policies for a Communications Procedures Manual. This should include most updated logos, taglines, mission statement (your boilerplate). It ensures that new staff can learn from it and current staff can refer to it to ensure consistency in message.

• Evaluate your messaging.  Tracking your various marketing pieces is key to finding out “how people heard about you”. Learn what works, and what doesn’t work, and build on it.

• If you send out e-newsletters, make sure they are sent at the same time every week/month/day. In addition to communicating news that is relevant to your stakeholders, they should be used to promote your brand.  Ensure that all links work and that you are not sending the repeat material out – people will get bored and stop reading it.  Organize information in categories so that readers can click on the areas that they are interested in.

• Your agency’s overall Mission, Vision, Values and Beliefs as well as Service Standards should be posted in a visible location in each office. This ensures that clients know what they can expect both in service delivery as well as the Agency’s overall philosophy.

• Promote your successes; use actual testimonials.

• Don’t neglect to publicly recognize and thank employers and other community partners for their contribution to your success.



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