External Communications

Many organisations still measure their external communications activity by volume, e.g. articles placed, posts published, impressions logged. The problem is that volume and impact are not the same thing. A hundred articles in publications your clients never read is worth considerably less than ten in the ones they trust. Without a clear strategy, external communications becomes busy rather than effective. 

When I took over external communications at Avanade I inherited a spray and pray approach where any coverage in any publication counted. I changed that fundamentally. Starting with the question "what are our clients actually reading?", I introduced a tiered publication framework across every country we operated in, developed an evaluation methodology that weighted coverage by relevance and quality rather than just volume, and redirected our global PR agency network accordingly. I then rebuilt the KPIs to reflect this more rigorous approach. The result was a more focused, credible and commercially relevant external communications function, delivering over 1,000 meaningful media placements annually. I also reframed the social media strategy around outcome data rather than post volume, shifting the conversation from "how much are we publishing" to "what is it actually achieving." 

• External communications strategy and planning
• PR agency selection, direction and performance management 
• Strategic messaging and narrative development
• Thought leadership and market positioning
• Social media strategy and measurement
• External communications audits and function reviews

If this sounds like where you are, I'd love to have a conversation.  Get in touch. 

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