Overview
Timely and effective communication is one of the more significant ‘measurements’ of a healthy curling organization. Communication takes place at the club and customer level, and both are important to success.
Good communication includes:
- External communications: from the club to the public, media, potential sponsors, and government departments.
- Internal communications: within the ‘family’ such as members, clients, suppliers, partners, staff, and volunteers.
There are many ways to communicate, and some are more complex than others. In addition, individuals responsible for communication at your club, need to ensure the message is not only sent, but received. Most activity that a club conducts have a communication element. Whether you are promoting a new program or service or an event, communication is critical.
- Members, Clients & Customers
- Partners & Stakeholders
- Staff & Volunteers
- Mass Communication Representatives:
- Radio, TV, and Newspaper editors and publishers, key reporters
- Social Media
- Businesses (chambers of commerce or boards of trade)
- Government Officials and Elected Representatives:
- Local MP and MPP
- Civic Leaders
- Community service organizations
- Community action groups
- Youth group leaders
- Sport, recreation and active living groups and their leaders
- Educators:
- School superintendents
- Principals & Teachers
- Parent Councils
- School boards
- To inform
- You need to let the public know who you are, what you can do for them, what they can do to help you, or even just how to get in touch.
- To build understanding, ownership or change in policy
- What you think as a Board is not important. What is important are the needs of your customers.
- An effective communication process will go a long way in helping you develop policy
- A good communication plan will also prevent misunderstandings. Put yourself in your customer’s position, paying attention to their needs and getting to know them.
- To present a point of view
- To establish and promote the club’s goals.
- To develop and implement plans (e.g., membership, revenue generation, recruiting and retaining volunteers)
The communication plan has been described in several ways, including:
- foundation on which to base decisions and create ideas.
- means to focusing on where you want to be and what needs to be done to get here
- a tool for discovering opportunities, optimizing challenges, and initiating change.
- step-by-step process that will help you summarize what you want to say to your intended audiences and map out how you will deliver that message.
- keep in mind, the same logical process is used to launch a new consumer product on a national basis can also be used to inform parents about a bake sale to raise funds for their child’s school trip.
Six Steps of Communication Planning
The Audit: Taking Stock of Your Current Situation
Start your communication planning with a review of your current activities and gather some pertinent information. This can be an extensive as commissioning a public opinion poll or as simple as talking on an informal basis with your clients or staff, volunteers, or members.
It also means asking the following questions about your current situation and what affects it:
- What are your organization’s strengths and weaknesses? Having a clear picture of what your organization wants to achieve will help determine a good course of action for your communications.
- What resources do you already have? Information, people, money, time, and support from your community and the public are all valuable assets. Determining which assets, you have and which ones you might need will help you decide on the scope of your communication program.
- Is there any current research that will help you? Do you need to do any research?
- Has this type of communication activity taken place before? If so, what was the result?
- Where are your opportunities?
- What are your major communication barriers? Perhaps you don’t have a lot of money to spend on communications so you will need to look for low-cost opportunities.
Setting Goals and Objectives
Define your goals and objectives of what you are tying to achieve. This will help you focus on the who, why, when, and now of your communication planning.
- Goals are the overall changes you wish to cause.
- Objectives are the short-term, measurable steps you take to reach you goal.
For example, if your goal is to increase community support for your club, your objectives might be:
- increase funding from the business community
- encourage positive media coverage of your activities
- inform the community of the benefits of community development
- achieve support for your activities from local civic leaders.
Your objectives should form a clear statement of what it is you are tying to do. They should be specific, realistic, and listed in order of importance. They should also be measurable. When you evaluate your communication plan, you will measure your results against your objectives.
Determining Target Audiences
The next step in the planning process is to determine your target audiences by listing the groups with whom you need to communicate and analyzing each group. When choosing the people or groups you need to influence, it may be helpful to think about the many ways you can describe them. For example, your target audience may be couples 24-35, but it could be more helpful to know that your target audience are couples between 24-35 who are car owners, parents, and who have joined recreation programs in your community
The more clearly you can define your audience, the easier it will be to make choices about your messages and communication vehicles. When analyzing each group, consider:
- What do they already know about your organization?
- How are they likely to react to your message and why?
- What are some factors influencing the audience that receives your message? For example: literacy levels or multicultural differences?
- Are there any difficulties you might have in communicating with each group?
Key messages
Taking into consideration your objectives and target audience, it is now time to identify the essential idea or set of ideas that you want to communicate. Ask yourself:
- What does the audience already know about this issue or situation?
- What does the audience need to know?
- What do we want to tell the audience?
Now develop the message or messages you want your target audience to hear and believe. Write down each message in a simple, specific statement. Keep in mind, to motivate people, you must show them that you will meet their needs. A clear description of the benefits to your audiences will help ensure that your message is received, understood, and acted upon.
Communications Strategy
Tactics: There are many communication vehicles available from which to choose. A number are listed below. Having done your communications analysis you will be able to narrow your choices to the communication vehicles that:
- will fit with the resources you already have
- are the most effective communication vehicles to reach your target
- will help you achieve your goals and deliver the outcomes you want.
Timing: Timing is another very important consideration when choosing your communication vehicles. You don’t want your messages competing unnecessarily with other events.
Budget: Finally, there is the budget. Don’t let a limited budget discourage you. There are many inexpensive ways to communicate. Determine the scope of the budget needed for communications, and the general co-ordination of information and its distribution.
Theme: Your communication plan may need a theme to tie it together. The theme line should be a short, punchy version of your main message and should be the link between all your activities and materials. For example: “There’s no taste like home” – Foodland Ontario slogan that promotes buying Ontario-grown food.
Evaluation
How will you know if you are successful? Will the audiences receive the messages you intend to receive, or will they get an entirely different message? Evaluation helps you determine the value of your programs, services, and activities. An organization’s resources shouldn’t be wasted on an activity that is not worth the investment of people, time, or funds.
By evaluating your communication plan, you can learn how your plan worked with various audiences, which activities had the most impact, and which parts of the plan did not meet expectations.
Questions to ask when evaluating a program, activity, or service (activity):
- Why did we decide to go this route in the first place?
- What has happened because of this strategy?
- Have we achieved the objective or results expected?
- Was the activity worth the investment of resources and effort?
- Are there any other ways we can achieve the same outcome in a more effective or efficient manner?
- How can we avoid repeating mistakes, and avoid oversights in the future?
