We all get into a rut sometimes. But with communications, where you need to cut through, or stand out from the crowd, a communications rut is dangerous. It opens the door to competitors and it stifles creativity.
Signs that you’re in a communications rut:
- Your 2013 communications strategy was simple to write. You took 2012’s and changed the date.
- You’re still writing press releases the traditional way. They’re not optimised, they’re not tailored for bloggers, they don’t consider visuals.
- You haven’t looked at how to incorporate communications technology.
- All your information is written. You don’t consider video or infographics, augmented reality or apps.
- If you’re a professional services firm, you describe your points-of-difference as “our track record, our experience, our client servicing”. It’s what all professional services firms say.
- You haven’t tried anything new for a while. And you suspect it wouldn’t get approved if you did.
- You spend all your time fighting fires. You don’t have time to be proactive.
Getting out of a communications rut, requires change. But it doesn’t have to be a huge change.
- Start incrementally to build confidence
- Look for easy wins
- Focus on the problem or opportunity at hand. It can help to conduct independent research for a fresh perspective.
- Get help. Either hire someone to do the day-to-day work, or pay for creative input.
- When writing a new strategy, don’t use your usual template. Free yourself up from the old format and you will free up your mind.
