Escaping the Communications Rut

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:

  1. Your 2013 communications strategy was simple to write. You took 2012’s and changed the date.
  2. You’re still writing press releases the traditional way. They’re not optimised, they’re not tailored for bloggers, they don’t consider visuals.
  3. You haven’t looked at how to incorporate communications technology.
  4. All your information is written. You don’t consider video or infographics, augmented reality or apps.
  5. 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.
  6. You haven’t tried anything new for a while. And you suspect it wouldn’t get approved if you did.
  7. 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.