Strategy
Communications strategy that shapes the whole experience.
We help organizations work out what to say, who needs to hear it, when to say it, and how each touchpoint should support a better experience.
Who leads this work
- Sarah Fournier Partner and Creative Director
clients:
Who we write for.
Organizations whose communications we have planned.
Every client since 2009
what it solves:
When everything is being said, but nothing lands.
Most communication problems are not writing problems. The words are fine. What is missing is agreement about who each message is for, which moment it belongs to, and where it should live.
-
The message shifts depending who wrote it
The website says one thing, the email another, and the person at the desk a third.
-
Different audiences are sent the same thing
A first-time customer and a returning one need different information, and get the same note.
-
Follow-up is whoever remembers
The moments after someone buys, books or joins are the ones nobody owns.
-
The channels are not talking to each other
Website, email, print, staff and marketing each developed their own voice because no one set it.
the approach:
Three questions, answered in order.
Audience before timing, timing before channels. Decide them the other way round and you end up with a content calendar rather than a strategy.
-
audience
Who needs to hear it.
The people you have to reach, what they care about, what they need from you, and where their motivations genuinely differ rather than just their demographics.
-
timing
When it matters most.
The moments communication carries weight: first awareness, the wait before arrival, the experience itself, the follow-up, and the long gap before someone comes back.
-
channels
Where it belongs.
What sits on the website, what goes in email, what is printed, what staff should be saying, and what each channel is actually good at.
Then it is written down, so the next person to join can pick it up. See the approach in action.
what we build:
What you end up holding.
A communications strategy suits organizations with complex audiences, inconsistent messaging, weak follow-up, or an experience that depends on timing and trust: hospitality and tourism, service businesses, nonprofits, municipalities, community organizations and internal teams.
- Audience and persona framework
- Customer journey map Messaging recommendations
- Website and content recommendations
- Email and follow-up sequence strategy
- Internal communication recommendations Measurement plan
Want to see the shape of one?
Start a communications strategyfrom a real plan:
What the thinking looks like on the page.
Three spreads from the communications plan we wrote for Elmhirst's Resort: a guest persona, the touchpoint triggers across a stay, and the channel recommendations that came out of them.
Spreads from the plan
-
A guest persona
-
Touchpoint triggers
-
Channel recommendations
case study:
Elmhirst's Resort: one plan for the whole stay.
Elmhirst's Resort needed a clearer way to talk to different kinds of guest before, during and after a visit. A family booking a summer week, a couple after a quiet weekend and a company booking an AGM were all being sent the same information.
We built the strategy around guest personas, the timing of each touchpoint, and what each channel should carry, so the resort's website, email, printed material and staff were all saying the same thing at the moment it was useful.
Shown here is the plan as delivered: audiences, triggers, channel recommendations and a booking audit. We have not published results against it, so none are quoted.
-
Personas by purpose, not demographics
Guests were grouped by why they were coming: to switch off, to be active, to gather people, to celebrate, to work. What someone wants told to them follows from that.
-
Triggers across the whole journey
Six moments, from before a guest has heard of the resort to the months between visits, each with its own job and its own message.
-
Every channel given a role
Website, email, advertising, in-resort material and staff, with recommendations for each and a plan for keeping staff told first.
Ready to communicate with more purpose?
Tell us who you are trying to reach and where it is going wrong. We will tell you what a communications strategy would need to cover.