Here's how you can craft and execute a winning strategic communications plan as an executive.

Una comunicación estructurada ayudará a impulsar el negocio y apalancar el logro de las metas comerciales, financieras, de productividad o de talento humano. Una de las primera acciones para elaborar un plan de comunicación es identificar cuáles son los valores de la empresa y sus objetivos de negocio, esa es la base de donde partirá la estrategia de comunicación auténtica y coherente. Luego, definir los objetivos de comunicación, ¿qué quieres lograr con la comunicación? ¿Posicionar, fidelizar, enamorar, vender?

Defining goals may seem the obvious first step, but I think being strategic means taking a step back and starting with why. As Simon Sinek explains, inspiring leaders articulate their fundamental "Why" — their driving purpose or belief. Communicating this "Why" establishes an emotional connection that inspires people to action, creates commitment and fosters loyalty. Most companies communicate from the outside in, leading with "What" they do or solve — their features or solutions. However, working from the inside out, starting with their motivating "Why" and aligning their "What" and "How" to serve that purpose is more impactful. It inspires people's innate human desire to be part of something bigger than themselves.

El siguiente paso es determinar la audiencia: conocer y analizar las características demográficas, intereses, necesidades y preferencias del público para poder comunicar de manera efectiva. Recuerda el público interno, los colaboradores de la empresa, son los principales voceros (indirectos) y los primeros que deben estar bien informados sobre la empresa, procesos, cambios y novedades.

Si no hay aún un manual de comunicaciones, es mejor crearlo, será una guía para dirigir cada plan de comunicación. Este manual debe incluir 3 o 4 pilares de comunicación, grandes temas de los que se hablará para apalancar el negocio. Mensajes claves por cada pilar; público objetivo (interno y externo), herramientas de comunicación, principales actividades y KPIs.

It’s important to integrate emotional appeals with rational arguments to create a more powerful and persuasive communication. This dual approach leverages the logical appeal of your messages, which outlines the benefits and features, alongside emotional triggers that resonate with your audience’s values and desires. By doing so, you can enhance the motivational impact of your messages, making them more likely to inspire action and commitment. This technique helps ensure that your communications not only inform but also connect on a deeper level, which is essential for fostering loyalty and driving long-term engagement with your brand.

Determina acciones-canales: actividades con medios de comunicación, divulgación en redes sociales, relacionamiento con stakeholders y campañas internas, manuales, reportes y libros, entre otros.

While it is vital to figure where to find my audience, the engagement channels are determined via wider impactful parameters, rather than presence of the audience. The reason that my audience can be reached via a channel, simply due to the reason that they exist at other end, can be an adventurous move. The impact, message context, timing, urgency and privacy layers are all other prominent and effective factors, influencing my decision.

Mapping the buyers journey based on each buyer persona from the Top of the Funnel (TOFU) to the Bottom (BOFU) etc will really help to refine your strategy and guide your decisions on where you want to use your resources and how much you want to use at each stage. Once you measure the impact of this you can then go back and refine your strategy to make sure you are using your resources in the most effective way.

Evaluar y ajustar es clave. Debemos monitorear todas las acciones para identificar qué está funcionando y qué se debe ajustar.

The approaches listed above are all important. In change management you need to ensure your initial communication shows the case for change. Why does current state not work? What are the drivers and outcomes being targeted? And what's in it for the employees, not just management. Also, you need KPIs to ensure measured progress and a regular meeting cadence to review them. Finally, leadership needs to support when things don't go as planned. Enable the team to develop solutions. And ask them how you can help...and how to make it go faster. Ultimately it's that expression we've heard before. Team work makes the dream work.

Define your communication goals, set SMART objectives and have a good understanding of your audience. You should also have good understanding of the environment or cultural context within which the communication is taking place. Choose channels that will resonate with your audience. Be flexible with the plan and I believe you can achieve your strategic objectives.