Putting Together an Effective Communication Plan

An effective communications strategy is one part deciding on your core values as a business (who you are and who you’re not), and another part learning which potential customers might be attracted to those values. It’s learning how to reach those prospective clients and how to deliver the experience they expect once they’ve moved in.

“This [strategic plan] isn’t just communication. You have to develop a targeted message and then back it up because it all comes down to trust,” says Gordon Leighton, a University of Minnesota lecturer and coordinator of the school’s master’s degree program in strategic communication. “It’s really important for even the smallest organization to have governance policies in place—a mission statement, a vision statement—just like the big corporations do.”

Reinforce your mission
Once you have adopted a coherent strategy and a set of values for your business, it’s time to reinforce those values by teaching them to members of your team, from management to maintenance, so that every employee can assist in reinforcing and carrying out the corporate vision.

When Leighton orders pizza from a national chain, he asks the delivery person to recite the company’s mission statement. Usually, Leighton says, the delivery person gets it right—demonstrating that sometimes large corporations are able to display better top-to-bottom communication than many smaller businesses. In response, Leighton tips better and then takes small businesses to task.

“It’s very important that everyone in your company knows why you’re in business. If you’re a property manager, that means your custodial staff, your security staff, everyone,” says Leighton. “It’s very important for a business to have a focus and a belief in itself.”

In fact, he recommends that employees not only know the mission statement, but that they learn about critical issues before they meet the public. Leighton even suggests a newsletter for tenants so that they also can learn your talking points. “You want to make sure your current tenants are singing the same song as your employees,” says Leighton. “You want potential tenants to hear the same, consistent message—the one you want them to hear—wherever they turn for information.”

Address customer needs
One example of a plan in action is RP Management Inc. in Minneapolis. President David Holt, a past president of the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM) who still teaches marketing classes for NARPM, decided to center his business on the concepts of convenience and service. Those concepts already were strengths; for instance, RP’s policy was to let prospective tenants see properties whenever they wanted between 8 am and 8 pm, seven days a week.

So Holt looked for ways to further strengthen those values. He started with simple things like an information-intensive web site so prospective tenants could do more shopping online. Then he added features like an online application with instant approval and an electronic lease packet.

Next, he added options to accommodate renters and homeowners struggling because of the recession. RP instituted a rent-to-own program for buyers, complete with credit repair services. Homeowners who couldn’t sell also benefited by collecting rent each month from tenants who, ideally, would become buyers.

“We give them options,” says Holt. “Hopefully it buys them some time to get past this market.”

Minimally, it helps establish Holt’s business as one that emphasizes service and convenience—the concepts that guide his business decisions and his marketing and that give his company an identity.

Whether your business chooses to build its image on those same values or others, the important thing is that it finds and develop some image and some consistent identity and unique selling proposition. And that requires an effective strategic communications plan.