Direction and discipline: Do you have a comms strategy?

Thomas Averre, Director at Tarleton Communications, a specialist life sciences public relations agency, breaks down the basics of a communication strategy. 

Over my career I have found that the businesses that don’t have a communications strategy are usually the ones drifting in the wind, struggling to build momentum with investors or gain traction with customers.

Communicating well is difficult, but especially if you don’t have a strategy that identifies who you really need to influence and how you’re going to do it. Medtech leaders are intelligent, logical people who value expertise and experience, yet many don’t prioritise communications and haven’t appointed a professional to manage their external reputation.

If you want to make sure your business communicates effectively, but don’t yet have a strategy in place, I’m hoping this gives you some food for thought.

What is a communications strategy?

Essentially, it’s a document that diagnoses the situation (where you’re currently at), sets a direction (what you want to achieve) and explicitly charts a path for getting there (who you need to influence, with what message and how you’re going to do it).

Every strategy should start with a situation diagnosis. This is the part most non-marketers recognise as it includes a SWOT analysis, establishes the conditions the business finds itself in and develops insights that help set objectives.

The segmentation and targeting sections are an opportunity to look at the potential markets and prioritise which are attractive and feasible. This is extremely useful for boards that feel their business lacks a clear direction, as it imposes discipline and determines which markets to focus on. Think of it as a checklist that gives you the confidence to reject opportunities that could prove a distraction.

Positioning and messaging are perhaps the most crucial sections, where a communications professional can draw on expertise and experience to advise you how to craft a distinctive position capable of creating and reinforcing memory structures through long-term brand building. This provides the guidelines for messaging (what you should actually say) – many get this the wrong way around and start with messaging, which leads them to frequently pivoting as they discover it lacks rationale.

Finally, a strategy should set out the tactics by which it will be implemented (PR, thought leadership, social media etc), and how success will be measured. While every strategy should contain these basics, this is not an exhaustive list. I have developed bespoke communications strategies for spinouts and for mature SMEs selling into complex OEM networks, and while all contain some version of the above recipe, they vary in length and complexity.

Why have a communications strategy?

There are few questions more important than who should we influence, and how will we do it? Communicating with healthcare stakeholders is challenging because decision makers are sophisticated and quick to reject those without credibility or a clear proposition. Businesses that struggle to make progress are often terrible at communicating because they don’t recognise the importance of a strategy and don’t delegate implementation to experienced professionals. Ironically, the same businesses wouldn’t dream of not having an R&D timeline in place or not hiring patent attorneys to protect their IP!

I have never met a chief executive or senior leader who has regretted investing in a proper strategy. Every company should have one, but a strategy can be truly transformational for those who feel their business is lacking direction or messaging discipline because their marketing activity is an occasional LinkedIn post, odd article and a trade show.

I’ve spent my career working in life sciences and manage the public relations and communications activity for some of the UK’s most innovative start-ups and SMEs. Many clients are looking to attract investors, build industry partnerships or grow their existing market share. In each of these situations, creating awareness, building momentum and demonstrating credibility are critical to success, but you can’t do any of that without a plan to help determine if you’re being strategic or just bouncing around and wasting money.

If you feel like there is a void between where you want to be, and where you currently are, it’s almost certain improving the way you communicate would help close it. If you’d like to discuss how a communications strategy could help you or need advice on how to professionalise your public relations, feel free to get in touch.

Thomas Averre can be contacted via thomas@tarletoncomms.com.