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Communication Audit - DIY

A Communication Audit is a great use of time and has incredible ROI.  Whether you decide to use an external source or handle yours internally, here are a few helpful tips to get you started.   (To find out how a professional consultant can help, read here)

Where do we start?  Before you place another ad and before you plan your marketing strategy for next year - STOP to realign your messaging.  We must acknowledge that every organization is different (i.e, commercial or non-profit, large or small, business to business or business to customer); however, there are basic questions essentially any organization can benefit from.   

1.  Choose a key person or team and set a specific time-line for your initial audit process.     

2.  Collect and evaluate your past communications. 

• Spread all of your past communications pieces on a conference room table. Be sure to include internal and external.  If you use social media and e-news, print copies as examples for this task. 
• Who were our key audiences and why did we target them? Are we missing a target?
• What were our key messages?  Does our message resonate with each target?
• How did we make our business known? What worked? What didn’t?
• Were our graphics and format consistent across all pieces? 
• Did we receive media coverage? Was it effective/correct? How can we improve on our media impact? Can we be proactive and provide ready made material (fact sheets, press releases, media page)?
• Did our audience see the same story we were aiming to tell? 
• Create a written list of what worked, and what didn’t.    
• Did we implement social media?  Do we have an internal policy to harness this outlet?

3.  Look outward: Survey your customers and community at large.

4.  Look inward: Survey your staff and volunteers.

5.  Closely review your results and single out strengths, weaknesses and opportunities,

6.  Create an initial plan for immediate outages and work as a team to plan for future communications.

  Summary: For this sake of this blog I have condensed the process to six categories and have expanded on the COLLECT AND EVALUATE step.  As you can probably see, each step has the potential to expand tremendously based on your organizations needs.  Conducting an audit and creating a targeted approach can and has saved clients on their marketing efforts both in time and funding.  Consider contracting a consultant to help align your message before you go through the expense of relaying it. 

Are Consultants worth the Fee?

Most clients are happy to pay set fees.  On occasion I get questions as to how I set my rates or that my rate is much higher than their employees hourly rate. Here are 23 things to consider when looking at your consultant's rate:

Some Component Costs of a Consultant's Billing Rate  (taken from the American Planning Association).

1. Salaries of professional staff, secretaries, and technical aids
2. Sick leave, vacation, and holiday pay
3. Office supplies
4. Printing and copying
5. Travel (auto and other)
6. Postage, freight, overnight delivery services
7. Telephone and internet
8. Equipment purchase and/or rental
9. Office rent
10. Building and property maintenance
11. Utilities
12. Legal services
13. Accounting services
14. Technical publications
15. Newspaper and magazine subscriptions
16. Professional dues
17. Attendance at seminars and conferences
18. Group insurance
19. Insurance (unemployment, workmen's compensation, liability, fire, theft, etc.)
20. Pension expenses
21. Taxes and licenses
22. Business promotion
23. Subcontractors