Now that you have recruited compelling messengers and tailored the message for each audience, it’s time to determine the most effective delivery method.
An integrated communications strategy that focuses on traditional media – newspapers, radio, TV – is still important, so you absolutely need a media strategy that deploys targeted messages and messengers to reporters and editorial boards as well as utilizing collateral material, Op-Eds and Letters to the Editor.
But that’s not enough anymore to make an impact. Nor are the old ways of launching mass, canned emails and robocalls at legislators. To be effective, you need to both strategically cover your bases and target specific audiences by adapting your messaging to various mediums. However, the people you are trying to reach choose the best medium, not the other way around. You need to meet them where they already are.
Sixty percent of Americans typically get news from digital devices, dwarfing all traditional platforms. News and information consumption across platforms varies by age, gender, race, ethnicity, educational attainment and political leaning, according to Pew Research.
Covering your bases means hitting all the places people get their news while also being laser focused on those critical audiences who you need to reach. For instance, if you are trying to galvanize moms in a certain age group, you not only want to seek out traditional earned media but to also saturate content on specific social media platforms that they visit with regularity.
Making a public policy impact requires more than determining a compelling message. To reach the people who have the most sway with legislators, you need the most-relatable, tailored message disseminated both broadly and specifically through targeted mediums that speak directly to your audiences.
