We write and print a lot of material in our organizations, are we doing it right?

Consider a communications audit

Any organization that’s been around for more than five years likely has newsletters, an annual general report, a website, intranet or even employee communiqués. And while the prose is brilliant and the layout spectacular you do wonder “Is anyone reading this stuff?”
And then there’s digital publishing – would your members, shareholders or employees prefer news in their in-box or their mailbox? Is there a “greener” or cheaper way to communicate and still be heard? All good questions that a communications audit can answer for you.

A third party should conduct your communication audit, which at the minimum should include:

1. The rationale for why the audit is needed now, the scope and budget for the audit.
2. An environmental scan of similar organizations in your community and across the country. There may be lessons to be learned by someone else’s successes or failures.
3. Polling and focus group testing that gets both quantitative and qualitative feedback from your audiences.
4. One-on-one executive interviews that allow key leaders in your circle to share their impressions and vision about how they think you should be communicating.

MORE: When you’re in as many organizations as we are you start to see examples of how things can be done right and mistakes to avoid. We bring that wisdom to every communications audit we do.