Comms Foundation #2: Tactics

Doing what you can with what you have

Previously to kick off The Comms Foundation Series, we covered creating a basic strategy.

Now we get into the harder part: what specifically can you do to execute that strategy? 

If you’re being creative, the choices can be overwhelming. Here’s a sampling of comms tactics I’ve executed – you can see it’s all over the map, and that’s still narrow compared to the full range of possibilities. 

• Podcast interviews

• YouTube series

• Guest lecture to military officers

• Media profiles (NYT, WSJ, Bloomberg, etc. as well as independent journalists like Substackers)

• HBO special

• Live product demo 

• Book talks

• Viral swag

• West Wing tour

• Joint appearance with former presidents 

• Organizing a panel at Aspen or WEF

• Customized limited edition Jordans

• Starting a conference from scratch 

• Viral tweets

• Spending a day at CIA headquarters with their clandestine experts

• Hosting a dinner 

So with a panoply of options, how do you decide what to do?

The Formula

I recommend using a simple formula that will help you stay aligned with your overall strategy and make sure your comms efforts are always serving to grow the business. 

Here’s what I use:

<COMMS PLAN X> = will help instill <BELIEF A> in <AUDIENCE B>, to make them want to take <ACTIONS C>, which will help you achieve <BUSINESS OBJECTIVE D>

Just like with a math equation, to solve for X, first define what the other variables are. You’ll likely have multiple business objectives (although I suggest limiting them to three, for the sake of focus), in which case you should do a separate formula for each business objective so things don’t get muddled. There will be overlap in the resulting tactics, and that’s great: it’ll give you a signal into which tactics are meeting the most goals.

Let’s go through these variables one by one, working backwards and in increasing order of difficulty:

D = business objective

Pick a top business goal. Never start with a random comms goal, which is meaningless in isolation (You want 10K people to see your article? Which people? Why?). If you can’t draw a straight solid line from a given comms tactic to a desired business outcome, that’s a sure sign of wasted motion.

If your goals are things like get TV hits, pitch reporters, go on podcasts, or go viral, you need a reset or need to push back on the marching orders. People who were hugged enough as kids don’t need to “go viral” for its own sake. Always remember that comms must serve the bottom line, not someone’s ego.¹

A handy guide

Legitimate business objectives are things like increase applicants for open jobs, move more product, decrease churn, or win over investors. 

C = actions

What actions need to take place in order for you to meet those business objectives?

Don’t include actions you can’t influence. Things like “Fed lowers rates” or “companies end remote work” are almost certainly too far outside your control. 

Think instead along the lines of: in order for you to meet certain business goals, people need to apply for open jobs, people need to buy the product, people need to renew their service, people need to invest, and so on.

B = audience

Who specifically is the audience you should be communicating with?

They’re the “people” from the previous section. For example, the “people” who need to apply for open jobs might be electrical engineers currently employed at car companies. The “people” who need to buy your product might be millennials in big cities. And so on.

This is where companies mess up most often. Knowing your audience means (1) accurately identifying which people really matter, (2) understanding what they really care about (message) and where they get their information (medium), and (3) tuning out the rest. It’s tempting to cater to whoever is the loudest, angriest, or flashiest – but that only results in snubbing your true audience in favor of other people that, however shouty, are never actually going to help your business.

Even worse, since the people who are not your target audience are less inclined to be aligned with your mission, catering to them will not only blow up your comms strategy but can cause mission drift for your whole company. 

This is deadly

A = belief

Finally, you have to get inside those people’s heads and answer the question: what do they need to believe in order to want to take those actions that will help my business?

To continue the example above, to get an electrical engineer currently working for a car company to apply for a job with you instead, you might have to convince them that your company is well capitalized, that your equity is more valuable than what they have in their current job, and that your company is better for the environment.

While the variables D and C are usually self-evident, and B can be figured out pretty easily, A leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Solving it requires empathy and imagination. When you see companies saying something tonedeaf, it’s usually because they guessed the wrong answer for this A.

People are complicated, fickle, and prone to mimesis. Tapping into their motivations might require research, focus groups, or experimentation – and it always requires nunchi.

Solving for X

Only once you’ve clearly identified all the other variables can you start coming up with comms tactics. You still need to fill in the details but now you’re working with a bounded set.

You might discover that doing TV hits makes no sense because millennials in big cities don’t watch much TV, and you should focus on Instagram instead. Maybe the best way to reach your audience is by partnering with local coffee shops or throwing a great party. I’ve had projects where appearing on local radio stations generated more ROI than being featured in the country’s largest media outlet. 

Here’s an example of the equation being solved. Let’s say you’re a crypto startup about to launch a new product.

Using the equation…

<COMMS PLAN X> = will help instill <BELIEF A> in <AUDIENCE B>, to make them want to take <ACTIONS C>, which will help you achieve <BUSINESS OBJECTIVE D>

Here are your variables…

Business objective D: get 100K signups in three months

Actions C: people create accounts

Audience B: crypto natives and web3 developers

Belief A: the service you’re providing is much needed and currently missing, and you can be trusted to deliver what you promise

Comms plan X: now we solve the equation. 

• Since you need to get people to trust you, you can do things like use third-party advocates, refer to credible reports, commission a study yourself, show the founder alongside other trusted leaders, or help people understand the founder’s worldview through a series of podcasts. You’ll want to make sure you’re on the radar of groups like CoinCenter, so your plan will need to include 1:1 outreach by the founder.

• Since you need to convince people that your service is needed and absent in the market, you can do things like refer to credible reports, partner with influential industry groups, commission a study, or tell the stories of early customers while coaching them to be spokespeople on behalf of the company (it’s more believable if you don’t pay them, but you can make it worth their time in other ways, like with social prestige or special access).

• Since you’re trying to educate people on something new, you’ll need messaging with a clear story of how we got here, what’s missing, what’s possible, and how we’ll get to the promised land together.

• Since you need people to create accounts, you’ll want very clear calls to action and incentives embedded in your messaging.

• Since you’re talking to crypto natives and web3 developers, you’ll want to get your story out via influencers, Twitter, Hacker News, Reddit, Discord, and CoinDesk more than via things like TIME Magazine. You’ll spend more energy trying to get mentioned in Vitalik’s blog or Pomp’s podcast than you will pitching the entirety of mainstream media (although, if you’re successful, that will come later – my unpopular opinion in tech is that you simply can’t ignore the media).

Executing the plan: Now you write your master narrative if you don’t already have one, make a grid of the various key messages you need to drive home, find the best messengers, and place them in the right mediums to speak to your target audience. 

Knowing whom you need to convince and what you want them to do means being able to get ruthlessly efficient and targeted with your comms tactics.

It’s not easy, but it should be simple.

1. However, if you need to generate buzz for the sake of moving product, that’s a legitimate business goal. The iconic Lenny Rachitsky has some tips for that.