Strategic communications training (part 1)

Members – £220 + VAT         Non-members – £395 +VAT

Do you work in think tank communications? Do you want to become more strategic in your work? Are you looking for some ideas on how to professionalise and boost the impact of your work? This two-part training session has been designed to give think tank comms people a space to think more broadly about building their communications strategy and becoming more effective in their work.

Think tank communications teams play a crucial role in successfully disseminating the research, events and policy ideas of their think tank. But in a fast-paced role there is often little time to think more broadly about whether the current way of doing things is the most effective.

These two half-day training sessions are to give comms staff with all different levels of experience the chance to think more strategically, to check in with new ways to approach media and comms and to learn from other professionals in the sector.

Part 1 begins by looking at the core components of a successful communications strategy, its purpose and how you can advocate for the role of communications within your think tank. We cover how to define your communications goals and make them actionable. This session also looks at how to understand and map out your key audiences and how to adjust your tone of voice to get your key messages across successfully.

Throughout the session attendees will be taking part in exercises and using their own organisation objectives to build out a communications strategy. There will also be time and space for sharing learnings from your own work with each other and seeing what other think tanks have had success with.

Attendance at this training session is not required for Communications Training part 2 but is recommended.

Course outline

Introductions and objectives

The purpose of a communications strategy

• Reaching the right audience at the right time with the right message
• Advocating for the role of comms internally
• Creating strong information flows

Defining communication goals

Understanding and mapping audiences

• Primary, secondary and internal audiences
• Prioritising audiences

Developing a strong key message

• What makes a strong key message?

Aligning your tone of voice

• With organisational values and audience expectations
• Tone of voice in different communication outputs

Bringing it all together

Wrap up and learnings

Register for your place*

*Your organisation will not be invoiced until your place is confirmed.