Using your IC content strategy as a stakeholder management tool
The role of internal communications often requires you to say no - it’s simply part of the job. However, without a clear framework, the word no can feel confronting and almost personal. With a strategic content strategy, it becomes a rational, objective business decision.
It enables you to put some healthy distance between yours, or your stakeholder’s opinion and the strategic goals of the business.
A solid content strategy can act as an important part of your IC toolkit. Here’s how to use it effectively:
A framework for strategic focus
A content strategy can be a vital decision-making tool. It provides objective criteria that demonstrates how your work supports business goals, while protecting your channels and creating a consistent narrative for your people.
When you define your core strategic pillars - the most critical things the business needs people to understand - you create a filter. If a request doesn’t align with those pillars, it’s a clear signal that it might not belong on your primary channels. Having this strategy in black and white, agreed upon by leadership, helps stakeholders stop seeing their message in isolation and start seeing the bigger picture.
| If the request is... | Then your strategy says... |
|---|---|
| Aligned with the agreed core strategic pillars. | It gets prioritised across major key channels (eg. intranet hero, leadership briefing, town halls etc.) |
| Operationally necessary | It becomes functionally supported through (eg. functional newsletters and team sites, targeted messaging etc.) |
| Not aligned, and not operationally immediately necessary | Redirect towards specific groups that may be interested, or declined to protect capacity. It may also be something to come back to at a later date. |
Mapping (and protecting) the employee journey
Stakeholders often default to focusing on the broadcast side of communications, but the job of internal comms is to focus on receiving, understanding and connecting. A content strategy helps you map out the employee journey, showing exactly where and how news fits together so it doesn't land as a disjointed series of announcements. Seeing things laid out in a roadmap highlights where the pressure points are, where the noise is and just how much there is going out.
A roadmap gives you the permission to say not today, because you know the audience is already digesting a major change or a heavy piece of news. It’s about managing the sensory input of the organisation so that truly important messages don't get lost.
Three questions to reset the conversation
Next time you’re faced with an urgent request, try using these to guide the discussion:
Which of our strategic pillars does this support? To help anchor the conversation back to business value and show employees how it ties into the bigger picture.
What’s the expected outcome? Be explicit about what people need to do, and what will happen if people don’t do it to determine if it’s a nice to have or a must know and act.
Is this for everyone, or a specific group? Protecting all-employee channels for the things that truly matter to the business at a strategic level. Some news might be great for a specific team, but may overwhelm others - help your stakeholders see how you make that call.
A solid, thoughtful content strategy gives you the confidence to be intentional. It helps make sure that when we do speak, people have the headspace to listen, and that the business is clear on the comms it needs to focus on and why.
Need a hand with your IC content strategy?
If you’re looking for an internal comms consultancy to help you level up your channels or build a more robust content strategy, we’d love to chat.
Get in touch to arrange a call with our team.
