Communications: Crafting Your Strategy

Whether you are preparing for a public launch, meeting with officials, carrying your city’s commitment to 100% clean energy over the finish line, supporting a partner organization’s efforts, targeting your local decision maker, testifying, or pushing towards implementation of 100% clean energy, you need to plan your public narrative carefully. Here’s how.

Step 1: Develop Your Message

The first step to becoming a strategic communicator is honing your personal story, your campaign’s story, and the story of this moment.

This is your Story of Self, Us, and Now.

Adapted from What Is Public Narrative: Self, Us, & Now by Marshall Ganz

  • Personal Narrative/Story of Self: Sharing your own personal story allows you to connect with an expanding base of supporters and to your decision maker around values and personal interests. You can use this story in one-on-one meetings, community events, hearings, rallies, or in other communication channels, such as media interviews, emails, blog posts or social media venues.
  • Campaign Narrative/Story of Us: An effective narrative includes a vision, theory of change, and timeline, as well as goals and actions people can take — and why all of it matters. This is a story that anyone within the campaign can use to engage others in the community to take action. Use this Message Box to start.
  • Action Narrative/Story of Now: This narrative connects the story of us to what is happening locally, the community’s need for action, and the plan to achieve the goals. It instills urgency and a call to action by posing future implications if the goals of the campaign aren’t met and, by contrast, if they goals are met. This story is rally-ready and perfect for making the final ask of your decision maker.

Think of these three kinds of narratives as addressing “why” you care about 100% clean energy for your community, and why others should, too. This first step of answering “Why?” is crucial, but in your communications, you also need to answer the other 4 W’s — Who, What, Where, and When? (Note: you do not need to be the expert on “how” to address these other points! In fact, the technical details can get in the way of effective comms.) Together, the 5 W’s are the backbone of your campaign’s message, which we will work on in Step 2.

An effective message should communicate why your campaign is important and timely in a clear, concise, and relatively simple way. As you move to Step 2, remember that consistency and repetition of your 5 W’s is how you’ll land a convincing and compelling public narrative.

Step 2: Make Your Plan

To get your message into the world and to the right audiences, every campaign needs a communications strategy. Every communications strategy starts with a plan.

Resource

Volunteer and Chapter Communications Handbook

A guide to understanding and implementing a communications strategy and media relations.

Here are the ingredients you need to bake an effective communications plan — and check out this sample from Cleveland. You must have this plan fully fleshed out before starting your campaign communications.

Capacity

Who (which person or team) will serve as the communications strategist, leading the communications work for your campaign?

It’s critical to have a communications strategist or team of strategists. They will be responsible for creating and applying your communications plan. Think of this role as the stage manager — they are probably not also the spokesperson who gives interviews or serves as the public face of your campaign.

Goals

What are you trying to achieve in the next year? What does success look like? How do you measure the success of your communications activities?

Quantifiable Objectives (metrics): Will numbers or types of media hits, a specific action that target audiences undertake, or a combination of many factors show you’re meeting your goal? What are the desired outcomes of your various tactics? These objectives should be measurable. It might be as simple as publishing a certain number of letters to the editor in your local paper, or receiving a response from your target.

Narrative Objectives: What are the headlines you’d like to see? How will you know if your message, framing of your issues, and stories have made the desired effect?

Target

Who can give you what you want? Can you influence this individual’s decision-making? If not, who can? Can you pressure that secondary target to move your primary target? This person will most likely be the same person or body as identified in your campaign strategy (see Campaign Roadmap Phase 2: Team Building).

A communications target should be a person or entity with the power to impact the outcome, such as a president, utility, executive board, city leader, or CEO.

Sometimes, moving a target can be as simple as tagging them on social media with persuasive messaging (learn more in the Online Organizing Guide, Social Media section). Other times it takes full-court press — articles, opinion pieces, and ads placed where they will see or in venues where they care about their public image.

Research

What will it take to move your target? What facts and statistics will bolster your messaging? What is the prevailing narrative around (or stories told about or by) your target, and what are the issues in your community? Essentially, what context are you working with? You don’t have to start from scratch in doing your research — we have data available to help.

Sierra Club uses research from trusted sources to inform our communications work and advocacy. Here are some resources with data tailored to your state or city to get you started.

Media Mapping

What is your local media landscape like? Who is covering the issues you’ve researched? Where does your community get its news? In what outlets could you reach your target?

Make a list of all the reporters and their contact information that cover your campaign issues in newspapers, periodicals, digital community forums or blogs, radio stations, cable news, etc. These issues (or beats) might be the environment, city hall, metro, breaking news, or general assignment reporters.

Your press list should have the journalist's name, outlet, phone number, and email address, but you might also want to track stories they've covered that are relevant to your issue and past interactions your campaign has had with them. This is the list you’ll use to send press releases and pitches, so make sure it’s up-to-date and accurate.

If news media is not effective or reliable in your community (perhaps newsletters or events are better means of communication), research how other groups and organizations effectively use alternate channels.

Visuals

Do you have someone on your team with an eye for photography, video, or art?

Storytelling is more than just words. How are you communicating your campaign visually? Does your campaign have a “brand?” Consider visual indicators that you can use to signal your message in photos and videos, at events, and on social media platforms.

Watch how students of the Climate Justice League in Boise used a banner of postcards calling for a commitment to 100% clean, renewable energy.

Spokespeople

Who are the best messengers to reach your target? Consider how certain perspectives will resonate with your audiences, and aim for representation of a diversity of experiences (including those who can influence outcomes and those who are most affected by this issue).

Spokespeople give interviews and speak publicly on behalf of your campaign.

Be mindful! Too often, asking people to share their stories and unique perspectives can be tokenistic and extractive, especially with people of color and others with marginalized identities.

Keep in mind that not everyone is comfortable sharing, and the risk of doing so is higher for some more than others — and never, ever, share someone’s story for them or without their consent. How are you building deep, transformational partnerships with constituencies other than your own to ensure you’re building power, not reinforcing divisions? Relationships and trust come first; favors — like sharing one’s story — come after, if at all.

To tell the story of how clean energy is an economic and health opportunity for Pueblo, CO, Sierra Magazine featured Michael Tanahill’s story.

Messaging

Remember those 5 W’s from Step 1? Focus your messaging to be straightforward and accessible (read: no jargon!), clearly articulating why your campaign is important and what you’re trying to make happen in a clear, concise, and relatively simple way.

Make a message box to help your spokespeople stay on-message using this Message Box Template. For a complete example, take a look at our campaign message box. If that format doesn’t work for you, try writing 5-10 talking points — short notes that clearly state who, what, where, when, and why.

Choosing the Right Frame for Your Message

  • Remember: Your campaign and stories don’t exist in a vacuum, and language is not neutral. The way you frame your message determines how audiences and the media connect the campaign to local issues. We win when our framing is the dominant narrative (the story the most people are talking about/using).
  • Example: If the 100% clean energy campaign in New Hampshire is focused on the freedom to choose local energy, it would be better if the press asked decision makers, “Will you protect the public’s right to choose clean energy?” If the issue is framed around cost, the press may ask, “Will you force rate hikes with solar?” The first frame is an advantage for clean energy and the latter is for fossil fuels. Your word choice — and the frame you encourage — matters.
  • Apply: Try picking a few values that emerge from your campaign story. (In the New Hampshire example, that might be “personal liberty.”) These values inform the framing you should use in your messaging — include them in the “values” section of your message box. Write down different ways to express your message with those values at the center. Now make a list of values that your opposition might be using to weaken your message (common ones include cost, feasibility, and protecting the status quo). It’s important to anticipate how you might respond — or better yet, debunk — messaging that centers those opposing values, but always return to your framing.

Tactics

Where are you going to distribute your message? What venues make sense to reach your target, and to share the stories of your campaign and spokespeople?

When is it appropriate to send a press release, or release a video? See the Communications Tools, Tactics, and Templates section for templates and how-to’s for using different communications tactics.

Before you start talking, you should know your message forwards and backwards — that is, you should know what you’re talking about and why. Clear and detailed plans that answer Who, What, Where, When, and Why are critical to effective communications tactics.

Smart Timing

What news hooks or upcoming media moments might be used to amplify your issue? What’s happening in the world that could maximize your message’s impact?

Many advocacy campaigns take years of organizing before crescendoing to a big media moment. Making a timeline can be helpful to know each step you’re taking to build up to your media flashpoint.

Tip: Consider creating a calendar of important dates, including advocacy holidays (Earth Day!), anniversaries, or social media celebration days, and consider how you can build your media moment in tandem.Such a calendar can also be used to intentionally plan your media moment for a time when something else may overshadow your work.

Media Relations

From your press list, which reporters do you want to build relationships with?

  • When reporters recognize your name, they are more likely to hear what you have to say. You want to be recognized as a good source — someone who can offer solid information and spokespeople for interviews.
  • Develop a shortlist of reporters who you want to get to know your campaign — this will be the list of reporters you want to know more interpersonally (what kinds of stories and angles are they interested in?), pitch when you have a story, and keep informed about the happenings on your campaign.
You are the storytellers of your campaign, and your narrative is yours to own.

Step 3: Center equity and justice

The best way to start educating ourselves and our teams about our community's unique experiences and perspectives is by listening.

In addition to communicating our wins and targeting decision makers, we need to remember who our “who” is — and ensure the stories and experiences we elevate in our messaging do not alienate, subjugate, or perpetuate harms to others.

Passing the Portland Clean Energy Fund: By putting their own vision of a just and equitable transition forward, organizers in Portland leveraged personal stories and won big.

Opportunity Agenda, a social justice communications lab, has a helpful guide for carrying out communications work respectfully and responsibly by ensuring equity and justice are thoughtfully brought to the forefront when preparing messaging.

"Opportunity is a theme that can unite social justice messages and constituencies while building bridges across a range of issues including civil and human rights, housing, employment, criminal justice, education, immigration, and other spheres where opportunity is at risk. While each of these issues needs focused attention and distinct solutions, talking about them through a common lens of opportunity can help build a powerful and diverse alliance of voices for change.” -- Opportunity Agenda

Our campaign is fundamentally a solutions-oriented one — and when we say “solutions,” we mean opportunities to build communities that work for everyone, not the few. As we activate public will for a just and equitable transition to 100% clean energy, it’s our duty to tell stories that have often been forgotten or excluded from dominant narratives.

Here are five steps to get you started in centering your communications work in equity and justice.

  1. Use inclusive language. Check out the Sierra Club Equity Language Guide.
  2. Consider voice. Most stories have at least two sides. Inclusivity is important for grouping different perspectives into more well-rounded narratives, particularly around issues as complex and interconnected as energy. “Diversity” gets touted as a value in itself, but holding a mic up to different people, especially marginalized folks (including people of different genders, ages, abilities, races, religions, and economic status), can feel extractive. Why should people share their stories with you? How are you working for justice and liberation with and for others? Inclusion is not about representation for the sake of representation — that’s tokenism! Rather, inclusion involves creating openings for spokespeople with different perspectives to shape media stories and campaign outcomes at large. Read more and find helpful tools at Communicating for Racial Justice.
  3. Know who owns the story and get consent. Subjects who appear in or share their stories should be appropriately consulted, give full consent to their inclusion, be empowered to speak for themselves, and have the chance to tell their own stories, on their own terms.
  4. Think structurally, speak locally. History and social structures are just as present in the ways we relate to one another as the realities coloring our moment-to-moment lives. Storytelling cannot escape this power dynamic — but its power comes from tackling it head-on. The stories that will capture your community’s imagination are the ones that your neighbors can touch and feel. At the same time, communications is a chance to acknowledge injustices and envision a world without them. Good story and strategy will hold both these things.
  5. Don’t get complacent. If you’re not uncomfortable, you’re too comfortable — and for a campaign that’s all about changing hearts and minds, that means your story is lacking something. Who haven’t you heard from? What (or who) is missing from the narratives in your community? What links need to be made, stones need to be turned? Campaigns win when they’re owned by the many — when you have lots of spokespeople sharing their stories and working toward a common vision. Challenge yourself. Deepen your comms work starting with MediaJustice.

Step 4: Assess your success

How will you know if your communications strategy is successful?

For starters, you should plan to regularly check the goals stated in your communications plan. Are you on track to meet your objectives? If not, what might you shift about your strategy or approach in a new way? Remember, communications strategy is iterative and often must respond to dynamic circumstances and news. Your communications plan might need reconfiguring… and that’s okay! Debriefing and periodically updating your strategy is recommended.

Ultimately, communications is integral to changing the conversation about an issue in your community by shifting the narrative. To measure the impact of your communications work, here are a few ways to evaluate success in achieving narrative change, according to MediaJustice:

  • Capacity building: Has the campaign strengthened its communications infrastructure?
  • Strategic planning and plan implementation: Has the campaign planned its communications strategically and implemented the communications plan? Did the plan help achieve its organizing goals?
  • Market standing: Has the campaign increased its recognition as an indispensable source on its issue?
  • Market saturation: Does the campaign’s clean energy message get reported routinely in coverage of the issue? (Ultimate goal = saturation; your framing, especially on equity and justice, appear in all relevant media and reporting and dominate.)

Try to answer these questions before moving on.

False. Before you get to work communicating, you must figure your public narrative — that is, your Story of Self, Us, and Now.

All of the above! Think of stories as answering “why,” and the other 4 W’s as crucial components for delivering well-rounded communications.

D) you don’t need a technical policy brief to develop a communications plan. In fact, talking about the wonky details of “how” to get to 100% clean energy is usually not the best way to make general audiences care about your issues. Remember that stories capture hearts and imaginations, not facts and stats — your comms plan will help you do strategic storytelling.

Section 1: Communication 101

To communicate the importance of clean energy and make meaningful change, you first need to understand your story and how best to tell it.

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Section 3: Best Practices & Resources

Learn the 5 C’s of good messaging, then access our resources to learn how to work with the media, speak in public, coordinate events, and more.

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