A Business Outcome-Focused Template for Requests for Content
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With two examples
If you’ve ever received a message letting you know that So and So wants a story on the intranet about X and Y, this post is for you.
Internal comms pros know that “raising awareness” can never stand as a reason to put your team’s energy, resources, and time to work. The requester must go deeper in their solicitation and tie the content to the company’s business strategy, or at least prompt some action — ideally both.
Below is a business-outcome focused template you can use anytime someone calls, emails, or chats you for a request for content. Tell them to fill out as much as possible, even if the answers seem obvious or repetitive.
- Quickly you’ll discover many requests for content weren’t that important and the conversations will end without a reply.
- Pair with To Feed the Content Beast, Create Auto-send Emails (email template included)
Having your client fill out the template has many benefits:
- Frivolous requests fall by the wayside so you won’t waste your precious time.
- Some of the initial heavy lifting is done by the person who knows most about the topic: the requester.
- You ensure the content supports business outcomes (i.e., that it’s not a vanity request).
- You will uncover very specific calls to action that can be measured.
- The template helps you and your stakeholder determine which kind of communication works best (e.g., a town hall, a video) and who should own it. Pro tip: Not all comms requests should be handled by Communications!
- If you send this template enough times, the petitioner will “get it” and anticipate your questions before they make another unsolicited bid.
So let’s get to it.
Example 1: Getting Sales Employees to Use a New Strategy
Here is an example using the template (which is blank, below). Editorial commentary is italicized.
What exactly are you trying to achieve? Why is it so important now?
We want sales employees to adopt the new sales strategy that was unveiled this month. It’s important because we are changing the way we position our best selling product to a new audience.
Bingo. More than “raising awareness” you now have an idea of the real commercial impact for the firm if the new strategy is adopted. Notice that “now” is italicized in the question: This is meant to probe whether the comms is timely or can be pushed back on the calendar.
Who are you trying to connect with?
Salespeople in the U.S. and Canada who have prospective clients for Product X.
“All employees” is rarely the correct answer. Perhaps the requester singled out sales employees in the U.S. and Canada because the product is only available in those regions? Ask a follow-up to make sure. It’s best to have a targeted audience; no need to bother salespeople in Singapore if they can’t even sell the product.
What do you want your audience to do that they are not doing now?
We want them to adopt the new sales strategy, which is outlined in a one-page document and was discussed at a recent town hall for salespeople.
The requester needs salespeople to download a document from somewhere. They also need salespeople to (re)watch a video recording from the town hall that described the new strategy. These are measurable outcomes for IC (because we can’t follow salespeople around to listen to their pitches to see if they’re actually adopting the strategy).
Why aren’t the employees doing what you want them to do already? List all possible reasons.
- Nobody shared the video from the town hall.
- The video is too long; employees don’t have time to watch a 40-minute video.
- Salespeople are traveling and can’t find time to watch a video.
- Employees think it looks bad if they are watching a video at their desk instead of making calls.
- Nobody sent the link to the one-pager.
- The one-pager hasn’t been uploaded to the usual document library.
- Salespeople prefer to read paper documents rather than online material.
You may need to brainstorm with the requester to tease out all possible hurdles. Often they are too close to the situation to see potential blockers. Think about the employees’ behaviors, habits, and mindset.
Decide which one or two behavioral changes Internal Comms can effect.
How will you measure the effectiveness of the communication?
75% of salespeople in the U.S.A./Canada watch the video.
75% of salespeople in the U.S.A./Canada download the new sales sheet.
100% of salespeople in the U.S.A./Canada get a paper version of the sales sheet.
Internal Comms can assist with the first two items. The Sales Operations team should manage printing and distributing the paper version.
Next steps (to be filled out Internal Comms)
At this point Internal Comms takes over. You do not need to share this section with the stakeholder.
Ask:
- What do we need to do to help employees take the action we want them to take?
- What’s the most effective tactic to achieve the goal?
- What is/are the best channel/s to reach the audience?
- How do we measure the effectiveness of the comms?
There are several tactics Internal Comms can do to encourage employees to watch the video and download the sales sheet. Here are four options that you could do and measure:
- Cut a highlight reel of the 40-minute video so that it’s only six minutes and send it to the targeted salespeople.
- Instead of sending the highlight reel to all the salespeople, send it to all sales managers and ask them to watch it together with their peers in the next team meeting.
- Create a bullet-point tip sheet with five or six important takeaways. Post it to the intranet and include a link to the article in the next sales newsletter and drop a link in the sales Slack channel or Yammer group. Add a link to the one-pager in the article.
- Convert the video to an audio file and distribute it to the salespeople as a podcast.
Example 2: Getting Employees to Sign Up for a Volunteer Project
Here is another example using the template (which is blank, below). Editorial commentary is italicized.
What exactly are you trying to achieve? Why is it so important now?
We want employees to sign up for the volunteer event happening this Friday from 4:00–7:00 PM. The project is to help fix up a local park and playground. This is important because we just opened an office in Newark and want to show that we are part of the community.
Who are you trying to connect with?
All employees in the Newark office.
What do you want your audience to do that they are not doing now?
We want them to sign up for the volunteer event, and of course, we want them to show up and participate.
Why aren’t the employees doing what you want them to do already? List all possible reasons.
- Employees don’t think it’s important because their managers haven’t signed up.
- Employees aren’t signing up because their peers aren’t signing up.
- Employees don’t think they’re allowed to take time off work for volunteering.
- Employees have children that need to be picked up from school.
- Nobody wants to do “work things” on a Friday evening.
- Transportation to the park is onerous using public means.
How will you measure the effectiveness of the communication?
At least 90% of Newark’s managers sign up for and attend the volunteer event.
At least 75% of Newark’s individual contributors sign up for and attend the volunteer event.
Next steps (to be filled out Internal Comms)
At this point Internal Comms takes over. You do not need to share this section with the stakeholder.
Ask:
- What do we need to do to help employees take the action we want them to take?
- What’s the most effective tactic to achieve the goal?
- What is/are the best channel/s to reach the audience?
- How do we measure the effectiveness of the comms?
Notice that the main hurdles are out of Internal Communications’s control. These items are best left to other departments. IC can make suggestions to business partners to, for example, provide transportation to the event and to allow families/children to participate.
Once the details are settled, IC can design communications that could entice employees to participate, including making it easy to sign up.
Since managers aren’t signing up for the event, IC should work with an executive who can lead by example. She or he, of course, should sign up for the event. IC can draft a short email that the leader can send to all other managers in the office outlining why it is important they sign up and prod them to encourage their reports to sign up (without financial consequence).
Business Outcome-Focused Template
Copy, paste, and use this form.
What exactly are you trying to achieve? Why is it so important now?
Who are you trying to connect with?
What do you want your audience to do that they are not doing now?
Why aren’t the employees doing what you want them to do already? List all possible reasons.
How will you measure the effectiveness of the communication?
Next steps (to be filled out Internal Comms)
At this point Internal Comms takes over and asks:
- What do we need to do to help employees take the action we want them to take?
- What’s the most effective tactic to achieve the goal?
- What is/are the best channel/s to reach the audience?
- How do we measure the effectiveness of the comms?
