Forget The “New Normal” – Adjust Your Baseline

It’s a powerful concept, and one that each of us has the ability to achieve. Adjust your baseline for strategic communications success.

I was chatting the other day with my brother and sister-in-law about the “new normal” we’re dealing with as a result of the Coronavirus Crisis.

If you’re anything like me, if you never hear the term “new normal” again that will be ok. But the reality is that we will likely never return to the way of doing things like we did before.

Spoiler Alert – THAT’S OK! 

True, change is never easy, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find some good in it. 

Baseline Adjustment

But, so we don’t have to say “new normal,” let’s say baseline adjustment. 

And for public relations programs, adjusting your baselines shouldn’t be new. In fact, it’s part of the strategic communications process. 

A “baseline” is defined as “a minimum or starting point used for comparisons.” Basically, how we measure everything else. And as we all know, our baseline on everything in our lives has dramatically changed. 

But what does that mean for communications? 

Strategic Communications Process

Let’s boil down the Strategic Communications process to a ridiculously simplistic level:

1. Create a strategic communications plan,
2. Implement and execute the strategic communications plan,
3. Evaluate that plan by looking at the key performance indicators (or KPIs),
4. Make adjustments to the strategic communications based on the evaluation. 

Evaluating and adjusting your baseline has always been a part of the process, and this is pretty much the position we’re in right now. 

Granted, the adjustments we need to make are going to be much more significant than adjusting a typical strategic communications plan, but the process is already there. 

This time we need to adjust our goals to match the new situation. We need to determine what success looks like in this new environment. And then we need to adjust our plans and execution to get us there. 

Basically, we need a baseline adjustment across the board for our programs. 

So, don’t be scared to get out there and make it happen. You’ve heard me say here before that consumers and audiences still expect to hear from us. 

In fact, they are counting on us to communicate and expect that we will. 

As brands, we need to look for new ways to get our news out there and find meaningful ways to connect with our audiences. 

We need to put connection over conversion. 

We all feel like we’ve been beat down and everything we’ve built is at best threatened or worst crumbling. But this is the time to show your resiliency, so find your new baseline and start building those programs again.

There’s More!

And here are some additional blogs to help with your strategic communications planning: 

– 7 Tips for Successful Media Interviews
– Don’t Let Perfect Be The Enemy Of Effective
– Wake Up. Kick Ass. Repeat.
– How to Create Content That Engages Audiences and Builds Brand Trust Quickly

Here are some links to resources for managing the craziness of the Coronavirus Crisis: 

– Get RADD And Plan For Success Following Coronavirus Crisis
– There’s Still Time To Communicate During the Coronavirus Crisis
– Isolation Is Actually Connecting Us In Meaningful Ways
– Is Pitching Media A Good Idea During COVID-19?
– Internal Communications During A Crisis
– A Meaningful Message, Or Pandering Without Purpose

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