I’ve asked the same question at the start of most client engagements I’ve taken on over the past few years.

‘Can I see your comms strategy?’

The answers tell you everything. Some people email me a 40-page PDF with brand guidelines, tone-of-voice notes, and a mission statement that’s been wordsmithed to within an inch of its life. Some people say they’re updating it at the moment. Some people say, honestly, we don’t really have one.

Here’s the thing I’ve come to believe after 25 years in communications: in most of those cases, the honest answer and the first answer are the same thing.

A brand guidelines document is not a comms strategy. A content calendar is not a comms strategy. Even a beautifully written messaging framework isn’t a comms strategy, not on its own.

So what is one?

A comms strategy answers three questions

That’s it. Three questions. If you can answer all three clearly, you have the bones of a real strategy. If you can’t, you have something that looks like one but won’t behave like one when things get difficult.

1. Who are you talking to – really?

Not ‘the public’. Not ‘supporters and stakeholders’. Those are categories, not audiences. A real answer might be: ‘Trustees at mid-size charities who feel out of their depth on communications and are quietly worried about it.’ Or: ‘NHS commissioners who need to understand why our service saves money downstream.’

If your answer is a long list, that’s a sign your strategy is trying to do too much at once. You can talk to multiple audiences, but not in the same message, at the same time, through the same channel.

2. What do you want them to think, feel, or do differently?

This is the question that separates strategy from activity. Every piece of communication should be trying to move someone from where they are to somewhere else. If you can’t say what that movement is, you’re producing content rather than communications.

It doesn’t have to be dramatic. ‘We want major donors to feel that their gift is genuinely changing lives, not just funding operations.’ ‘We want our local authority contact to see us as a strategic partner, not a grant recipient.’ That kind of specificity is what good communications can actually deliver.

3. How will you know if it’s working?

Not how many posts you published. Not how many emails you sent. Those are outputs. What you’re looking for is evidence that something changed — a conversation shifted, a relationship deepened, an application arrived that cited your reputation rather than your services.

Defining this upfront is the part most charities skip, usually because it’s harder. But it’s also the part that turns communications from a cost centre into something you can actually defend in a budget conversation.

The honest problem: most charity comms talk about the organisation

One of the things I see most often when I work with charities – and I say this with real warmth, because I’ve sat on the inside of this too – is communications that are essentially written for the organisation, not for the audience.

We talk about our programmes. Our impact. Our values. Our theory of change. And all of that matters – but it only matters if the person reading it can find themselves in it.

The shift from ‘here’s what we do’ to ‘here’s what this means for you’ sounds small. In practice, it’s the difference between communications that build relationships and communications that fill inboxes.

Knowing your audience – genuinely knowing them, not just naming them – is the starting point for that shift.

Where to start if you don’t have a strategy yet

Don’t commission a 40-page document. Start with a conversation.

Get your senior team in a room (or on a call) and ask: who are the three most important people or groups we need to reach this year? What do we want each of them to do or believe by December that they don’t do or believe now? How will we know?

Write down what you agree on. You’ll probably find there’s less agreement than you expected. That’s useful information. A strategy that everyone has bought into because they helped shape it will outlast a document that was written beautifully and then filed.

If you’d like a second pair of eyes on what you already have, or you’re not sure where to start, I’m always glad to have a conversation. A 30-minute call usually tells you more than a brief.

Vishnee Sauntoo is the Founder of VS Comms and a strategic communications consultant with 25 years’ experience working with charities, not-for-profits, and mission-led organisations. She is a Trustee of CharityComms and hosts The Comms Collective Podcast. You can reach her at vishnee@vscomms.co.uk