Then we come back in September ready to begin anew.

That sense of new beginning, plus the fact that December is less than three months away, makes this a great time to think about 2017. Yes, I hate to be the one to break the news, but it’s time to start your 2017 communications plan, if you haven’t already.

I’m presuming that your plan for the rest of 2016 is in place. If you host fall or holiday events, preparation has been underway since spring. If you send a year-end donor appeal letter, you know when and how you’re going to implement it, even if you haven’t started yet.

If I’m presuming wrong, get your rest-of-2016 ducks in a row. Right now. Today. Start implementing tomorrow.

Then, the day after tomorrow … oh, never mind, you’ll need Friday to continue with your 2016 implementation. Then it’s the weekend.

Starting Monday – even as you continue to keep your 2016 ducks moving toward the pond – work on your plan for 2017.

Don’t panic. Set yourself up with a system to keep planning from becoming overwhelming.

A system I sometimes use with clients goes by the acronym SPARE: study, plan, act, revise, evaluate. The first two steps, study and plan, are the ones you want to do now.

Study

Stop. (Breathe.) Take a look at what’s already been done and what’s out there.

• Start with last year’s communication plan. If need be, revise it to reflect what actually happened. If you didn’t have a plan, write down what you actually did and when you did it.
• Evaluate what worked and what didn’t. Don’t rely on your own opinion! Field a web-based survey or ask a few recipients what they thought of your messages.
• Look at what other organizations in your space are doing that you can steal … I mean, emulate.

Plan

Figure out what to do next.

• Clearly outline your strategic communication goals.
• Brainstorm (preferably with a group) every kind of communication you can think of that might help you reach your goals.
• Prioritize. Choose to implement the tactics and pieces that lead most directly to your goals at the lowest cost in both dollars and staff time.
• Develop a work plan including project owners, milestones, timeline, and final deliverables.

The other three SPARE steps, act, revise, and evaluate, are an iterative process. Sometime later this year, you’ll start to implement your 2017 plan (act) while remaining flexible enough (revise) to respond to flops and successes or to changes in the environment (evaluate).

But what I want to get across right now, today, is that it’s time to start. Don’t let January catch you with your ducks running all over the highway! (Insert your favorite heartwarming video of baby ducks being rescued.)

If you need help designing a strategic communications plan, please call on me!

(Why a duck?)