3 questions to ask during your communications audit
Written by NIKI JUHASZ
That exciting first date. A job interview for the perfect position. Your key communications materials.
Can you guess what all of these have in common?
The answer: first impressions really, really matter for all of them.
You’re on your own with the first part of this list – but at Forthright, what we CAN do is to help ensure your communications materials get that first impression rose.
Below, we’re sharing our favorite questions to ask while conducting a communications audit.
Our Favorite communications audit questions
Simply put, a communications audit tells you what’s working about your strategy – and where there may be opportunities to change up your tactics to better reach the right audiences, at the right time, with the right messaging, in the right place.
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In a nutshell: a great communications audit tells you how to win. Here are the questions we start with:
Is your messaging clear and easy-to-understand? I would argue that your messaging is the absolute most important part of your communications. If people don’t understand what you do – and why it matters – they won’t be compelled to take action. After reading your key messaging, I should be able to understand why your work is critical – and what action I should take, from making a donation to writing to my local city council to enrolling my child in your school district.
Try this: send your core messaging (or your boilerplate language!) to your grandmother – or a friend who knows nothing about your work. Then, ask them to describe back to you – based solely on what they read – what your organization does in 2-3 sentences. Can they do it? If not, it may be time to simplify your messaging.
Are your communications materials consistent? We see this all the time. A nonprofit may have one set of messaging on their homepage, then a different, outdated mission on their Instagram page, and branding that doesn’t match…well, anything, on their annual report. This can hurt the trust you have with your most important audiences. During your communications audit, ensure your materials are consistent across ALL of your platforms. We like to check for:
Messaging, including taglines, mission and key call to action
Logo
Colors
Fonts
Overall look & feel
Are you focused on the tactics that lead to the most ROI? Are you on TikTok when your target audience is baby boomer bankers? (Say that five times fast). Then you *may* be wasting your precious time on a tactic that likely isn’t leading to a high ROI.
During a communications audit, we like to look at the stats to decide what to focus our energy on. Think impressions, clicks, HotJar data that maps where people are focusing their eyes on a website. Choose your most successful strategies, cut the rest, and prepare to feel like you can put your whole brain towards communications that WORK.
Need help cutting? Take this fun quiz to figure out what isn’t serving you well!
So order that pumpkin spice latte (or, if you’re like me and in denial about fall, that strawberry acai breezer), silence your Slacks and dedicate a few hours to your communications audit. It will not only save you time in the future, but ensure you’re truly connecting with your audience – fast.
