4 strategic steps to take your ESG communications from “check the box” to “must-read”
You spend countless hours developing your organization’s environmental and social programs and policies, setting goals and working to advance them. These challenging and game-changing efforts produce value for your company and for society, so of course you want the world to know about it.
But here’s the question: Especially in a field like ESG, that’s technical, often very data-driven, and littered with jargon and acronyms, how do you get people to pay attention? Often, even audiences such as employees and customers who have a vested stake in what you’re doing can be hard to engage.
If you want to create communications that will be meaningful to your stakeholders and positively position your organization, here’s a short list of the most important steps to take.
#1. Identify your key audience(s).
More than anything, it’s critical to get clear about who you most want to reach. Investors? Your employees? Customers? Top-tier media? If you’re like many organizations, you’ll start out with ten different stakeholder groups on your audience list. The challenge is to prioritize one or two of those audiences so that you can tailor your communications to meet their specific needs and expectations (more on that in the next section).
PRO TIP: Poll different groups within your organization on how they use your ESG communications. Your human resources team may use sustainability material to recruit new employees or your sales team may integrate ESG highlights in customer pitches and proposals. As you create your list of priority audiences, the insights you’ve gathered from these groups could significantly influence your thinking.
You can expect your priority audiences to shift over time as your ESG program matures and your business changes, so it’s important to come back to this audience exercise on a regular basis.
#2. Give your priority audiences what they want, how they want it.
So many organizations fail to consider the needs of their audience/s and get caught up in their own needs instead. Spending time on this step gives you a better chance of engaging your audience and also helps you avoid wasting time and money to develop unnecessary, unwanted communications. Here are a few questions to prompt your thinking:
What are the best channels to reach your audience? If you want to make sure your audience hears your message, it’s wise to take it directly to them rather than assume they will come to you. This could be internal channels such as employee newsletters or your intranet and social channels like Slack and Yammer. Or external channels such as your customer-focused emails, website, social media, or even your product packaging.
PRO TIP: Creating your channel strategy is the perfect opportunity to think beyond your ESG report. So many companies release their report and then go dark the rest of the year which means all that valuable content they collected gets locked up until the next report launch. Repurpose the report content for various channels to engage audiences all year round.
How will you present data? Some audiences like investor rating agencies may prefer straightforward data tables and downloadable spreadsheets, and others like employees often appreciate visually captivating infographics and charts.
What’s the role of creative or editorial elements such as video, photo essays, first-hand employee accounts, or interviews with company leadership in your sustainability communications? Consumable pieces like these can go a long way to captivate audiences who tune out more straightforward, data-driven narratives. But if your priority audience prizes a “just-the-facts” account, you may be better off without the bells and whistles.
#3. Map out your key messages.
Now that you have your list of prioritized audiences, what are the most important things you want them to know? Crafting a well-considered set of messages—which should fit on a page or two—helps create consistent communications that will resonate with your audience. Whether someone is reading your ESG report or listening to a presentation about your sustainability programs, your key message map will ensure they walk away with a clear and compelling impression.
PRO TIP: Mapping your key messages is beneficial in another way: The exercise allows you and your internal stakeholders to align on what you want to communicate before you dive into downstream deliverables. That makes for fewer conflicts and headaches down the road.
You can find many examples of messaging frameworks online, or SustainabilityNext can assist you in developing one.
#4. Determine how you will measure success.
It’s likely you have key performance indicators to measure the impact of your ESG initiatives themselves. Don’t forget to track and monitor the impact of your communications. Set your communications metrics up front so that you’ll know if you’re reaching the people you want to reach and making the impression you’re aiming for.
Web analytics such as unique visitors and downloads are obvious places to start. They’ll tell you how many people are looking at your materials, though they won’t tell you if you’ve left a positive impression. You’ll want to use more telling measures, both quantitative or qualitative, such as feedback from your executives or board, employee and customer surveys, media impressions, social listening, and even awards and recognition from notable industry organizations. Your marketing, web or IT teams may be able to help you determine what kind of data or insights your company can collect.
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Creating a solid ESG communications strategy may look like a lift, but it doesn’t have to be. Spending even a few hours running through these steps can deliver enormous results. But an experienced facilitator and communications professional can make it easier—particularly one who understands the complex world of ESG, sustainability, and social impact work. Reach out if we can help.