CEO Communications Strategy: 7 Best Practices
A communications strategy is a necessity for every successful company and business.
CEOs too can benefit from a communications strategy, especially when it comes to branding and thought leadership. Combining the two strategies, and feeding one off the other, can result in an unstoppable marketing and branding force. For examples of CEO communications strategies that have helped build the brand of both company and leader we need look no further than Virgin Group’s Richard Branson, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, and LinkedIn’s Jeff Weiner.
In this post, we’ll look at the steps necessary for CEOs to communicate effectively with various stakeholders to achieve specific goals.
1. Define program objectives.
Integrating the CEO’s voice into your corporate comms strategy can help you achieve a number of goals—if you know what those goals are. Goals could be raising awareness, either of the company or CEO or both; attracting investment; improving recruiting and retention; humanizing the company and/or CEO. One example of a CEO whose personal brand has contributed to his company’s success is Richard Branson. Recognized for his entrepreneurial spirit, approachable personality, and resilience, the Virgin Group CEO’s public image has supported with customer connection and helping people identify the conglomerate with innovation, diversification and environment consciousness. Branson’s active presence in the media reinforces the Virgin brand.
2. Identify target audiences.
A key to an effective communication strategy is figuring out who you want to reach. Your target audiences might be employees, customers, investors, industry peers, or a combination thereof. The more you drill down into specifics the better; rather than just “industry peers,” specify, say, “leadership at F500 companies” and/or “aspiring leaders.” Ajay Banga, former president and CEO of Mastercard, is an example of a CEO with a well-executed communication strategy. Banga tailored his messaging to customers, investors, employees and regulatory bodies. In 2017, he addressed the audience at Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh with the message that “data is the new oil.”
3. Develop broad messaging themes.
CEOs should have two-to-three thematic buckets that they will speak about over and over. Not only that, but the themes need to align with the mission, values, and overarching business strategy of the business. Themes might be the state of the industry, leadership philosophy, or the need for change. For example, in recent months Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has been addressing the importance of innovation at Microsoft, thereby positioning the company as a leader rather than, in the words of Harvard Business Review, “a 20th-century phenomenon, fat and happy from its Windows monopoly.”
4. Select channels for sharing CEO comms.
The next step in creating and mobilizing a CEO comms strategy is identifying which channels to use to reach your target audience. If the target is internal, this might mean a company newsletter or all-hands meeting. External could be anything from bylines to social media to keynote speeches at conferences to press releases to newsletters, depending where the audience is at. Jeff Weiner, the former CEO of LinkedIn, leveraged multiple channels to share the company’s vision with various audiences. For LinkedIin employees, he held regular town hall meetings. But he also reached broader audiences through the LinkedIn blog, traditional media interviews, social media (of course), and public speaking engagements.
5. Assemble a battery of content ideas.
Content ideas come from a variety of sources—industry trends, company materials, past CEO writings, dreams, fortune cookies. (Okay, maybe not dreams or fortune cookies.) Often the most successful content taps into current news, but evergreen content—content that is not tied to a particular moment in time—can be a valuable resource as well, filling the gaps between earthshaking developments.
Also, mine the CEO’s other areas of expertise for ideas. What in the leader’s background is unique and can be leveraged to help the CEO stand out? If, say, the leader is the head of a healthcare company and has had field experience as a doctor or EMT, create content that demonstrates this.
As Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg drew on her work experience in the government and technology sector to build her brand as a thought leader. The result was a successful public speaking side-hustle and a bestselling book, Lean In, co-written by ghostwriter (and Sabrina the Teenage Witch creator) Nell Scovell. Also, diversify content formats and tailor ideas for different platforms, i.e. Instagram or X, articles or op-eds, newsletters. Some content can be repurposed as well—from, say, a blog post to a video. Where and when possible, balance personal insights with industry-related content.
6. Create a content calendar.
An effective CEO communications strategy depends on timing and measuring results. The content calendar should also align with company goals, objectives, milestones, announcements, and industry events. If, for example, the CEO is head of a tech company and an international summit is approaching, plan specific content around the event, perhaps announcements of the panels, if any, that the CEO will be on. Plan this weeks if not months in advance.
A consistent posting schedule will help build trust and expectations with your target audience. At the same time, maintain flexibility for when and if something unexpected arises, such as an industry disruption—the new iPhone begins exploding in people’s pockets!—that may need to be addressed post-haste. Also set aside time in the calendar for responding to feedback and engaging with the target audience.
7. Set and measure KPIs.
Hand-in-hand with creating a content calendar for a CEO communications strategy is determining the success of your efforts. Important KPIs and metrics to consider include audience engagement and feedback, website traffic, social media impressions, media coverage and mentions, employee engagement (for internal comms), speaking engagements and invitations, brand surveys, stock performance, and comparing the CEO’s communication performance to that of industry peers or competitors.
An effective CEO communication strategy requires ongoing commitment, consistency, strategic thinking, and time. For this reason, companies and leaders often outsource their communication strategy to agencies and firms experienced in content creation, social media management, and all the other factors that go into a communications strategy. Most of these firms also employ ghostwriters who have the skills to contribute content in the CEO’s voice on social media channels and amplify their messaging in many different formats—op-eds, articles, blog posts.
Who knows—with the right strategy, your CEO could be the next Richard Branson … minus the gorgeous hair and charming British accent.
