to communications is like walking into the grocery store without a list. Their thinking goes like this: It's January. Time for a newsletter. Or: Guess we should have a Facebook page. Another common approach is to have a plan that resembles a list. January newsletter. Check! Newspaper ad. Check! Annual report. Check! Sent a message on Twitter. Check! In this case, the plan is often developed with minimal thought. For example, it's time to send an 8 page newsletter to our normal list because that's what we have always done. No consideration is given to if a newsletter is the right way to reach your audience, why you are including a story or how the time and resources could be better used. Checking it off the list is the priority. Communicating with a strategy When you communicate with a strategy, you do so knowing what you are doing, why, how your various efforts work together and have an idea on whether your objectives are being achieved. You may for instance choose to eliminate or reduce the frequency of a print newsletter in order to have an e-newsletter. You might choose the e-newsletter to reach more people more frequently. Doing so may free up funds such as postage costs to be used in another way such as an upgraded annual report. An online e-newsletter may also free up staff time being used to manage staff lists or to send them out in small batches. An e-newsletter may also help link its