STRATEGIC communications are important, they set direction, and have impact on an organisation's success. They are long term messages that can set a brand expectation or an umbrella under which product, people and organisational messages develop over the long term. Like all communications, they should be measurable and BRAND CONSISTENT, and be useful to as many stakeholders as possible so must take the needs of different stakeholders into account, and the complexity of the message has to balance accuracy with the expertise of the audience to ensure that the communications is unambiguous and clarity is achieved.

The dictionary defines strategic communication as “the purposeful use of communication by an organization to fulfill its mission.”. These elements define key organisational concepts, including audience analysis, goal setting, and messaging strategy. Strategic messages define or reflect the tone and style of an organisation, its overall purpose, and the contribution to their markets and broader society.

One key element of any plan is understanding how long different strategies may take to be successful - something like a book intended to lead a cultural or business change could take more than a year to see its effects, but the influence of it reaches far beyond an org's usual audiences.

A strategic conversation may take less than a minute, but it could be the summation of a communications strategy that changes the mind of the audience in profound ways. Strategic communications should never be defensive.

CONTEXT is everything, reflecting on the adage 'the medium is the message', the communication must take account of the context and operating environment of the organization as it moves forward.