This week, the Just:: policy team gathered a range of health charity folk together for a Christmas-inspired training session that focused on putting together public affairs campaigns with real impact.
For readers who missed out, here are our top tips for devising and implementing public affairs campaigns that hit the mark every time:
- Relationship building is a long game. Don’t just focus on peak moments in your agenda – plan ahead and think about when your stakeholders will be less busy and more receptive
- Keep correspondence succinct and action focused
- Come prepared to every meeting; think about how you can help them and their agenda, before thinking about what you want
- Remember that a lot of people will be trying to reach your stakeholders – make sure you stand out with messages and materials that resonate
- Consider a range of channels – what papers do your stakeholders read? Are they on Twitter? Can you mobilise constituents?
- Don’t think public affairs has to be cerebral and unemotional – your stakeholders are people too!
- Be targeted – you can’t win everyone over (and you don’t need to…)!
If you’re keen to find out more about how we can help your public affairs work, drop our policy team a line at justask@havas.com