Communication Without Purpose Is a Waste of Energy

One of the biggest achievements of 2019, has been running my first 5KM race. In preparation for the big event, I trained. I woke up every morning when everyone was still asleep, Nike run training in my ears, start walking then jogging and eventually running. Each session I had an objective: run without stopping, run for 3KM, run at my fastest speed. Everything had to prepare me to start and finish my first 5KM official run with Mencap. 

And I did it (proof are below)

Communication without purpose is a waste of energy

When it comes to sharing your content, to market, to promote your activities and projects, it is like when I trained for my run. You need an objective and you need to shape every single piece of your communication to get there. 

Communication without purpose is a waste of energy Share on X

I know sometimes we are tempted to share that beautiful sunset we saw or that amazing meal we had or even an inspiring quote we heard. But that’s why we have personal pages. What we communicate, what we share matters and the reason why we communicate it matters even more. Because we have no energy to waste, especially if you are responsible for your own communication, you have no time to spare, everything you do should have a purpose. 

How to make sure your communication strategy helps you reach your goals

1. Know your goals 

The first one on the list might be an obvious one but let’s be honest, often we got sucked in the routine, life, etc… and we forget why we were doing what we are doing in the first place. So, know your goals. 

Ideally, you would have a longterm goal and then a set of goals you want to reach in a shorter time span. 

For instance, my longterm goal is to empower female ChangeMakers from a minority background to leverage their stories to reach their goals and be role models. My 2020 goal is to finish my book where I share what it takes to tell your story with a purpose. My six months goal is to have a bigger audience in my newsletter so that when the book is done I can easily share it with all of them and eventually start empowering them to tell their own stories. 

2. Choose your approach

For every goal you have set yourself, there are about a million ways to reach them. You have to choose yours and the best way to do that is to look at who you are/what you enjoy but also at your audience (where are they? How they speak? What they need? How can you help?) Also, consider what are your possibilities: can you organise events? Can you do lots of networking? Are you mainly working online? Base on your answers you’ll know the approach to use.

3. Define a communication strategy 

Once you’re clear on your goals and approach, is time to define a communication strategy. And this is really about finding the most effective ways to reach your goals. Think about your immediate goal, e.g. asking people to subscribe to your newsletter. Of course, you can always ask them directly to do that but to reach people who are not even in your network you’ll want to make sure to produce great content (content helpful for your target audience); ask your audience to share that content; highlight why it would beneficial for people to join. If this is one of your goal you have to make sure is visible and present in every content you share. And the same is true for other goals. 

4. Remember it’s not about you, it’s about them

Your communication has a purpose and besides your longterm goal, you have to keep in mind you are trying to help someone. I believe every business, project, idea should have a bigger purpose in mind, should change the world in its own way. And when that happens is for the benefit of someone else, your audience. So keep in mind you are sharing for them, to help them, to solve some of their issues, to inspire them. 

Every business, project, idea should have a bigger purpose in mind, should change the world in its own way Share on X

My mind is quite mathematical in a way so I’m a big fan of tables. That’s why when working on my own communication strategy, I always use one. Because it might be helpful for you as well, I’m going to release one in the coming year, I’ll let you know when it’s out.