5 Essential Elements of Every Community Outreach Plan

From housing to data centers to clean energy projects — none succeeds on technical merit or need. They succeed or fail based on community trust.

Even urgently needed projects can stall when communities feel excluded, unheard or unconvinced that their concerns are being taken seriously. This is true for public agencies, private developers and non-profits. And it’s getting harder as the annual Edelman Trust Barometer shows trust in institutions, companies, NGOs and large-scale projects continuing to decline.

The major difficulty for community outreach—and its differentiator from other forms of public relations—is that your target audience is typically not interested in what you’re trying to say.

Think about it.

People seek products or services to solve immediate pain points. If there’s no perceived problem, there’s no need to seek a solution. Community members going about their daily lives typically aren’t:

• Proactively looking to change their behavior
• Hoping to become informed about something they aren’t aware of
• Picking up another cause to support

In short, the people you’re trying to communicate with don’t know about your project and don’t care. And that’s the best case scenario. A worst-case scenario is when your stakeholders have already adopted a hostile point of view and begin organizing, but more on that later.

Clearly, the main goal of community engagement is to encourage your target stakeholders to care enough about your project or campaign to tune in, pay attention and come to an informed point of view. But it’s easy to miss the mark.

As with all sound communication plans, there is no silver bullet to achieve program objectives. Instead, organizations must develop a strategy that leverages the right content, across the right channels, at the right time.

It’s easier said than done, but to ease the process, here are five crucial elements to developing an effective and efficient community outreach plan.

1. A Good Understanding of the Target Stakeholders

Rule #1 of good communication: Know your audience.

What this really means is to know what unifies the community and what’s important to them so you can effectively tailor your outreach.

Once you know what the community finds important, you’ll be able to communicate how your project aligns with those values. The community is going to ask themselves, “so what?” to any new information thrown at them, and your outreach should always answer that question.

2. Be Proactive

Since you know the community is going to question the information you’re trying to convey, be proactive in explaining what’s in it for them. Seize the opportunity to control messages that will make a first impression. If you don’t, the door is open for detractors and the ill-informed to steal your thunder or create turbulence that will compete against accurate information.

Proactivity is necessary across all channels where conversations in the community are happening. Make sure journalists covering the beat are informed, have a website and social media presence to push information and identify other touch points to utilize. The more information you provide, the more you empower the community to be involved in the process.

3. Community Partnerships

Find creative, mutually beneficial ways to partner with organizations already serving the audience you want to connect with. These groups have built trust with their members and those they influence, so a partnership serves as third-party validation of your organization, the project and its mission.

The best partnerships are with groups whose purpose aligns with the goals of your project. Determine how your project is complementary to their mission because you don’t want to compete for the same attention.

4. Engage In-person

The old saying, “advertisements don’t sell products, people sell products” is true for community outreach. Make creating face time with the community a priority in your strategy.

People are skeptical. Face-to-face meetings are important for removing that skepticism and creating personal relationships. Even better, get influencers involved in creating a solution early on so that they become ambassadors for the project and its goals.

Always remember that communities want to be a part of the process, not have something thrust on them.

5. Be Responsive

Being part of the process also means dialogue should flow two ways. Some community input should find its way into the plan. Too often, agencies bring a 95% developed solution to a community and don’t leave room for responsiveness.

Community engagement must be early enough in the process to allow for stakeholder input. If you know a component of a project is a perfect fit for the community, engage them in a way that allows them to “discover” that component as a solution. People always love to support their own ideas.

Of course, the most important part is presenting a project that is valuable to the target community. Once you’ve identified the value, there are many different techniques and strategies to communicate it effectively. However, you only get one shot at a first impression, which is why it’s always best to call on the communications experts for support.

Julie Wright is President + Founder at (W)right On Communications. We help organizations communicate clearly, engage stakeholders early and build the credibility needed to move important initiatives forward. Let’s talk about building trust with your stakeholders: (858) 886-7900 or info@wrightoncomm.com.