Communication

Strategies

Communication Strategies
Description

Required Activity

Communication strategies are plans for communicating information related to a specific issue, event,
situation, or audience. They serve as the blueprints
for communicating with the public, stakeholders, or
even colleagues.

No.

Communication strategies should:

outline the objective/goals of the communication,

identify stakeholders,
define key messages,
pinpoint potential communication methods and
vehicles for communicating information for a
specific purpose, and
specify the mechanisms that will be used to
obtain feedback on the strategy.

Communication strategies do not have to be

formal written documents. They can simply
involve taking the time to think about a communication problem or issue and determining the best
approach for communicating the message or
information. Such an approach is especially true
for simple issues that need to be conveyed about
low-risk sites that have not generated a high level
of public concern. However, at sites with high
levels of public concern or site cleanup issues that
are expected to be controversial, a more formal
written strategy may be needed to ensure that all
stakeholders are reached and all key messages
are communicated effectively.
Communication strategies are different from
Community Involvement Plans (CIPs), which are
required under the National Contingency Plan. A
CIP is a site-specific overall plan to enable meaningful community involvement throughout the
Superfund cleanup process. A communication
strategy can be one component of a CIP, but it
addresses a specific event, issue, or concern, such
as an emergency response to a release, or communicating risk at a site. The CIP, on the other hand,
describes an overall strategy for conveying and
receiving information throughout the cleanup
process at a site.

Making it Work
When significant events or issues arise, a communication strategy can help organize the information
that needs to be communicated, identify concerns
that may be raised, and ensure the proper audiences are reached.

Why
The first step toward developing a communication
strategy is to determine the reason why the communication is necessary and defining the desired
objectives. You, as the Community Involvement
Coordinator (CIC), should ask yourself, What is
the issue to which EPA is responding? or What is
the action that EPA is taking that warrants development of a communication strategy? before determining the need for the communication. CICs
should then ask themselves, What do we want to
accomplish by communicating this information?
Objectives may include:

providing information;
increasing awareness;
encouraging action;
building consensus;
changing behavior;
promoting community participation;
resolving conflict, or
asking for input.

Who
Once your reason for communicating is determined,
you can focus on defining the audiences you need
to reach and how you want to reach them. Ask
yourself the following questions:

Who is involved, affected, interested?

Is there an obvious audience?
Are there others who may be affected?
Are there traditionally underrepresented groups
that need to be reached?
1

Communication Strategies

What information does each stakeholder already

have?
What information does each stakeholder need?
What are their concerns?
How is each stakeholder likely to react?

Keep in mind that the demographics, knowledge,

and concerns of your audiences play an important
role in determining the key messages.

message will increase if the same message is

distributed several times and via multiple methods.
Keep in mind you may have different communication goals and therefore may need to use different
communication tools for different groups of people.
Delivery methods can include:

What

Once the previous steps are complete, you may

schedule a meeting with the site RPM or OSC and
other members of the site team to discuss the
communication challenges facing them. This
discussion could involve coordinating with all Site
Team members about community involvement goals
and objectives and might involve brainstorming and
prioritizing potential messages. Focus on two or
three key messages and rank them by importance,
timeliness, or other factors. It is possible that you
have key messages that are only constructed for
one or two of your identified audiences.

How
Once you have identified your key messages, you
need to determine the vehicle for delivering your
messages. Keep in mind that you may choose
different mechanisms to meet different stakeholder
needs. Here are a few options:

Availability session/open house

Celebrations/special events
Electronic media, including email, e.g., list serves
or website
Face-to-face meetings with key stakeholders
Focus groups
Media, including cable TV, display ads, news
releases, and press conference
On-scene activities
Public hearings
Public meetings
Public or private schools
Social media tools, e.g., YouTube, Facebook,
Twitter
Workshops

As a CIC, you should be able to determine how you

want to deliver your message to produce the best
results. Note that the reach and impact of your
2

Briefings
Exhibits
Fact Sheets
Internet
Mailings
Presentations
Public notices
Responsiveness summaries
Telephone
Translation of documents into other languages
spoken by community members
Videos

Example 1: Opportunity for Public Review

and Comment of Proposed Plan
One CIC faced the challenge of informing
stakeholders about an opportunity to
review and comment on the proposed
cleanup plan. After identifying the message and the audience, the CIC decided to
hold a public meeting to announce the
opportunity and to invite interested parties
to a public participation workshop. By
holding the public meeting at a library on
a Saturday afternoon, he captured a wider
audience than if he had held it during a
weeknight. He then identified participants
to attend a workshop for the following
Saturday. The workshop included information about: 1) requirements for public
review of and comment on site activities; 2)
documents supporting the proposed plan,
and how the proposed plan is organized;
and 3) how citizens can maximize their
contributions. A workshop handout
offered step-by-step instructions for
reviewing the site information (including
what to look for) and for filing comments.
The result: more than half of the workshop
attendees submitted comments on the
proposed cleanup plan.

Communication Strategies

Delivering Your Message

In assessing your total communication strategy, ask
yourself, What resources are readily available to
me to communicate my message? Once you have
identified your needs and resources, review potential constraints you might face and develop strategies for overcoming these challenges. Determine
when the communication will be best received.
Determining the best timing involves thinking about
whether your audiences prefer to be reached on
weekdays or weekends, mornings or evenings, at
work, or at home. Keep in mind that community
demographics play an important role in determining
the best methods for message delivery. Older
populations or communities in remote locations may
not be comfortable with or have access to the
Internet, and some ethnic groups may prefer radio
or a community newspaper to television as a news
source. Build in time for producing materials and
advance notice of events.
Media
The media can play an important role in the communication process. Therefore, if your communication strategy includes use of the media to convey
your message, you should work closely with your
regional site press officer to ensure that the local
media has the most important and accurate information about the issue or event that you want to
communicate to your audience. Know the media
deadlines in advance and take these into consideration when timing your communication.
Budget Considerations
Many of the best communication strategies also are
the most cost-effective, but sometimes a communication strategy will require communication methods
that take considerable resources. Therefore, it is
important for CICs to know the resources that are
available to them and to take possible resource
limitations into consideration when developing the
communication strategy. While simple word-ofmouth information exchanges can be free and
effective for communicating some messages, you
may determine that your message will be more
effectively delivered via a vehicle that will require
resources. For example, while holding a televised
press event or a press conference may be much
more resource-intensive, it may end up being the

Example 2: Deletion of the site from the NPL

At a Superfund site where the cleanup was
completed, enabling site deletion from the
NPL, the CIC crafted one final communication strategy. First, she recognized that
her challenge was to reach a broad
audience. The CIC also realized that
communicating a deletion from the NPL
should include both State and regional
officials who could give the cleanup
success the attention it deserved by holding news conferences or communicating
with their elected representatives. The
successful site cleanup was primarily due
to community partnerships and an important technological advancement developed
at the site that cut cleanup time by 50%
these became the focus of her message.
Once she had considered her audience
and framed the message, she reviewed the
many delivery vehicles available to her.
She decided that delivering the message
via network/cable television or a frontpage newspaper article would garner the
high visibility communication that the story
warranted. By pushing the technological
angle, her messages got front-page coverage in the major city newspaper, and were
picked up by the local television station.

more effective strategy if television coverage is the

preferred medium for conveying your message.
Similarly, you may determine that you cannot rely
on e-mail to notify stakeholders of an upcoming
event, and will have to mail notices.
Feedback
When delivering your key messages, ensure your
messages are clearly communicated and have
integrity. Encourage your audience to provide
feedback after the message is delivered. This
feedback will help you to evaluate the implementation
of your strategy, its strengths and weaknesses, how it
can be improved, and how your strategy should be
revised to ensure continued effectiveness. Some
simple feedback methods include taking note of how
many people attended a public meeting; television
station viewership numbers during the time your story
3

Communication Strategies

ran; or how many hits there were on your website

news posting. Finally, review the feedback and
continue to refine your communication strategy in
response to the feedback you receive. Consider
following up, in a one-to-one fashion, with a few
members of the audience for their feedback.
Remember, you will develop several communication strategies during the Superfund cleanup
process. You may be able to develop some communication strategies in advance for milestones
and events that are known in advance, such as
announcing the public comment period for the
ROD or a construction completion. In other cases,
you may develop a more involved communication
strategy, such as for communicating risk, or you
may develop a communication strategy for unforeseen events, such as an unexpected release at the
site. In any case, the basic approach is similar:
outlining the issue and associated key messages,
defining the key stakeholders, pinpointing potential
communications vehicles or methods, considering
the resources available, and specifying feedback
mechanisms that allow you to monitor responses
to the messages,. Refine your strategy, if appropriate, and evaluate the effort. Keep in mind that the
Site Team should form a strong collaborative
relationship with people both inside and outside the
Agency to help the community identify contacts
who may be able to address community concerns
outside the scope of the Superfund program.

Tips

Your communication strategy should define the

most important ideas to communicate.
Consult with the sites Community Involvement
Plan (CIP) to help characterize the community,
including their needs, concerns, interests, and
expectations.
Work with your press office to develop and
implement the communication strategy, particularly at milestone events in the Superfund process.
Document successes and shortcomings to learn
how your strategy might be improved.
Revise your communication strategy if it is not
producing results.
Consult your communication strategy often to
remind yourself of your goals, messages, and
audiences
Consider adding formal communication strategies
as addendums to the sites CIP.

Attachments

Attachment 1Sample Communication

Strategies Worksheet
You may find it helpful to refer to this sample
worksheet when drafting your communication
strategy. We have used the information given in
Example 1: Opportunity for Public Review
and Comment of Proposed Plan (on page 2) to
fill in the sample worksheet.
Attachment 2Blank Communication
Strategies Worksheet

Other Resources

Communicating Understanding of Contaminated

Land RisksFinal Report, May 2010, Chapters
3, 4 and 5. Sniffer Project UKLQ13,
http://www.sniffer.org.uk/home/Default.aspx
This report is guidance for local authorities in
the UK in the development of site-specific risk
communication strategies in accordance with UK
environmental regulations. Topics explored
include timing of messages, media interaction,
perceptions of risk and contamination, simplifying science for citizens, and identifying stakeholders. Provided in the report are specific
recommendations for developing effective
communication strategies and practical guidance
on communicating about land contamination.
Sniffer Risk Communication Booklet: Communicating understanding of contaminated land risks, 2010.
This practical handbook was written for use
by Scottish and Northern Irish local authority
officers, environment agencies, consultants,
communication and health professionals,
developers, landowners, and other stakeholders. It was designed to be a convenient and
easy-to-use reference that complements the
Communicating Understanding of Contaminated Land Risks revised guidance (see
SNIFFER, May 2010), providing a comprehensive distillation of the ideas and tips
contained within the guidance in a format
that is more conducive to quick referencing.

Communication Strategies

Related Tools

Community Involvement Plans

Exhibits
Fact Sheets
Focus Groups
Informal Activities
Mailing List
Media
On-Site Activities
Presentations

Public Meetings
Public Availabilities/Poster Sessions
Public Notices
Responsiveness Summaries
Special Events
Translation Services
Videos
Workshops

Communication Strategies

Attachment 1: Sample Communication Strategies Worksheet

Section 1: Issue/Problem and Key messages
A.

Description of the issue/problem:

Release of the Proposed Plan at Site A for public comment

B.

The key messages to be communicated for this issue/problem:

Message 1:
Message 2:
Message 3:

The Proposed Plan for Site A has been released for public comment
We will be holding a public meeting to answer questions about the proposed plan
and comment process
At the public meeting you may sign up for a day-long workshop to guide you
through the public comment process

Section 2: Planning the Strategy: Audience and Communication Vehicle

Audience

Communication Vehicles

Key local and regional stakeholders

Public Notice; Select Media Vehicles

Community Advisory Group/Technical Advisory Group

Public Meeting; Workshop

Local community

Public Meeting; Workshop; Public Notice;

Select Media Vehicles

State/local government

Public Notice; Select Media Vehicle

Section 3: Implementation
Vehicle

Required Resources/Time

Workshop

Rent meeting room, prepare presentation materials, purchase and ship meeting
supplies, and prepare briefing materials

Public Notice

Draft notice and contact local newspapers

Public Meeting

Secure meeting room, prepare meeting announcement and agenda, rent

audiovisual equipment, prepare name badges, purchase and ship meeting
supplies, and prepare meeting evaluation

Select Media Vehicles Determine which media vehicles (television, radio, Internet and/or print) you
plan to use, make telephone calls to establish relationships with the media
outlets, write and distribute the news release or public service announcement,
and prepare handouts for the media.

Communication Strategies

Attachment 2: Blank Communication Strategies Worksheet

Section 1: Issue/Problem and Key messages
A.

Description of the issue/problem:

B.

The key messages to be communicated for this issue/problem:

Message 1:
Message 2:
Message 3:

Section 2: Planning the Strategy: Audience and Communication Vehicle

Audience

Communication Vehicles

Section 3: Implementation
Vehicle

Required Resources/Time