According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, vision is defined by "the act or power of seeing." However, it is also defined by "the act or power of imagination." While this term has several definitions, it is a word that all leaders should be guided by when considering the success of their business or organization.
In an article from thebalancecareers.com, the author states that true leaders have vision and that they share a dream and direction that other people want to share and follow. The leadership goes beyond your written organizational mission statement and your vision statement." In other words, actions make a lot more of a difference than words and following through with those words speak volumes to both those who work for your business or organization and how the public views it.
When considering all of this, I think of how I can contribute to the vision of the organization I volunteer at as their marketing director. Like the article, I think it is important for your organization to have a mission and vision statement but it is even more important that the words that make up those statements can be transformed into actions.
You have probably heard of the saying, "actions speak louder than words" and I think that is applicable to the vision of any business, especially for those leading those organizations. If a leader envisions something and acts upon, which then in turns strongly benefits the organization, that is a true testament to their leadership skills and vision for the success they want to reach.
As the marketing director for The Actor's Charitable Theatre, I have thought of what I can do to add to the vision for our organization. I have asked questions to help build the foundation for our vision, such as, "What problems have occurred within the past year or so, that we can prevent or fix to help better the organization in the future?" "Are there areas specifically in the organization's marketing that can be improved or adjusted?"
With these questions in mind, I have compiled a few objectives to help guide the vision we want to see take place for the organization. They include: to identify clear roles for every person on the marketing team, to ensure that all target audiences are being reached with every new event or production (i.e. adults, college students, children, etc), build relationships with businesses who could become potential sponsors for the organization, produce content through all means of communication (i.e. social media, emailing lists, website, etc.) that is both appealing and effective, while also researching new trends, and most importantly, to improve structure and transparency within the organization to ensure that every internal member in on the same page. In the next few paragraphs, I am going to explain these objective in further detail that you may could apply to your own organization's vision.
Identify Clear Roles
When working within a specific team, and in my case, a marketing team, I think it is extremely important that each person within the team has a clear role and are completely aware of the tasks they are responsible for. As the director of my team, I have a small group of people who collectively make up the marketing team. Within this group, we have a social media manager, an event planner, a PR assistant, and a photographer/videographer. While I still assist with all of these areas within the team, these are the areas in which each person specializes in, while also being versatile in the other areas of the team. Having a clear understanding of what you are responsible of doing to help contribute to the vision of the organization is crucial and that starts with the role you are taking over.
Know Your Target Audience(s)
I think it is pretty safe to say that knowing your target audience is an important factor shared by all communication professionals. When it comes to an arts organization such as The Actor's Charitable Theatre, we can have different target audiences throughout the span of our seasons. For example, one production may be geared more towards the adults age group, while another may be geared more towards the children's age group. However, this is mostly when it comes to marketing auditions and participation within a production versus marketing a production to the public with the intention to increase ticket sales. Age groups is also an important factor to consider when determining how to convey a message through different mediums.
Building Relationships With Businesses
This objective is probably one of the most important because building relationships with businesses can turn into possible sponsorships and when it comes to any organization within the arts industry, funding is not easy to come by. It is important that your organization is not just holding out a hand waiting for someone to give you money. You have to initiate it by building trust with those businesses and reciprocating the support that you are expecting from them.
Producing Appealing and Effective Content
Whether it be an email, a social media post, or even a blog post like this one, delivering content only works if it is appealing and effective and this plays in part with the previous objective of knowing your target audience. Even small factors such as what time your online audiences are engaging in your posts is also very important when producing content. For example, you wouldn't schedule a post for ten o'clock at night if your audience was made up mostly elderly people because they will most likely be asleep by that time.
Transparency Should Start Internally
I think this objective is the most important because you cannot expect clear and transparent communication to be delivered to the public if you do not have clear and transparent communication within your organization. This objective could also relate back to the first objective of identifying roles because it allows those who make up your organization internally to better understand the initiative and goals you are wanting to reach. Constant communication within your business or organization is crucial to its success and well-being.
Creating vision for your organization opens up more room for engagement and inspiration both internally and externally. If you have a vision, then it is apparent you care strongly for the success of your organization.
Do you hold a leadership position? Have you set a vision for your organization or business? Do the objectives above help you form your own objectives? I would love to hear your feedback, so leave a comment below!
If you have gotten this far, thanks for checking out my 'column!' Come back next week for a new post!
-CC
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