Guide S 3 | Youthmobility.org

What are the benefits of having a Communication strategy?

When talking about youth mobility and youth work, communication strategies will allow you to attract your target group(s), define the main activities that will take place during the period covered by the communication strategy, and define how you are planning to reach aims and target groups in order to increase the number of people applying for youth mobility activities

This user guide will be very valuable to you because by the end you will…

Be able to see the bigger picture your communication strategy plays in reaching your goals and promoting your activities;
Familiarize yourself with key elements of communication strategies in order to reach your target group(s);
Have detail on tools that you can use while implementing your communication activities and tips&tricks on how to use them;
Be empowered to develop communication strategy of your organization by yourself and with your team.

The strategy can be adopted rather formal, informal, educational or funny, always depending on the needs of the program and the needs of the target groups that you want to reach, which will be explained later in the document.

When you draw out your overall strategy, you should keep in mind:

What is your message?
Where is it going?
Who needs it?
How will the aims going to be reached?
When shall the aim be reached?

When you decide which strategy, you want to adopt towards the target group(s), you will need to choose among different existing types of strategies:

Non differentiated strategy

Use of a single message for all target groups. Less expensive, but the least efficient way in terms of impact on the target group (too general, less flexible)

Differentiated strategy

Different kind of message depending on target group (more expensive, more efficient)

Concentrated strategy

This is an evolution compared to the differentiated strategy. Choose of one particular target group on which to concentrate your message. (offers a well-targeted message, but penalizes other target groups identified).

Since you are the ones that know your target group(s) the best and probably have more than just one target group in mind, the type of strategy that would be most effective would be the second option, differentiated strategy.

In this guide we will focus on this type of strategy, while at the end of this guide you can find specific communication strategies for some groups of young people who proved to be prone to take part in the mobility activities youth organizations are providing.