The end of the year is often thought of as a time for reflection — and getting things done.

As you close out the year and get revved up for 2012, check out some of our top tools and templates. In the last year, your CEC internal communications peers have been using these guides to do their jobs faster and more effectively.

You can also check out our top external tools.

CEC’s Top Four Internal Communications Tools

1. How to Conduct Focus Groups

• What it is: This three step process will show you how to effectively run focus groups to test planned campaigns and gauge audience perceptions on communication strategies.
• Why it’s cool: Focus groups can be a highly effective listening tool to understand audiences, but are usually the domain of market researchers or vendors who charge a lot for something you can do yourself. Read More »

Every year, we survey our members to understand not only their budget and staffing levels but also their resource allocation choices.  Many thanks to the scores of member organizations who participated!  The results can be revealing as to executive priorities, especially when you look at them over time.

Three observations stand out in particular:

1. After a sharp decline in 2009, Communications budgets as a percent of company revenue are largely back to pre-recession levels.  This suggests long-term stability in terms of Communications’ role.  Survey respondents in 2011 were less optimistic about next year’s budget level than in prior years, likely due to concerns about near-term company growth. Read More »

We have just released our annual 2011 Aggregate Benchmarking Report highlighting the key communications budget trends for 2011/2012. In my previous blog, I highlighted the growing importance of staff in communications budgets; but there is another interesting trend that we found from our data: Companies are decoupling their communications and marketing departments’ budgets.

While in 2007, 33 percent of communicators reported that their communications department’s budget was part of the marketing budget, this percentage fell to 21 in 2011. In addition, the share of marketing related expenses in communicators’ non-staff budgets also fell by 10 percent between 2007 and 2011. Read More »

We have just released the Executive Summary of our 2011 Resource Allocation Benchmarking Survey findings highlighting the key communications budget trends for 2011/2012. The budget data collected from our members revealed some very interesting findings that every communicator should take into account when planning for 2012.

In 2011, many communicators saw their budget growth rates drop close to zero as their companies’ revenues stagnated. However, despite slower budget growth, communicators finally saw their budgets recover to the pre-2008 levels when looking at communications budget as a percentage of total revenue.  More interestingly, despite stagnating budgets, communicators across all company revenue bands continued increasing their staff levels at an even faster rate than last year. Read More »

For many communications teams, the start of the fall season marks the beginning of the budgeting and planning process. The heads of the function face a difficult challenge: How do I allocate my scarce resources among a myriad of communications activities in order to maximize my function’s effectiveness? For the eighth year in the row, CEC conducted our annual membership Resource Allocation Benchmarking Survey to allow our members to uncover how others are tackling this perpetual challenge.

For the past couple weeks, CEC has been rigorously analyzing detailed budget data submitted by our members as part of the 2011 Resource Allocation Benchmarking Survey.  The aggregate report will be available in two weeks, but already we are very intrigued by some of the interesting trends that are emerging this year.  We want to give you a sneak peek into some of the ones that we have uncovered so far.

Trend 1: Heads of the Communications function are less optimistic about their expected 2012 budgets than they were last year. While in 2010, 54 percent of members companies expected increases in their 2011 budgets, the increase materialized for only 41 percent of them. On the other hand, though only 13 percent expected their budget to decrease in 2011, 34 percent of companies saw their budgets getting cut. As a result, many member companies have been less optimistic in their 2012 expectations with only 41 percent expecting their 2012 budget to go up and 41 percent expecting no change at all.  Read More »

One of the most unique advantages of CEC membership is the ability to participate in the Resource Allocation Benchmarking survey. The annual survey allows members, who fill out the survey, to take a peek into hard-to-find budget allocation data of their peers and see how their budget stacks up compared to similarly structured and sized corporate communication departments of their industry and even geography.

In the past, our members successfully used the information harnessed from their participation to:

• Defend their budget
• Identify specific areas for reallocation
• Refine the scope and type of their communications’ activities
• See how their department’s organizational and reporting structures compared to their peers

This week, CEC is launching the seventh annual round of the Resource Allocation Benchmarking Survey. We strongly encourage all our members to participate. Each participant receives a customized report that enables you to compare your budget and staff resources and allocation to your peers. CEC also provides you with a walk-through of your results and guidance on how to consider reallocating resources. In addition, you get access to the 2011 benchmarking insight report and to the online benchmarking tool (CEC members can access last year’s version here).  This tool allows participants to custom benchmark themselves against other companies’ data by industry, geography, business model, and many more! Read More »

According to CEC’s 2010 Resource Allocation Benchmarking survey, most communicators anticipate budget increases in 2011.  While the average department will experience only a modest increase (just over 4%), this stands in marked contrast to the flat budgets communicators were forecasting last year for 2010 and the greater-than-10% cuts they experienced in 2009.   You may remember this image from our CEC Insider post last week:

So where should that money go?  Human nature prompts us to restore what we so recently cut, to regain what we used to have.  I know that’s my temptation, if I can increase my budget next year!

Looking over the 2007-2010 time period, our surveys show that corporate advertising and corporate social responsibility programs were cut disproportionately.  Some areas, like government relations and the corporate intranet, actually saw budgets increases despite overall communication budget declines.  So, will 2011 be a year for CSR programs and corporate advertising to bounce back?  Should it be? Read More »

I live at the epicenter of American politics just blocks east of the U.S. Capitol.  The Statue of Freedom that adorns the Capitol dome scrutinizes my morning commute.  As I scurry toward the Metro that will take me the enclave of the private sector for the day, she reminds me of the role and influence of government in our lives.

That influence is growing.  Don’t take my word for it or the collective voices of the masses that have coalesced in DC for various rallies and protests this past year.  Take instead the cold hard facts of the corporate communications budget.

In 2010 Communications’ government relations budgets increased by 7%, the largest shift in Communications budgets according to CEC’s annual Resource Allocation Benchmarking Survey.  CEC members can view the full survey on the website: 2010 Resource Allocation Benchmarks. Read More »

By Mike Wellman

Unlike some of the folks I work with, I feel like I’ve always been a “math” guy.  Numbers speak to me, motivate me, and make sense to me.  It’s one of the reasons my colleagues decided I would be a good fit for handling the day-to-day of our diagnostic and communications benchmarking efforts, and probably the reason I’ve been given the nickname “Dr. Frugal” by my family –hey, I love budgets, okay?  Before you start commenting and calling me names like “philistine,” “Hamlet hater” or “the great non-communicator,” hold on a moment.

After spending a fair amount of time with you communicators, I’ve become a convert and learned to appreciate the true power of words.  It’s IMPOSSIBLE to not appreciate the art of communications and how you’re able to move markets with a 5-minute message, let alone a 5-word message.  The pen is truly mightier than the sword, and it’s fascinating to hear stories about how a smart tagline, crystallized brand, or clear and personal strategy was ultimately responsible for a company’s success.  In my experience, there are three words that organizations can use, but often don’t, to effectively motivate their stakeholders to act.  I’ll give you a hint – it’s not “We’ve Got Booze,” “Want More Money?” or “Free CEC Insights.”  (Though that would be nice!)…. Read More »

Q: Why do we communicators crave true benchmarking data?

A. Lots of reasons!

• To understand how we compare to our peers
• To get a sense of trends facing our function
• To see where peers outsource activities to a vendor
• To understand what new activities we should be taking on
• To make a confident case to company leadership for more resources or different allocation (as Mike recently said—it can help us make the case for a little more R-E-S-P-E-C-T!”)
• To plan for 2011 (yikes—it’s coming way too fast!)

Read More »