Crisis Communications Planning: Q4 Use It or Lose It

By Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC

If you operate on a fiscal budget calendar, May can be a great time for your crisis communications planning.

Some of you are at the end of your budget year with surplus dollars that need to be spent. It is your “use it or lose it” time of year. Think of it as budget year Christmas.

Before those dollars get taken away, here are some affordable ways to invest in your future.

1. Conduct a Vulnerability Assessment
2. Write your Crisis Communications Plan
3. Write a library of pre-written news releases
4. Conduct media training for your spokespeople
5. Conduct a crisis communications drill

These are the 5 Steps to Effective Crisis Communications. They can be done in any order. The important thing is to pick one, rather than put it off until a more perfect time.

If you want a deeper dive, sign up for my free 5-part video series on The Five Steps to Effective Crisis Communications using this link. Think of it as a “Budget Christmas” present from me to you.

Plus, as an added bonus, when you watch this 5-part series, you’ll be given a chance to schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation with me. It is our private time to help you take your next step toward having an effective crisis communications strategy.

Crisis communications and media training expert Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC is based in New Orleans. Organizations on five continents have relied on him to write their crisis communications plans and to train their spokespeople. He is the author of “Don’t Talk to the Media Until…”

More crisis communications articles:

Please Pick Me to be Your Media Trainer

The Biggest Lie in Crisis Communications

4 Steps Every Company Needs to Take in Order to Avoid the Default Spokesperson