Knowing the Strategic Communications Objective

There are four basic types of strategic communications objectives: output, process, outtake, and outcome.

An output objective is essentially a number: How many pages did you get published? How many column inches? How many times did you tweet? How many news releases did you send out? These objectives focus on organizational activity, but they don't take into account the effects of that activity.

A process objective is essentially the end result of actions you take to inform, educate, show, and explain something. If you want someone to write a news release (the end result), you have to explain that person needs to carve out time on their calendar, conduct research on the topic, and write and edit the news release.

An outtake objective is an objective where you want to change somebody's mind about something. It's a persuasive objective. Your audience might not like vegetables now, but if it knew know how tasty vegetables can be in certain dishes, or how nutritious, it might develop a fondness for them.

An outcome objective is where you want to change somebody's behavior: You want to convince them to eat vegetables, stop smoking, or go vote.  

Now that you've learned about the four types of communications objectives, test your knowledge.

Your organization is working to raise seatbelt awareness and use among young adults. Determine whether the following objectives are output, process, outtake, or outcome.

Check Your Knowledge

Your organization is working to raise seatbelt awareness and use among young adults. Look at the following objectives and determine whether each one is output, process, outtake, or outcome.
Question 1

Get young adults to wear a seatbelt.

output

process

outtake

outcome

Question 2

Publish five articles per month every month on the importance of wearing seatbelts.

output

process

outtake

outcome

Question 3

Get young adults to recognize that wearing seatbelts is important.

output

process

outtake

outcome

Question 4

Develop a graphic to illustrate the importance of seatbelt use.

output

process

outtake

outcome