When it comes to policy communications, navigating the data can be as crucial as the content itself. I often come across blogs and articles brimming with data, yet they miss the critical piece – context. Remember, content is king, but context is King Kong
Here’s an example from the solar industry. “Germany has installed over 100,000 residential battery storage systems.” Wow – you don’t say. But this prompts the question – so is that good?
Without context, data becomes a number, not a narrative. To use data effectively, we need to paint the bigger picture with trends, contrasts and comparisons.
Let’s look at it this way.
- “Germany’s market saw a 100% capacity increase in storage last year – a sun-powered leap forward!”
- “Five years ago, German battery storage only provided a fraction of electric cars – now, it’s enough for half the roads!”
- “The installed systems could fuel every car in Switzerland*.”
*I don’t know how many cars there are in Switzerland, but it’s probably quite a lot.
Next time you draft policy communications, don’t merely collect data, go that bit further and connect it. This is the creative part of policy communications.
Training? Go on – treat yourself and your staff
Give your readers insight and the benefit of concise writing which conveys ley policy messages.
At Formative Communications we help staff to be able to identify these critical ideas from their meetings and train teams on how to express these in clear, crisp writing. These are vital skills for your staff, your organisation, your industry.
Contact us at info@formativecoms.com for details of our in-person and online training programmes.
