Montgomery college

Strategic Comms for a Nationally Ranked Community College

Award Winner
Surveyed 568
employees to improve internal communications

Developed a
year-long strategic communications plan

Provided regular,
on-call strategic communications counsel

Overview

Hatcher serves as Montgomery College’s strategic communications partner, supporting the marketing and communications team with thought leadership, internal communications, social media strategy, media outreach, crisis communications, and strategic communications planning. We help their team navigate an uncertain higher education landscape and communicate with key stakeholders, including elected officials, employer partners, and community members. At the beginning of our partnership, we conducted internal and external audience research to inform how they can enhance communications with employees and their communities.

Challenge

Montgomery College sought strategic communications support to help the college improve its reach and bolster its reputation as a top institution of higher education. The College also engaged Hatcher in developing research-informed strategies and tactics to strengthen internal communications with its staff and faculty.

Solution

To better understand the communications opportunities both with external and internal stakeholders, Hatcher engaged in robust research and discovery, which included a landscape analysis, an employee survey, focus groups, and stakeholder interviews.
We began with an audit of the College’s earned, owned, and shared media channels to better understand their current communications strategies and their effectiveness. We also conducted a competitor analysis of similar community colleges to see how Montgomery College’s communications efforts compared to their peers.
Another key component of this work was helping the College address opportunities to improve internal communications. Montgomery College employs over 3,600 people, including administrators, faculty and staff. We designed an online survey to understand employees’ communications preferences and identify opportunities to strengthen internal communications.
We collected 568 responses, representing the College’s diverse employee types and campus locations. We rounded out the research with in-depth focus groups and interviews with both internal and external stakeholders to gain deeper understanding into perceptions of College communications.
Hatcher used the findings from its audience research and discovery work to develop a year-long strategic communications plan. The plan includes integrated communications strategies in social media, owned content, media relations, and other key areas to strengthen the College’s thought leadership and positioning, better engage its community and partners, and streamline its internal communications. Hatcher continues to work closely with the College to implement the strategies in the plan.

During the research and planning period, Hatcher also provided regular strategic communications counsel to help the College navigate the changing higher education landscape, communicate important updates both internally and externally, and prepare for any future challenges that may arise.

Impact

Hatcher has become a trusted communications partner and strategic advisor to Montgomery College. Our research engaged more than 550 employees and several community partners to better understand the communications needs of the College’s audiences. We developed a year-long strategic communications plan, of which we continue to support the implementation. Specific activities include media strategy, thought leadership opportunities for the College president, a refresh of the College’s newsroom webpage, new collateral and campaigns to tell the College’s story, and ongoing counsel in navigating the current higher education landscape.

Next Case Study