A communication lead is the person responsible for planning and creating marketing and communications for a company. Communication for a business includes internal and external communications, such as emails, advertisements, manuals, letters, website content and other verbal and written forms of communication. The lead acts as the manager of all of the forms of communication.
One of the primary roles of a communication lead is to meet with the team leaders in each area or department of a company. Through these meetings, the lead works with the other team leaders to identify the communication needs of the department. The lead also evaluates existing communications for consistency and effectiveness. The lead suggests changes or tweaks to improve or replace the current communication strategy.
After these meetings, the lead then creates a plan for communication. The plan includes which communications need to be developed and created, the distribution of the communications and a timeline for distribution. The communication lead uses this plan as a guide for implementation.
For example, the lead may determine that an email marketing campaign needs to be developed. The lead will then work to hire a freelance copywriter to write the text for the email. He or she will also work with the in-house graphic designer to develop the layout of the email. The lead then overseas the work of the two professionals so that the text is placed in the design and the email is provided to the database manager for emailing out to the intended recipients.
A communication lead is also responsible for measuring the effectiveness of the communications the company sends out internally and externally. Based on tracking the results of each campaign, the lead then suggests and recommends changes, if any, in order to improve the effectiveness of the communication.
Branding and messaging are two other issues that the lead of communications deals with on an ongoing basis. He or she reviews all of the communication to ensure that the brand and messaging is consistent across the board.
Finally, the lead generally reports to the head of the company on all matters related to communication and marketing for the business. Communication is one of the departments of the company that deals with all of the different departments, such as sales, finance, production and more. This is why the communication lead meets with the heads of all of the different departments and reports the progress of communication efforts to the head of the company.