Stop Adding Spokes. Start Connecting Them: Why cohesive communication matters


Written By: Stacy Yates, Kate & Steele
Stacy Yates is a fractional Chief Communications Officer and founder of Kate & Steele, a communications boutique for businesses that are ready to stop piecing it together and start communicating with intention. With nearly 20 years of experience, she partners with organizations to build cohesive, integrated strategies that align their message across every channel, elevating their brand and empowering them to reach their audience with clarity and purpose.

What “Communications” Actually Means in Your Business

When you ask business owners what "communications" means within their business, you're likely to get a wide range of answers. Some think in terms of functions or disciplines: crisis communications, internal communications, external communications, community relations, investor relations, marketing, and advertising. Others think in terms of channels, or where communication actually shows up: social media, email, earned media, paid media, websites, and direct mail. And then there are tactics. The actual pieces being produced: a press release, a newsletter, a social post, a blog, a billboard, an event. (Note: these lists aren't all-inclusive.)

And many use all of these words interchangeably. Which is exactly where things start to break down.

In reality, each function, channel, and tactic serves a specific role within a company's overall strategy. Depending on how it's used, or not used, it can make or break a business. Understanding each one's role has never mattered more in a world full of noise and endless ways to reach your audience.

Strategic communications set the direction. Cohesive integration ensures that every part of the strategy moves the business, the brand, and the message in the same direction. Without a strategy, communication lacks direction. Without integration, it lacks consistency and connection.

Why Disconnected Marketing Efforts Create Confusion

Many business owners end up hyper-focused on one area because they don't have time to oversee everything, or they've hired specialists for certain functions but can't coordinate all of them effectively.

Take social media, for example. It’s free, widely used, and something most business owners know they need. So, you post once a day, stay authentic, and try a few trending videos. Or you bring in a social media manager to capture content and keep the feed active. A great start. Consistency was the goal, and now it's happening!

But what often happens next is that social media starts to grow while the website or newsletter stagnates. Outdated information, inconsistent messaging, silence in places that matter. The momentum in one area quietly undermines credibility in others. And sometimes it starts to drift from the core brand identity altogether.

Your audience feels that. Even if they can't immediately explain why.

Businesses today are under constant pressure to do more. More social media. More email. More PR. More ads. More content. More visibility. And with new tools and quick-fix solutions constantly emerging, it seems easier than ever to try and piece it all together.

Owners manage this by doing it themselves, delegating to the employee who's "good with tech," or hiring separate specialists. You might have a social media manager handling content, a graphic designer refining visuals, a sales consultant generating leads, a web developer making updates, and an ad agency managing campaigns. Each one is doing solid work. But if no one is looking at the bigger picture and sharing the central vision, the message begins to drift, and tactics get executed that don't serve the business goals.

When each piece is developed from a different angle with no intentional monitoring of the whole, the clarity of who you are and who you serve gets lost. What's left is just noise.

How Integrated Communications Strengthen Your Brand

Think of it like a wheel on a car. The functions (public relations, crisis communications, community relations), the channels (social media, email marketing, earned media, paid advertising), and the tactics (a post, a press release, a newsletter, an event) are all spokes. 

Spokes are designed to work under tension to keep the rim round and support the load.

But not every business needs every spoke. They need the right spokes for where they are and where they're going. And whichever spokes are in place or not, only work when they're all connected to the central strategy, the center bore, that keeps every part of the business moving in the same direction with one cohesive holding it all together.

When that central piece is missing or if there aren’t enough spokes or even too many, fragmentation sets in. Social media sounds one way. The website says something else. Public messaging takes a different angle. The newsletter doesn't quite match the rest. The business looks active, but the message is scattered, and key pieces are missing altogether.

As business owners, it's easy to chase the next trend or shiny object. A new platform emerges. A competitor tries something different. A content style takes off. Suddenly, a new spoke is added for whatever feels urgent in the moment.

A wheel with too few spokes, or the wrong ones, won't roll properly. And it won't move the car forward.

Business owners don't just need more activity. They must identify the right spokes for their business, protect the message, and ensure every outward-facing effort works together rather than pulling in different directions.

Integrated communications create consistency across every touchpoint, keeping all efforts aligned with the central strategy. It ensures that what's said in an interview matches what's on the website, what shows up on social media, what's written in the newsletter, and what customers experience from the brand as a whole. And it makes sure the right pieces are in place, not just any pieces.

Because every touchpoint says something. The question is whether it's moving you forward.

Look back at the last 30 days.

• What are your spokes?

• Are some missing, or do you have too many?

• Are they all conveying the same story about who you are, who you serve, and what you stand for?



The businesses that stand out aren't always the ones doing the most. They're the ones communicating the clearest, with every spoke intentionally in place, connected at the center, pointing them in the same direction.