TL;DR
- Integrated communications won’t happen through checklists—it happens through momentum.
- Asking “what’s next?” helps you design journeys, not just deliverables.
- It surfaces audience gaps, aligns teams, and shifts your strategy from output-focused to outcome-driven.
- This mindset breaks silos, connects content across the PESO Model, and puts audience movement at the center.
- Embedding this question into briefs, meetings, and dashboards turns activity into intentional progress.
- When “what’s next?” is your guiding question, PESO becomes a system, not just a set of tactics.
One Question For Your Integrated Communications Strategy
There’s one question I ask probably more than any other when I’m working with a client, helping them build out their PESO Model© program. It’s simple, it’s powerful, and it’s probably something you wouldn’t expect.
“What’s next?”
In fact, I ask it so often that Gini Dietrich affectionately says I sound like a toddler. You know the kind; the one who keeps asking, “Why? Why? Why?” until you finally give in and say, “Because I said so!”
And every time she says it, I can’t help but think of that old YMCA commercial from the ’90s. There’s this small child running around the house asking his parents, “Why?” over and over again. The parents are confused and frustrated, unsure how to answer all the toddler’s questions. But the twist at the end reveals he wasn’t asking “why” at all. He was saying “Y” as in YMCA. The screen fades to black with the words: “Maybe it’s not a question.”
That line sticks with me because when I ask “What’s next?” with a client, it’s not always a question. Sometimes, it’s a gentle challenge or a reminder, and it can be the key to unlocking some amazing thinking and a mindset shift.
The truth is that too many organizations are still using the PESO Model like a checklist. Blog? Check. Social post? Check. Media hit? Check. Boosted post? Check. But they’re not thinking about how those pieces work together, and often they’re not thinking about the customer journey.
That’s where “what’s next?” changes everything.
Integrated Communications Starts With a Question
Integration doesn’t happen because you wrote a blog post, landed a media hit, posted to Instagram, and ran a few ads. That’s activity, and those are tactics. Integration happens when those pieces build on each other, reinforce the same message, and move your audience forward with intention. And that kind of movement starts when you ask…you guessed it:
What’s next?
When you build an integrated PESO program, every piece should be part of a larger journey. Asking “what’s next?” pushes you to think not just about individual content or channel wins, but about the role each element plays in the bigger picture.
You start to see that a piece of owned content isn’t finished when it’s published, it’s a launchpad to the next step. And a national media hit isn’t just an earned media score, it’s fuel for credibility across your channels. And a shared media post isn’t just a moment for engagement, it’s a bridge to deeper experiences, while a paid activation isn’t just exposure but an accelerant that can extend the reach or nudge someone to take action.
Asking “what’s next?” connects the dots between awareness and engagement and between visibility and conversion. It forces collaboration and shifts your team from producing isolated content to designing movement. When everyone is asking “what’s next,” the silos start to come down.
Know the Journey So You Can Guide It
Leveraging the “what’s next?” mindset works best when you have a sense of where your audience is, what they need, and where they’re trying to go. It may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how often this part is skipped. Many times, teams create content because it aligns with a theme or a calendar, or campaigns are launched for new products, but we don’t always pause to ask, “Where is our audience right now, and what do they need next?”
That’s why mapping, even loosely, the stages of your audience journey is important. It doesn’t need to be perfect; it just needs to help you see patterns through each stage, from awareness to consideration, to conversion, and finally, advocacy.
Talk to your sales teams, look at your analytics, or even ask your audience directly. The goal isn’t to build a perfect map; it’s to build just enough clarity to stop creating in a vacuum. For each stage, you should have a rough sense of:
- What your audience is thinking or feeling
- What questions do they have
- What actions they’re considering
- What’s standing in their way
When you start there, your “what’s next?” thinking becomes more effective. You’re no longer guessing what content to make or which channel to use; you’re responding to real needs and guiding your audiences step by step.
Moving from Tactics to Strategy
I’ve worked with some of the most amazing digital content strategists, earned media professionals, social media specialists, paid media experts, and others. Truly talented people. But an ongoing challenge persists—breaking out of their silo and thinking about the bigger picture.
When we ask, “What’s next?”, we’re forcing ourselves to think through the flow, not the tactic. We’re connecting dots, aligning teams, and making the shift from channel-first to audience-first.
Let’s say you’ve published a high-value blog post. It’s got insight from your subject matter experts, creativity to drive engagement, takeaways to be useful to key audiences, and fantastic connections back to the brand. That’s great, but what’s next?
Do we share it on LinkedIn with a strong point of view? Maybe we can create a short video version for Instagram? How about we turn it into a resource we link to from a media pitch? Or maybe we boost it to a specific audience we’re nurturing? All of these might be great next steps, depending on your campaign and specific situation. More importantly, what do we want the audience to do next? Are we sending them to a related piece of content, a webinar registration, a lead magnet, a product page, an email signup, or something else?
If we don’t ask, we won’t know. And if we don’t know, we’re just creating content for content’s sake. That’s how disconnected tactics happen, how we lose customers halfway down the funnel, and how we end up with seemingly random pieces of content scattered across channels.
Follow the Customer, Not the Calendar
One of the most important shifts “what’s next?” prompts is the move from planning by deadline to planning by intention. It pulls us out of the trap of content calendars and publishing rhythms, and refocuses us on the actual people we’re trying to reach.
Great integrated communications plans don’t just address what we want to say as a brand; they look at what the key audiences need at every stage of their journey to becoming customers, advocates, or subscribers.
When we ask “what’s next?” from their perspective, we stop thinking in terms of deliverables and start thinking in terms the customer journey. Each point in the journey demands a different kind of message, and a different kind of nudge, and asking the right questions can help you figure out what that is.
And there’s an added bonus. Asking “what’s next?” doesn’t just guide your content, it helps you spot the gaps in your journey. It shows you where you’ve created awareness but haven’t given people a way to engage, and it shows you where you’re driving traffic, but not helping visitors take the next meaningful step.
Thinking in Journeys, Not Endpoints
You’ve gotten someone to convert, so your job is done, and it’s time to move on to the next audience, right? Definitely not.
One of the most important mindset shifts this question encourages is understanding that conversion isn’t the end of the line. It’s just one stop along a much longer journey. Whether it’s a webinar registration, a newsletter sign-up, or a purchase, that moment shouldn’t be treated as a finish line, it’s simply a new starting point.
Every brand needs advocates and supporters, and our goal is to foster deeper relationships with our audiences. So, if we want to build long-term value from our integrated communications efforts, we have to keep asking “what’s next?” long after someone says yes.
For example, consider a scenario where someone reads a blog post about industry trends, downloads a related white paper, attends a webinar on the topic, engages with a sales rep, becomes a customer, and eventually refers a peer or writes a review.
That flow didn’t happen by accident; it happened because someone at each stage was thinking ahead to what’s next! They understood that each interaction is part of a broader experience.
Ultimately, thinking in journeys, not endpoints, helps us build integrated communications programs that are more than a series of deliverables. They become trust and relationship engines, designed to grow, evolve, and deliver value long after the initial campaign is complete.
Spotting the Symptoms of “What’s Next?” Avoidance
If thinking in journeys helps us see integrated communications as a series of connected steps, then asking “what’s next?” is what keeps those steps aligned.
But the thing is that it’s easy to skip this question without realizing it. When we’re under pressure to launch a campaign, publish the next piece of content, or show results, the temptation is to focus on output and not worry about the bigger picture.
Especially as leaders, we have a tendency to move fast, check boxes, and assume progress is being made because things are happening. As I’m sure we’ve all experienced, momentum and output don’t always mean results.
Sometimes, the real red flags of a disconnection campaign aren’t glaring mistakes. They are often subtle signs that your strategy has stalled, or was never fully integrated in the first place.
You might start to notice things like:
- A sense of “now what?” after something goes live
- Teams handing off work without context or coordination
- Channels operating independently, with little crossover
- Reports that lack metrics around movement or action
- Audiences who engage with content but rarely take the next step
These are the indicators of “what’s next?” avoidance. None of us ever sets out to build disconnected campaigns, but without a shared mindset around focusing on the customer journey, even the best teams can fall into this trap.
So, what’s next?
You know I had to ask that question, but it fits! Let’s talk about what to do now that we know what to look for and why asking this question is so important.
Making “What’s Next?” Part of How You Work
It’s clear that asking “what’s next?” isn’t just a clever prompt, it’s a way of thinking. But to see the results, it needs to show up in the way we work, plan, and lead. You don’t have to tear up your strategy and start from scratch, you just need to make space for this question to become part of your team’s rhythm.
When that happens, something powerful shifts. You find yourself thinking in terms of direction, not just deliverables. Here are a few ways to start embedding “what’s next?” into your everyday workflows:
- Add it to your briefs. Whether it’s a content outline, a media pitch, or a campaign strategy, include a simple prompt: What’s next for the audience after they engage with this?
- Make it a standard meeting question. In brainstorms, planning sessions, or analytics reviews, ask, What happens next? Who owns it? How does it connect to the rest of the journey?
- Use it to strengthen retrospectives. After a campaign wraps, don’t just measure success; look for drop-offs. Where did momentum stall? Where was the next step unclear or missing entirely?
- Build it into your dashboards. When reporting on performance, connect the data to action. Instead of just showing what happened, highlight what you want the audience to do next and whether they did.
- Map your content ecosystems. For every core asset or campaign, trace the paths forward. How does this content move someone closer to awareness, engagement, conversion, or advocacy?
I was talking about this with someone recently, and they had a brilliant idea—adding a “Next Step” column to their content calendar. It didn’t require a new system or tool, just a mindset shift and a reminder to ask the question.
That small change can spark deeper conversations, clearer sequencing, and stronger results. Suddenly, your calendar isn’t just filled with content to publish, but with connected movements across the customer journey.
A Shift in Thinking That Changes Everything
There’s a moment in every integrated communications strategy when the conversation moves beyond deliverables, posts, and placements and starts to focus on movement. That’s the moment “what’s next?” creates.
This question isn’t just a planning tool or a performance check; it’s a mindset shift that changes what you prioritize. And that’s what sets powerful programs apart.
We’ve talked a lot about how the PESO Model is your marketing operating system. Using “what’s next?” helps that system work.
The last thing any of us needs is more boxes to check. But we do need to embrace a system and strategy that connects across media types, channels, and moments, and meets audiences where they are to guide them forward with intention.
That’s what “what’s next?” unlocks.
So ask it in your next meeting, when you write a brief, before you launch the campaign, and after the results come in.
Let the answer lead you to something greater that provides more clarity, more alignment, and better results.
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