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How to Communicate Your Company’s Strategy Effectively

• David Lancefield

Ditch the lofty purpose statements and lengthy slide decks.

For too long, communicating strategy has been an afterthought. Executives have shared long, bombastic documents or withheld critical information and expected people to just “get it.” And it hasn’t worked. Greater external uncertainty, collaboration, employee anxiety, and organizational openness demands a change of approach. The author presents five actions that will improve the clarity and quality of communication, enabling stakeholders to make a more substantive and meaningful contribution to the strategy.

Most people can’t recall the strategy of the organization they work for. Even the executives and managers responsible for strategy struggle, with one study reporting that only 28% of them could list three strategic priorities.

• David Lancefield is a  catalyst, strategist, and coach  for leaders. He’s advised more than 40 CEOs and hundreds of executives, was a senior partner at Strategy&, and is a guest lecturer at the London Business School. Find him on LinkedIn (@davidclancefield) or at  davidlancefield.com , where you can sign up for his free “Mastering Big Moments”  workbook .

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How to Create a Communication Strategy [+ Free Templates]

Published: February 09, 2021

There are certain characteristics that should be at the core of any successful business. For instance, every business should have a great product or service, awesome employees to keep the internal engine running, and loyal customers who support through purchases and advocacy.

There also  has to be underlying elements to help establish the aforementioned characteristics. And one of the most necessary is clear and effective communication.

Communication is at the root of every interaction for businesses. Without transparent communication at every level, there's more room for error, and — depending on the magnitude of the error — it can make or break a business.

But, while 89% of people feel communication is extremely important  for work, 8 out of 10 people rate  their own business' communication as either average or poor.

Developing a communication strategy for your business will help you understand how your company best communicates, internally and externally, and can give you measurable results to better understand the efficacy of your communication tactics.

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In this post, we'll explain how to create a communication strategy and plan for your business to ensure efficient, cohesive communication with colleagues and customers alike.

What is a communication strategy?

A communication strategy is a process developed by the appropriate stakeholders to identify where communication efforts need to be improved. The next step in this process is to ideate and select measurable actions that will be used to develop a communication plan  to achieve your desired outcome.

How to Develop a Communication Strategy

• Use a Communication Plan template.
• Determine current and potential problems.
• Select key stakeholders who need to be involved.
• Understand your audience and what matters most to them.
• Brainstorm your ideal results, and then work backwards.

1. Use a communication plan template.

HubSpot's Communication Plan Templates are a great resource to help you develop actionable steps without having to spend too much of your time on this task.

Your communication plan  will clearly go through all of the steps you need to take to address the challenges you're up against — like completing an audit, setting SMART goals , and understanding how long each step in your plan will take. Depending on your overall strategy, you may develop multiple plans to be carried out to meet the needs of different audiences.

You'll want to break your plan into steps so you can easily make and measure progress on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Additionally, as you're creating your communications plan, you'll need to factor in a working timeline, potential budget, and ensure you're delegating tasks to the appropriate team members.

Over time, you want to be able to reflect on what changes have been made and if these changes are actively contributing to helping you achieve your ideal results.

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6-Step Guide to Crafting the Perfect Communication Plan

A communication plan is a key to developing an effective and consistent messaging strategy.

It helps guide the process of setting measurable goals for your strategy, profiling your target audience and creating and successfully delivering your message.

What is a Communication Plan

Components of a Communication Plan

Steps to communication planning, step 1 – perform a situation analysis, swot analysis, pest analysis, perceptual map, step 2 – identify and define objectives / goals, step 3 – understand and profile your key audience, step 4 – decide the media channels and create a strategy, step 5 – create a timetable for publishing, step 6 – monitor and evaluate the results, common mistakes to avoid when creating communications plans, faqs about communication plans, what’s your approach to writing a communication plan, what is a communication plan.

A communication plan outlines how teams can communicate important information to key stakeholders. It highlights what information should be shared, when, to which audience and via which channels.

Having a solid communication plan in place will help ensure that the communication objectives of your organization are met and that all assets that you send out are aligned with the core communications strategy of the company.

In marketing and public relations, communication plans are used to plan how important information about products and services will be communicated to target audiences, including customers, clients, media and the general public. Companies also use communication plans to maintain consistent and effective internal communications within the organization. These may include internal newsletters, intranet updates and team Wikis. In project management, communication plans are used to highlight how information will be communicated within teams and relevant stakeholders, throughout the lifecycle of the project. Overall, communications plans offer a structured approach to plan, implement and evaluate communication efforts to optimize the effectiveness of communications.

Use this communication plan template to develop your strategy and deploy it.

Why is a Communication Plan Essential?

Clear communication is the backbone of any successful initiative. A communication plan ensures that everyone is on the same page, reducing the risk of confusion, missed deadlines, and unmet expectations. It fosters trust, ensures transparency, and can be the difference between project success and failure.

Who Should Use a Communication Plan?

A communication plan isn’t just for large corporations or project managers. It’s for anyone aiming to streamline interactions, whether you’re a small business owner, a team leader, or an individual looking to improve personal projects. Understanding your audience and tailoring your communication strategy to them is the first step.

When Should You Implement a Communication Plan?

The best time to implement a communication plan is at the onset of a project or initiative. However, it’s never too late. Whether you’re starting a new project, revamping an old one, or looking to improve ongoing communications, a well-structured plan can make a difference.

Where Does a Communication Plan Apply?

While often associated with business projects, communication plans apply everywhere: from community events, educational programs, to personal projects. Any scenario that requires organized communication can benefit.

Your communications plan should include the following key elements.

1. Target Audience

Who is Your Target Audience? All strategic communications should be directed at a specific audience. Accordingly, the message you send out should be tailored to their level of knowledge, understanding and trust in your brand or organization.

What is the Context of Your Message? The next step is to define the context of your message. Identify key events that may be significant to the audience that you are aiming to reach. The context defines what should be included in the message and how your audience will relate and respond to it.

3. Outcomes

What Do You Aim to Achieve with Your Message? The outcome of your message is the ‘call to action’. Define what people need to know, believe and do after receiving the message. Create a ‘message pyramid’ with an attention grabbing headline, followed by ‘reasons why’ and proof points. This helps the audience understand your core message and then consider the proof points which are relevant to their context, and there by act based on your call-to-action.

Which Media Channels Will You Use? Media are the channels through which your message is communicated. These may vary depending on the content, context and audience of the message. For instance, if you want to reach a younger tech-savvy audience, you may choose a social media platform that may be popular among them.

5. Messengers

How Will You Choose Your Messengers? The primary messenger may not always be the most ‘effective’ messenger. The messenger’s ethos should resonate credibility, status and power, expertise and relationship.

Why do most companies get their CEOs or members of the senior management to conduct new product launches or convey important product information? It is because audiences tend to have confidence in people with big titles who have an influence in the organization. They are also experts in their subject area and have a strong relationship with the company.

6. Measurement

How Will You Measure Success? It is important to cultivate strategies to measure the effectiveness of your communications. Include KPIs for your communication activities and document the results. This also helps build a repository of information which will be useful when planning future communications activities.

Whether you are creating a marketing communication plan or a strategic communication plan, the following steps will help guide you.

Situation analysis helps assess the capabilities of and health of things in an organization. It’s the ideal way to understand the current status of your organization’s communication.

You can gather as much information as needed from conducting an audit .

To gather relevant information from situation analysis, you can consult departmental heads, process owners and other internal staff members.

In a situation analysis, you need to examine both the internal and external environments. To do so, you can use the following tools

You can use a SWOT analysis to examine the strengths and weaknesses within your organization, and opportunities and threats that you can find in your external environment.

With a PEST analysis , you can examine political, environmental, social and technological factors, all of which exist in the external environment of your organization, but can have a significant impact on the way things run in your business.

One good competitor analysis technique is the perceptual map. It helps you make sense of how your customers perceive the brands of your competitors in the market compared to yours.

Once you know where you stand, you can find your direction. The next step is to define your goals.

Think of what outcomes/results you want to achieve from your communication plan. These will become your goal/s as you develop your communication plan.

Make sure that the goals you select are SMART :

Who are you creating this communication plan for? Understanding your audience and their requirements, characteristics etc. is key to creating an effective message and delivering it successfully.

Your key audience could be within your organization or your customers. Either way, you should gather information on them and create simple audience personas.

These personas could include a variety of data that ranges from their age and gender to the challenges they face.

As you conduct research on your target audience you would get to know that their requirements and preferences are diverse.

It’s clear that you won’t be able to reach all of them through one media channel or retain their attention with one type of content.

Consider the most effective channels you can think of when creating your media channel strategy. Make sure to select the ideal channel when you are targeting different audience segments.

When do you want your audience to hear your message and how often? Have a content calendar or create a Gantt chart outlining a timeframe for your publishing strategy.

You may also need to take the resources available to you into consideration. If you have one content writer, publishing quality blog posts on a daily basis would be ineffective.

Constantly monitor and track your results in order to understand whether you are any closer to achieving your goals. If you have failed, proceed to mark it down so you can make necessary improvements next time.

Creating a communication plan for your non profit organization? Check out this resource for some great tips.

Overcomplicating the Plan

Trying to include too many channels or too much information may complicate the plan. This can lead to confusion and dilute the effectiveness of your messaging. Stick only to key messaging and channels that are most effective in reaching and engaging the target audience.

Not Considering the Timing

Timing is crucial in communication planning. It is important to consider the timing of the messaging and ensure that they are aligned with key events or milestones. Don’t send out important communications during periods of high volume or noise, such as during holidays or major news events.

Not Adapting to Changes

Communication plans should be adaptable and flexible to changes in environment or audience. It is important to regularly review and update plans to keep up with emerging trends (to make sure that your plan stays relevant and effective). Failing to adapt to changes may cause missed opportunities and ineffective messaging.

How often should a communications plan be updated?

A communications plan should be updated regularly to reflect changes in the organization’s goals, priorities, audiences, or external environment. The frequency of updates will depend on the pace of change in the organization and the industry. A good rule of thumb is to review the communications plan annually and update it as needed. However, if there are major changes in the organization, such as a merger, acquisition, or crisis, the communications plan should be updated immediately to ensure that communication is timely, accurate, and effective.

How can an organization measure the effectiveness of its communications plan?

An organization can measure the effectiveness of its communications plan by tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) related to its communication goals and objectives. These KPIs may include website traffic, social media engagement, email open rates, media coverage, customer satisfaction surveys, or sales figures. By tracking these KPIs over time, the organization can assess whether its communication activities are achieving the desired results and make adjustments as needed. It’s important to set realistic goals and benchmarks for each KPI and to ensure that the data is collected consistently and accurately. Additionally, feedback from stakeholders, such as customers, employees, and investors, can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of the organization’s communication activities.

A successful communication plan will get your message delivered across to your audience effectively while ensuring that you are on track to accomplishing your business objectives.

Follow the simple steps above to create a winning communication plan. If you have any other tips, do share them with us in the comment section below.

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Amanda Athuraliya is the communication specialist/content writer at Creately, online diagramming and collaboration tool. She is an avid reader, a budding writer and a passionate researcher who loves to write about all kinds of topics.

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Article • 8 min read

The Communication Strategy Framework

Planning how to communicate clearly.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

Nowadays, we communicate with others in many different ways.

For example, we can get our message across face to face, over the phone, by email or IM, or by video call or VoIP. We can also communicate with written reports, workshops, webinars, advertisements, presentations, and speeches.

However, to get the best results from our communications, we need to plan them effectively. Without careful thought and consideration, we can easily confuse our audience or fail to get our message across. This can undermine our credibility and effectiveness.

In this article, we'll look at the Communication Strategy Framework, a simple tool that you can use to organize your messages, remove possible communication barriers, and get the results that you want.

About the Model

Michael and Sandra Rouse developed the Communication Strategy Framework, and published it in their 2001 book, " Business Communications: A Cultural and Strategic Approach ." [1]

The framework guides you through the process of planning and organizing your messages, so that you can avoid communication barriers, increase understanding, and get the response that you want from your audience.

The Communication Strategy Framework consists of four elements that you should consider carefully as you organize and craft your message:

• Communicator strategy.
• Audience strategy.
• Channel strategy.
• Message strategy.

From "Business Communications: A Cultural and Strategic Approach" (pages 76-77) by Michael J. Rouse and Sandra Rouse. © 2001. Used with permission of Cengage Learning EMEA Ltd.

You can use the framework to plan many different types of communications, such as phone calls, reports, emails, and presentations.

Using the Framework

To use the Communication Strategy Framework, think carefully about each of the elements below. You can also download our worksheet to help with your planning.

1. Communicator Strategy

First, you need to think about yourself as the "communicator," or the sender of the message. Consider these questions:

• Why are you communicating this message?
• What results do you want to achieve?
• What is your reputation with your audience members, and how much credibility do you have? How should you adjust your message to take account of this?
• Does your audience trust you? If not, how could you build trust in your message?
• Do you share the same culture and background as your audience? (If not, brush up on your cross-cultural communication skills , and think about how you can ensure that others understand you easily.)

Consider the objective of your communication carefully, as this will determine the best approach to take with the next three elements of the framework. Write a simple but straightforward statement that defines the objective or purpose of your communication. (If you are delivering a training session, see our article on the ABCD Learning Objectives Model – this will help you to refine your objectives statement even further.)

2. Audience Strategy

Next, think about your audience. When you consider the wants, needs, education, and skill levels of your audience members, you can craft a message that matches their interests, expectations, and understanding.

Consider these questions:

• Who is your audience?
• Are there identifiable sub-groups within it, with differing needs?
• What do you know about this person or group?
• What do they know about you?
• What do they know about this subject?
• How will you motivate them?

In some cases, you'll be very familiar with your audience: for example, when you write an email to your boss or colleagues. In other cases, you might not know your audience, such as when you give a presentation to a large group of prospective clients. Write down what you do know about them, and then think about how you can find out more.

Next, think about the different groups within your audience. Use our article on market segmentation to think about how you can address their differing needs.

Consider what your audience members need from you, and how they will benefit from your communication.

3. Message Strategy

Here, you need to think about the style, tone, and structure of your message. Consider these questions:

• Is your purpose to persuade, entertain, consult, or inform? What style and tone will best fit your purpose?
• Does your message need to be formal or informal, or a subtle mix of both? Consider your audience carefully to answer this question.

When you think about your message, you also need to consider your audience's likely reaction. Do you think your audience will agree with what you say? And are your audience members busy? If so, you might want to take a direct approach. To do this, communicate your main idea upfront, and back it up with supporting arguments or evidence.

Are your audience members likely to disagree with what you have to say? And do they have time to listen to, or read, a longer communication? If so, you might want to take a less direct approach with your message. Include your supporting arguments first, followed by your main point or purpose.

As you craft your message, think about how you can let your audience members know why they should keep listening, and make sure that you finish with a clear, motivating call to action.

If you need to influence your audience in some way, use Yukl and Tracey's positive influencers to choose the best approach to use. Monroe's motivated sequence can also help you to craft an effective message. If you want to draft a written communication, brush up on your writing skills . And, when you need to give a presentation, consider using business storytelling to inspire and motivate your audience.

4. Channel Strategy

In the final element of the framework, you focus on choosing the most effective communication channel to get your message across.

• What channel is most appropriate to use for your audience and message?
• Do you need to have a record of this communication? (If so, an email can be a better choice than a phone call.)
• Is cost or time a consideration?
• Is culture a factor in this situation? Remember that people in some cultures prefer face-to-face communication, while others will favor using email.

Keep in mind that the channel you choose can directly affect how well your audience understands your message. If your message is complex, or if others might misunderstand it, choose a channel that allows you to see whether people have grasped the message, and, if necessary, take corrective action.

Our articles on writing effective emails , delivering great presentations , and holding effective meetings have specific strategies that you can follow to make best use of these communication channels.

Use the 7 Cs of Communication to ensure that your message is clear, concise, well-constructed, and error-free.

Michael and Sandra Rouse developed the Communication Strategy Framework and published it in their 2001 book, "Business Communications: A Cultural and Strategic Approach." The framework guides you through the process of planning and organizing your communications, so that you can prepare clear and effective letters, emails, presentations, and speeches.

The framework consists of four elements:

To use the framework, consider each element carefully as you plan your message.

Download Worksheet

[1] Rouse, M. and Rouse, S. (2001). ' Business Communications .' United States: South-Western.

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How to write a communication plan (with template and examples)

Communication is one of the product manager’s primary responsibilities. After all, a PM can’t do their job without effectively communicating risks, dependencies, and changes.

In small companies, communication is somewhat more intuitive and often easier to manage. The problems begin to appear when the company grows.

A bigger company means more teams, more stakeholders, more initiatives, and more of everything. Beyond scale-ups, communication often becomes either too chaotic or too infrequent.

In cases like that, having a robust communication plan can be a life saver. In this guide, we’ll demonstrate how to write a communication plan in six easy steps. You can also use our free communication plan template , which contains both a blank spreadsheet for you to fill out and a practical example to help you get started.

What is a communication plan?

A communication plan is an inspectable artifact that describes what information must be communicated as well as to whom, by whom, when, where, and via what medium that information is to be communicated. In addition, a communication plan outlines how communications are tracked and analyzed.

A communication plan can take various forms. For example, it might take the form of a(n):

• Weekly checklist
• Spreadsheet
• Automated Trello board

In general, a communication plan should be whatever works for you and your team, as long as it allows you to inspect and adapt your approach to communicating with others.

Benefits of a communication plan

Investing time in creating and maintaining a communication plan brings many benefits. A communication plan serves as a(n):

Checklist and reminder

Inspectable artifact, alignment with stakeholders.

Who hasn’t forgotten to inform some critical stakeholder about a recent change/discovery?

Product management is such a fast-paced and dynamic profession that it’s very easy to let small details slip. Unfortunately, it’s these small details that often matter the most.

A written communication plan serves as a checklist that ensures minute details don’t slip too often. Whenever something relevant happens, you can easily refer to your communication plan to double-check whether you’ve connected with everyone who needs to be in the loop.

A tangible communication plan allows product managers to slow down, inspect, and adapt their current processes.

Whenever there’s a communication mishap, they can review what led to it and adjust their approach to communication. A concrete plan makes a vague and sometimes intimidating term such as “communication” more tangible.

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A communication plan, when done well, brings alignment and facilitates input from other stakeholders. It also lays out expectations of how communication is being handled and executed.

If stakeholders feel they aren’t getting all the relevant information, they can quickly check the communication plan to see what they are missing and what is lacking in the communication process that is causing them to miss that information. If they find the communication inadequate, they can share their feedback with the communication plan owner.

It’s easier to facilitate feedback and alignment when something is on paper.

How to create a communication plan in 6 steps

As mentioned above, there are various ways to create a communication plan.

A simple way to write a communication plan is to answer six questions:

• What type of information do you produce?
• Who should receive that information?
• How often should they receive it?
• What channels are most appropriate for this type of information?
• When is communication done for that type of information?
• Who should make sure it happens?

1. What type of information do you produce?

Start by reviewing what information you produce and process.

If you manage roadmaps , you probably produce a lot of information regarding roadmap changes, delays, and anything else that may relate to roadmaps.

If you manage releases, you also produce information regarding the release progress, stage, and anything else that related to releases.

Capture it all.

To make it easier, start with the broader, more general concepts. And if you notice the need for more precision, split them into more detailed communication positions.

2. Who should receive that information?

For a given type of information you produce or process, who should receive it? These are usually people who are:

• Direct stakeholders
• Dependent on the initiative
• Contributing to the initiative

Investing some time in defining the receipts has two main benefits.

First, it ensures you don’t miss a critical person in your communication flow, but it also helps you answer the question of who is not interested in certain information. Over-communication creates noise and should be avoided.

3. How often should they receive it?

You should identify the frequency of updates being sent out depending on the information being shared and which stakeholders are included. Should it be daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly?

You probably won’t nail it at first, but that’s OK. What’s important is to search for a sweet spot between over-communication and under-communication.

Although it might seem excessive at first, finding the right balance will be increasingly important as the amount of and need for communication grows over time.

4. What channels are most appropriate for this type of information?

What medium is most suitable for a given type of information?

For example, it would be silly to inform someone about a mission-critical dependency in a comment under a Jira ticket. At the same time, you shouldn’t spam other people’s Slack with every minor change.

Before sending out an update, ask yourself:

• Where would people seek such information?
• How fast should it reach the audience?
• How critical is it?
• Is it a one-sided update or a potential conversation starter?

The answers to these questions will help you find the best channel for the given information piece.

5. When is communication done for that type of information?

Many people fall into the concept trap that once you send out a message, your communication responsibility is over. This is not always the case.

If you send a company-wide FYI update, then yes, your job is probably completed when you press send, but what if you have roadmap changes that impact multiple teams. Shouldn’t you be making sure everyone on those teams are informed?

In cases like that, you can’t say you are done just because you’ve sent a message. You should chase all key stakeholders and ensure that they have read and understood your message to avoid any misconceptions.

Let’s face it: messages sometimes slip. Your job isn’t to send messages, but to ensure everyone is on the same page. It’s not the same thing.

I’m a fan of having a simple definition of done for communication items. Sometimes, it’ll just mean pushing an update. Other times, it might mean getting a signature of approval from another stakeholder.

6. Who should make it happens?

Last but not least, if it’s everyone’s responsibility to make sure communication happens, then it’s no one’s responsibility.

Although the whole team should be responsible for ensuring effective communication, I believe in having a dedicated owner for a given communication stream. The owner can be permanent or rotate every sprint.

If you have communication owners in place, the chance of communication actually taking place increases dramatically.

Communication plan example

Let’s take a look at an example of a communication plan created using the framework I just outlined:

This communication plan can now serve as an artifact for alignment, process improvement, and double-checking if everything is communicated as needed.

Since some of the items in the communication plan happen as needed, it’s imperative to review the artifact on a regular basis. Otherwise, details are bound to slip sooner or later.

Communication plan template

To make it easy to get started with creating your own communication plan, we’ve created a communication plan template for you. Click File > Make a copy to customize the template.

When you start, ask yourself:

• What you want to communicate
• By what channel
• When you consider the communication as done
• Who should own the given communication item

Although it may lack in the beginning, use it as an inspectable artifact to improve your communication approach every sprint. I promise you, it’ll make your job as a product manager significantly easier.

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How to Write a Strategic Communication Plan Template

• May 1, 2022

Content Manager at SocialBee

We know why you are here, and we are prepared with both a communications plan template and a guide that will help you every step of the way.

Communication plans are great strategies that will not only take your branding objectives to the next level ,  but will also help you manage PR crises without damaging your image.

In this material, we will walk you through the benefits of a communication plan template and we will show you what are the steps you need to take in order to build your very own communication strategy. Are you ready?

Streamline your business communication planning with our easy-to-use template.

What Is a Communications Plan?

Communications plans are documents that outline the messages a business promotes, the  audience  meant for those messages, and the channels of communication. 

A strategic communications plan is a way to organize all your company’s messages in one place, define your goals , and ensure you maintain a consistent and positive image.

Moreover, it works as a foundation that will help with managing certain crises your company might face, pitching new ideas to your stakeholders, creating an effective communication strategy for a product launch, and more.

The Benefits of a Communication Plan

Before we get into how to write a strategic communication plan, let’s see how such a document can benefit your business.

Here are the advantages of a communications strategy plan:

• It improves client and stakeholder management
• It defines the communication process
• It creates a positive brand image

1. It Improves Client and Stakeholder Management

A well-written communication plan will help you improve the level of communication with both internal stakeholders and external audicences, as you will be able to convey your message through multiple channels.

2. It Defines the Communication Process

By having a communication plan, you will also be able to set communication objectives for your company and assess progress.

Writing a clear communication plan will help you identify:

• What  you need to communicate
• How  you should share your message
• Who  is the recipient
• Which  channels are best for sharing certain messages

Also, this way, you will discover the unique characteristics of your intended audience. Consequently, you will understand their point of view better than ever before, and communicate with them more effectively.

3. It Creates a Positive Brand Image

An effective communication plan has a positive impact on your company’s image because it makes sure that every message you share with the public is correct, on-brand, and consistent on every communication platform.

Additionally, with the help of a communication plan, you can handle crises much more effectively. In fact, big brands have a designated crisis communication team ready to go in case of a social media controversy.

Having a crisis communication plan and planning ahead of time for emergency situations will allow you to manage the public perception better. Also, rushing your response in critical situations without clearly thinking it through will allow other mistakes to slip through and make the situation worse. 

How to Write a Communications Plan

Now that you know what a communication plan is and how it can benefit your business, let’s get into the real reason why you are here — learning how to write an effective communications plan.

These are the steps you need to take to write a marketing communications plan:

• Audit Your Current Communications Strategy
• Set Communication Goals
• Define Your Target Audience
• Develop Your USP and Mission Statement
• Find the Best Communication Channels for Your Marketing Efforts
• Assign Roles to Your Team Members
• Identify Your Key Stakeholders
• Write Down Key Dates for Your Communication Strategies
• Craft Key Messages for Your Audience
• Outline Your Communication Methods and Campaigns
• Put Your Communication Plan in Action
• Monitor and Adjust Your Communication Strategy

1. Audit Your Current Communications Strategy

Before you create your communication plan, you need to run a situational analysis of your current communication strategy.

Here is what you need to evaluate when it comes to your marketing communication strategy:

• Communication channels – List all the different channels you communicate on both online and offline with your audiences (partners, clients, project stakeholders, customers, etc.).
• Communication materials – Make an inventory of all your marketing materials. Include anything from flyers to social media graphics, digital brochures , as well as your permanent branding guidelines (color scheme, fonts, logos, etc.).
• Tone of voice and communication style – How would you describe your communication style? You can use several adjectives to define it. 
• Results and performance – Which messages and communication platforms had the best/worst results. Add screenshots and links to understand the situation better.

To gather all this relevant information, you can go to the analytics you have for each communication channel, send surveys to your customers, partners, and stakeholders, and hold in-person meetings with your project team.

In addition, you can perform a SWOT analysis and discover both internal and external advantages and disadvantages:

👍 Strengths – Define what you do well, your best resources, and the aspects that give you an advantage over your competitors.

👎 Weaknesses – Focus on the critics you receive from others, the resources you lack compared to your competitors, and the areas that need improvement.

📈 Opportunities – Identify the opportunities and market trends that will allow you to transform your strengths into growth opportunities.

❌ Threats – Discover the external factors that can prevent your business from growing.

2. Set Communication Goals

Turn your business goals into specific communication goals. This way, your business needs will guide the way you think and write your communication goals. As a result, your chances of staying on track and enhancing your company’s performance will increase. 

Your communication goals need to provide perspective and direction for you and your team. So, make sure you offer them all the details they might need. 

When in doubt, respect the SMART goals structure:

• S pecific – State what you want to accomplish and how you plan to do it.
• M easurable – Mention how you plan to measure your progress.
• A chievable – Be realistic, and set goals that are achievable based on your company’s resources.
• R elevant – Write communication goals that align with your business needs.
• T ime-bound – Keep your team accountable by setting a clear deadline for your goals.

Here is an example of a SMART communication goal:

“Improve customer satisfaction in the next 6 months by replying to every review, comment, email, and message within 24 hours.” 

To measure success, you will have to check the reviews and feedback you receive as a result of your new initiative.

3. Define Your Target Audience

In order to write effective key messages, you first need to understand your target audiences . This doesn’t only include your customers but also your employees, partners, investors, government officials, media outlets, and more.

As a result of your research, you will be able to craft perfectly tailored messages while also discovering their preferred communication channel. Feel free to ask for feedback and suggestions that will improve their experience as well as your collaboration. Also, keep an eye on the way they communicate and try to match their approach.

When it comes to customers, you can generate multiple demographic details straight from your SocialBee dashboard. Based on the information you gather, you can create detailed buyer personas — fictional characters with the traits of different segments of your target market.

Get information about your audience from a single dashboard.

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In this way, you structure all the audience data and make it easier for you and your team to remember. 

Here is what a buyer persona should contain:

• Demographic information
• Behavioral traits
• Pain points
• Buying habits

The goal is to reach the right people with customized messages that will resonate with them.

4. Develop Your USP and Mission Statement

Not all businesses are built the same. And this is a good thing.

Your unique selling proposition is very important for your communication plan, especially when it comes to your promotional content. Why?  Because you have to rely on that unique quality to differentiate your business from the competition and give your customers a reason to purchase from you.

To develop your USP, you first need to answer the following questions:

• What do you provide that your competition doesn’t?
• What customer issue do you solve through your business?
• Why should your customers choose you and not your competitors?

Furthermore, while your USP works as a way to make your brand stand out from the crowd, your mission statement provides meaning and purpose to your company.

A great mission statement reflects your customers’ values and provides an additional reason to invest in your products.

Image source

Let’s say you sell sweets. Your USP is that you don’t use sugar in your products. So, in your mission statement, you could state that through your business, you aim to provide healthy and delicious dessert alternatives and improve your customers’ lifestyles without compromising the taste of your sweets.

5. Find the Best Communication Channels for Your Marketing Efforts

It’s not only essential to know how to communicate with your audience, but also to discover the channel that you should use to reach them. Moreover, for better results, you need to keep your communication separate. 

For instance, with your stakeholders, you can plan online or in-person meetings and provide project reports regularly. Whereas, with media outlets, you can move your communication to email. All you need is to have the contact information of several relevant journalists and nurture your media relationships on this channel.

The same goes for the rest of your audience segments. The more you customize your communication to fit your audience’s needs, the more success you will have.

However, when it comes to your customers, you have more options. You can get creative with your communication when promoting your business. 

These are the main communication channels you can use to connect with your customers:

• Content marketing
• Search enginge optimization
• Email marketing
• Influencer marketing
• Affiliate marketing

A. Content Marketing

Your communication plan wouldn’t be complete without including your content marketing strategy.

In fact, did you know that 70% of customers would rather learn about a business from an article or blog post than from advertisements? So, it’s safe to assume that content marketing is quite a big deal.

This marketing strategy is used to attract, engage, and maintain customers by creating and distributing relevant content (articles, videos, social media posts). 

Apart from this, content marketing helps businesses establish themselves as credible and authoritative sources of information, build brand awareness and stay top-of-mind.

So, make sure you include your social media platforms, your blog, and other content creation platforms (Youtube, Udemy, etc.) and give details about your communication strategy on all of them.

Don’t forget that with SocialBee you can create, edit, schedule, and share content on all your social media platforms from one user-friendly dashboard. 

Connect all your social media profiles with SocialBee to share content faster and easier than ever before.

Besides, SocialBee can generate automatic social media posts whenever you publish a new article, making the most out of your content marketing strategy.

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B. search engine optimization.

To optimize your communication plan and make sure your customers see your content, you must perform search engine optimization.  Statistics show that 68% of website traffic is generated by search engines, a great insight for businesses.

A good practice is to make a list of all the keywords your audience may use to search your products and services and add them to your communication plan. As a result, you will have them ready to use whenever you create content for Google.

Make sure to use keywords and key phrases that match your customers’ search intent, and combine both short-tail and long-tail keywords into your strategy.

Moreover, add them to your titles, headings, meta descriptions, image alt text, and body text.

C. Email Marketing

Email marketing is a great way to not only generate new leads, but also nurture your relationship with your existing customers. You should also know that email marketing has an average ROI of $36 for every dollar spent.

It’s an essential part of your communication plan, so ensure you create a messaging strategy that will gain you more website traffic and keep your audience in the loop regarding company news, promotions, and newly posted blog articles.

D. Influencer Marketing

Amplify your messaging strategy with influencer marketing .

This marketing practice is used to generate brand awareness, gain trust, and improve sales.

The key is to find relevant influencers from your industry that your audience looks up to. 

Aside from that, you need to pick people that fit your image and share the same values if you want influencer collaborations to work. As a result, you will have a partnership that seems genuine and addresses the right audience.

Make a list of online personalities that you could collaborate with, and add them to your communication plan in the timeframes when you assume you will need a boost in visibility and sales.

E. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is another practice you can use to share your message with a larger audience. It involves paying other bloggers to promote your business on their website through link insertions, product/service reviews, and articles.

Besides, it’s an affordable way to generate traffic, boost sales and brand awareness, and build authority within your industry. 

6. Assign Roles to Your Team Members

You know your audience, and you picked the communication channels you will use, so it’s time to assign some roles to your internal communications team members.

For example, when it comes to communicating with media channels, you will need to assign a team member to prepare press releases and keep in touch with journalists.

Make sure you add your key team members along with their roles in the communication plan. This is useful for everyone on the team because:

• They know what their responsibilities are ahead of time.
• They know who to go to in case they need help or information.

7. Identify Your Key Stakeholders

As a business, you will have to run and manage multiple projects. And for some of them, you need the support of your stakeholders for your communication method to be successful. 

As you can imagine, this means that you need to maintain a fruitful and transparent relationship with your stakeholders. 

This is why you should add them to your communication plan. You should also include all your project deliverables, stakeholder information, and the main ways you plan to keep in contact.

8. Write Down Key Dates for Your Communication Strategies

Every business has peak moments throughout the year when their sales increase and the demand for their product rises, like flower shops during Valentine’s Day.

Some of them are obvious, while others require a little more digging through the data. So, start looking at your sales history from the past year and identify your most profitable intervals.

With this information, you can adjust your communication planning and improve the way you communicate with your customers. Plan some promotions, create new email campaigns, run ads , and basically do anything that can increase the visibility of your business.

Furthermore, you should also research holidays or international celebrations you can use to promote your brand.

Acess the calendar template and start planning your holiday posts with ease.

9. Craft Key Messages for Your Audience

For this step, you have to keep your audience in mind at all times. It’s essential that you create key messages that fit the needs and desires of your customers.

To customize your messages accordingly, you need to answer the next questions:

• What should your audience know about your company?
• What language and communication style would your audience prefer?
• What are the main benefits you should highlight?
• What values resonate with your customers?

Make separate sections for each segment of your audience and add your key messages into your communication plan.

We advise you to create a messaging matrix in order to define your communication strategy for each. This requires you to separate your audience into segments and create categories of key messages and channels you will use for that group.

For instance, let’s say you sell skincare products and your two main target audiences are young girls between 14 and 20 and women between 30 and 45. The girls encounter problems like acne and dry skin, while the women see signs of aging such as wrinkles and depigmentation.

So you decide to address their issues and promote products that will provide a solution. With the girls, you can communicate on Instagram and TikTok, while with the women you can go for platforms like Facebook. 

10. Outline Your Communication Methods and Campaigns

Your action plan is the meat of your communication strategy.

In order to establish the main activities of your communication plan, you first have to follow these three steps:

• Align your communication plan with your marketing calendar
• Create communication campaigns
• Plan activities to achieve your communication goals

A. Align Your Communication Plan With Your Marketing Calendar 

Take a look at your marketing calendar , and find out what your marketing team has planned to improve your company’s performance. Then create your customer communication strategy to increase the results of those marketing initiatives.

B. Create Communication Campaigns 

To organize all your marketing activities and keep track of your progress, you must plan different communication campaigns throughout the year.

This is what you need to establish when creating communication campaigns: 

• A theme or a goal that provides purpose and direction.
• Strategic activities that will help you achieve your goals.
• Clear dates for the beginning and the end of your campaigns.

C. Plan Activities to Achieve Your Communication Goals 

The activities you include in your communications plan should be aligned with your internal and external communication goals. After all, you want to accomplish them in a certain time frame.

That being said, your communication tactics should deal with the following aspects:

• Where will you share your message
• How will you communicate it
• When/how often will you communicate

11. Put Your Communication Plan in Action

Now that you included all the necessary elements in your communication plan, it’s time for action.

It’s a good idea to share your plan with your team and go over it together to ensure that everybody is on the same page before you implement it.

12. Monitor and Adjust Your Communication Strategy 

Your communication plan is a work in progress, it’s not a finished product. So, establish a few monitoring tactics that will allow you to track your success and identify mistakes that affect your business’ growth.

Gather all your analytics, create reports, and hold meetings with your team to gain feedback and find solutions for potential issues. You should also use the communication goals you previously set to find out if you are on the right track.

Communication Plan Examples

To give you a better idea about how you should structure your strategy, we prepared three examples you can take inspiration from:

• A project management communication plan from VENNGAGE
• A strategic communication plan from Lean Methods Group
• A communication plan example from TemplateLAB

First, we have a project management communication plan from VENNGAGE . You can see that it has a deadline, an assigned project manager, business objectives, tools, audience information, and messaging frequency. Also, the nice colorful design is a plus.

The next communication plan template is from Lean Methods Group , and it provides details about:

• Media or vehicle
• Assigned team member
• Feedback mechanism

This last example is a communications plan template from TemplateLAB that contains information about audience segments, key messages, means of communication, and deadlines for each initiative.

Although these are great documents you can use in your communication plan creation process, we have an alternative that will save you hours of work.

So, make sure you access our free template below, make a copy, and add your magical touch.

Make the Most Out of Your Communication Plans

Now that we went through what a communication plan is, its benefits, and the necessary creation process, we reached the end of this article. However, it’s only the beginning of your work.

But don’t worry, our template is waiting for you, ready to aid in your business strategies and give you a head start on the competition. Just access it below and let us know if you enjoyed our communication plan example!

Article written by

Content writer at SocialBee

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Why a clear communication plan is more important than you think

More often than not, clear communication can make or break successful projects. Clear communication in project management isn’t just about where you should be communicating—it’s also about which team members should be receiving which types of messages.

The good news is, creating an effective communication plan isn’t difficult. All you need to do is define your communication channels and align on when team members should use each. In this article, we’ll walk you through how to set up a communication plan and show you a template so you can create your own.

What is a communication plan?

Sharing a communication plan can give your team clarity about which tools to use when and who to contact with each of those tools. Without a communication plan, you might have one team member trying to ask questions about work in a tool that another team member rarely checks. Rather than being able to clearly communicate and move forward with work, each team member would end up frustrated, confused, and disconnected from the work that matters. Then, if they don’t have clear insight into who is responsible for each channel, they might end up reaching out to an executive stakeholder with questions that person can’t answer. What started out as a simple miscommunication has spiraled into three frustrated team members—and all the while, work isn’t moving forward.

What should a communication plan include?

Your communication plan is your one-stop-shop for your project communication strategy. Team members should be able to use the communication plan to answer project questions like:

What communication channels are we using? What is each channel used for?

When should we communicate in person vs. asynchronously?

What are the project roles? Who is the project manager ? Who is on the project team? Who are the project stakeholders ?

How are important project details, like project status updates, going to be communicated? How frequently will these be shared?

What shouldn’t be included in a communication plan?

A communication plan will help you clarify how you’re going to communicate with your project team and project stakeholders—whether these are internal team members that work at your company, or external stakeholders like customers or contractors.

A communication plan in project management is not a PR plan. This plan will not help you align on your social media strategy, identify a target audience, or establish key messages for different demographics. If you need to build out those plans, consider creating a  social media content calendar  or a  business strategy plan .

The benefits of a communication plan

Obviously  clear communication in the workplace  is a good thing. But do you really need a written communication plan to do that?

In a word: yes. A good communication plan can help you communicate the right information to the right project stakeholders. Executive stakeholders don’t need to be notified about every project detail—similarly, every project team member might not need to be on a conference call with your external partners. By clarifying where and how you’ll be communicating, you can reduce the guessing game and unblock your team.

Less app switching

We recently interviewed  over 13,000 global knowledge workers  and found that the average knowledge worker switches between 10 apps up to 25 times per day. Instead of focusing on high-impact work or even collaborating effectively with their team members, knowledge workers are sinking hours into simply trying to figure out where they should be communicating.

A communication plan can eliminate this guessing game. For example, if your team knows that you only communicate about work in a  work management tool , they can search for key information there—instead of digging through document folders, Slack messages, and multiple email chains. Similarly, when you know that a team member is only tangentially working on the project—and is only being looped in during high-level status reports—you won’t bother them with a question about when the next  project deliverable  is due.

We have created communication guidelines around what software or what tools are best for what. Asana is for action, Slack is for quick responses or answers to things that are floating around. Email is more official and mostly external facing. By doing that, and creating the proper communications guidance, it really helps reduce the noise.”

Increased collaboration

Team collaboration isn’t an effortless process that happens by itself—it’s a skill that you and your team have to build. One part of creating effective  team collaboration  is clarifying your team’s communication conventions. That’s because a big barrier to effective collaboration is feeling comfortable communicating—especially if you work on a  remote or distributed team . If your team feels unsure because they’re still trying to figure out how or where to communicate, they won’t be fully comfortable talking to one another.

Your communication plan is a chance to clarify where team members should be communicating. Depending on the level of detail, you can also include when team members should be communicating—and clarify team conventions towards setting “Do not disturb” mode or snoozing notifications.

By providing these guidelines, you’re effectively removing one of the biggest barriers to easy communication and collaboration between team members. When team members know where to communicate—and just as importantly, where not to communicate—they can be confident they’re sending the right message at the right time.

Less duplicative work

Currently, knowledge workers spend  60% of their time on work about work  like searching for documents, chasing approvals, switching between apps, following up on the status of work, and generally doing things that take time away from impactful work. Part of this work about work is not knowing where things should be communicated.

If team members don’t have a clear sense of where information is shared—things like your  project plan  or  project timeline —then they’ll have to dig through multiple tools or ask several team members just to find the right information. As a result, team members who are unclear about where they should be communicating about work also have a harder time simply finding existing work.

Work about work leads to more manual, duplicative work and less clarity overall. In fact, according to the  Anatomy of Work Index , we spend 13% of our time—236 hours per year—on work that’s already been completed. By sharing your communication plan, you can give your team clarity into exactly where work lives, so they don’t have to spend all that time finding it themselves.

How to write a communication plan

A communication plan is a powerful tool—but it’s also relatively easy to create. You can create a communication plan in four steps.

1. Establish your communication methods

The first step to creating a communication plan is to decide where your team will communicate—and about what. This includes when to use which tools and when to communicate live vs. asynchronously. Live, synchronous communication is communication that happens in real time. Conversely, asynchronous communication is when you send a message without expecting someone to reply right away. We all use asynchronous communication every day without realizing it—most notably, every time we send an email.

As you define your communication plan, identify what to use each tool for. For example, you might decide to use:

Email to communicate with any external stakeholders.

Slack for synchronous communication about day-to-day updates and quick questions.

Asana to communicate asynchronously about work, like task details, project status updates , or key project documents.

Zoom or Google Meet for any team meetings, like project brainstorms or your project post mortem.

2. Align on communication cadence

Now that you know where you’ll be communicating, you also have to identify how frequently you’ll be communicating. Your communication cadence is your action plan for updating different stakeholders about different project details.

For example, you might decide to schedule:

Weekly project status updates posted in Asana to all project stakeholders and sponsors.

Monthly project team meetings to unblock any work or brainstorm next steps.

Asynchronous project milestone updates in Asana as needed.

3. Add a plan for stakeholder management

Running a successful project often depends on getting stakeholder support and buy-in. At the beginning of the project, you’ll do this during the  project kickoff meeting —but it’s also critical to maintain stakeholder support throughout your project.

Take some time as you’re drafting your communication plan to detail when to communicate with each project stakeholder, and about what. Some people, like your key project team members, will be communicating about this project regularly—maybe even daily. Other project stakeholders may only need to be looped in during project status updates or maybe just at the final readout.

By listing out how you’ll be managing communication with stakeholders, you can ensure they’re being contacted at the right time about the right things. The communication they recieve should answer questions at their level of detail and with a focus on business results and overall, high-level impact.

4. Share your communication plan and update it as needed

Once you’ve created your communication plan, it’s time to share it with your project team. Make sure your communication plan is accessible in your central source of truth for all project information. We recommend using  Asana  to track all project communication and work, so you can talk about work where you’re working.

If any changes impact your project communication plan, make sure you update it and communicate those changes. That way, team members always have access to the most up to date information.

Example communication plan

Communication plan template

Description of communication.

What type of communication is it?

How often will you be communicating?

Which tool will you be using? Is this synchronous or asynchronous communication?

Who is receiving this communication?

Who is in charge of sending out this communication?

Good communication starts with a communication plan

Clear communication can help you send the right message at the right time. Empower effortless collaboration while also ensuring every team member is being looped in at the right times. That way, your team can spend less time communicating about work and more time on high-impact work.

Related resources

How to track utilization rate and drive team profitability

How to accomplish big things with long-term goals

Smooth product launches are simpler than you think

What is stakeholder analysis and why is it important?

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How to Write a Communication Plan in 10 Steps

A communication plan can help you effectively communicate with your audience, employees, and stakeholders. Read this guide to learn the basics.

Effective communication can help improve every aspect of your business by enabling you to share information with customers and the public. However, your communication shouldn't be spontaneous because saying the wrong thing at the wrong time can damage your reputation.

How do you communicate with your customers? Successful businesses know they can't respond to every customer inquiry, concern, or public relations issue as they happen; you must have a communication plan to help you prepare for answering tough questions.

A communication plan can help you respond to customers and the public, get the word out about new products and services, deliver your key brand messaging, and recover when there's a public relations blunder. If you're wondering how to market your business , you'll need to start with a comprehensive plan of action.

What is a communication plan?

A communication plan is a thorough plan explaining the actions you'll take to communicate information to stakeholders . It ultimately identifies your essential brand messaging, including branding basics like your value proposition, while using different types of storytelling to share information with the public. In addition, every communication plan has a crisis management strategy built in to help you respond in times of a crisis, so it's important to have conflict resolution skills .

Communication plans can be used for almost every aspect of your marketing strategy throughout different types of marketing , enabling you to communicate your key messages. It may also help you identify which personalized campaigns you'll use to share this information. Your communication plan will cover everything from discussing product launches with the media to handling a crisis.

Companies without plans are unprepared when there's a potential threat to their reputation. For example, if your product was misused and caused harm, you'll need a strategy for how to deal with the repercussions, including how to answer journalist questions. Most small businesses don't have to worry about worldwide PR nightmares, but reputation management is still vital to any effective communications plan.

How to write a communication plan

Your plan is part of your communication strategy . It'll need to cover several elements, including how you'll talk about your products and services and how your business will handle a crisis. For example, a project communication plan can help you discuss new products with investors, while an all-encompassing plan can be used to support key stakeholders deal with potential disasters.

Here's how to write an effective communication plan.

Review your existing methods of communication and guidelines

Your strategic plan should reflect on existing communication methods and guidelines to determine what works and doesn't. Some small businesses might not have a plan at all, allowing them to start fresh. However, if you have a plan, you'll need to go through it to determine if any areas are still relevant to your company.

For example, if you're writing a project communication plan for a new business, you'll need to convey different messages to stakeholders, such as deadlines and action items. Meanwhile, if you're writing a communication plan for a product launch, reviewing your marketing strategies to ensure they align with your new messaging is a good idea.

Identify the objectives based on your findings

Always define your goals after analyzing the existing communications materials. During your audit, you may have missed key marketing collateral like flyers or packaging designs to launch your new product effectively. Laying out your goals after identifying gaps is crucial to ensure you have a successful plan in place.

It's best to have specific and measured goals before starting your communications planning to ensure it can accomplish all essential objectives. For example, a company launching a new product might have a goal of increasing sales within the first month by 15%.

Different departments in your organization might have different communications plans. For example, your warehouse management team may have a plan to pitch new packaging to save money on shipping costs. This team would then need to identify specific goals, such as reducing shipping costs by x amount.

No matter the goals, they can help you have something to aim for with your communications plan. They'll also give you something to measure against after you get your initial baseline metrics.

Pinpoint your target audience

Identifying your target audience before writing your communications strategy is crucial because you need to understand who the plan is for. If you're writing a crisis communications plan, you'll write it for stakeholders like the CEO or a PR representative to speak on behalf of the company. In addition, if you're writing a communications plan for launching a new product, you'll need to consider who your customers are and how you'll market to them.

Make a draft

Now that you know your goals and who you're writing for, you can begin your first draft. If you already have a template to work from, you can start filling it in. However, if this is your first time writing a communications plan, you can begin with an outline to help you identify the essential messaging points.

Your communication plan should have information detailing what the plan is used for. For example, if it's used for product marketing, it should clearly state its purpose and appropriate times to use it. It should also include a crisis communication plan describing how potential problems will be handled and by whom.

Depending on your communication plan type, you may also specify different marketing campaigns or ways you'll achieve your goals, including steps to reach your objectives.

Obtain feedback

Get feedback from the appropriate team or audience to help you identify pain points and areas of improvement in your plan.

For example, if your communications plan is meant to help stakeholders deal with crises and threats to the company's reputation, you can talk to stakeholders directly about different responses to common issues. Many project stakeholders are experts in their fields and may have experienced some of these crises within their careers, which can help you get valuable feedback on handling them.

Additionally, if you're creating a communications plan for employees, you can speak to them directly or send them your draft to obtain feedback.

Determine which communication channels you'll use to distribute your message

How and where you distribute your message depends on the type of communication plan you have. For example, if you create a communications plan for employees, you'll likely distribute it internally via email.

However, if you make a communications strategy for stakeholders, you can discuss it with them in person to help them understand what it's for and how to use it.

Meanwhile, if you're trying to share your message with customers, you might use email marketing newsletters, leverage social media, or put it on your website in a strategic place, depending on what the message is.

Create a schedule

The timing of your message is just as important as the message itself. For example, if there's a crisis and you don't act fast enough, it can be challenging to recover, which is why a plan is vital in the first place.

Let's say you have a PR nightmare on your hands, and the media is making misleading claims about your company. In this case, you'll need to act fast to refute those claims and use various small business PR strategies to get your message out, including using social media to communicate with customers and the public and scheduling interviews with journalists to tell your side of the story.

The same is true if you're launching a product. Timing your message can help generate buzz and excitement before the release date. Then, when your product launches, you already have customers interested in purchasing it.

Know who's responsible for delivering the message

The type of communications plan you create will dictate who is responsible for delivering the message. For example, if you're launching a new product, your marketing team will likely market it through various strategies and channels. Meanwhile, if there's a reputation crisis, your CEO or a representative from the company will probably deliver the message to the public.

Conduct a final review

Once you've finished your communications plan, give it one more review with the team to ensure everyone is on the same page. By now, you should have all the information you need in terms of feedback, but reviewing it one more time can help you catch any potential issues, including grammatical mistakes or confusing action items.

Test and analyze your results

Once your communications plan is complete, you can start testing it and measuring your results. As you already know, you should always continue improving on your strategies. You can measure the results of your plan after it's presented. For example, if you launched a new product intending to increase sales by 15%, you can measure your progress throughout the campaign.

If you don't reach your goals, you at least now have a baseline to help you create more realistic objectives for your next communication plan.

Top components of an effective communication plan

To build an effective communications plan for any department, you'll need these elements:

• Intended audience: Who is your message intended for? Depending on your goals, this could be anyone, from customers to internal employees.
• Message format: What will your plan look like? The format of your message depends on what you've used in the past and what has worked. For example, you may use a simple PDF structure when working directly with stakeholders so everyone has a copy.
• Distribution: How will you share your message? How you share your message depends on what type of message it is. For example, if you're sharing news of a new product, you have many channels to choose from, including ads and social media.
• Timeline: When will your plan begin and end? Your plan timeline varies depending on the project, but you should always have a start and end date to ensure you can effectively measure your performance and progress.
• Message source: Who will share your message? The person who shares your message could be anyone, from the head of HR to the CEO, depending on your type of communication plan.

Why is communication planning important?

Communication planning is important because it can help you effectively communicate with your audience, giving you the right thing to say at just the right time. It can also help everyone understand their role in the strategy. For example, for a product launch, product development is responsible for creating the product, while marketing is in charge of getting the word out to the public.

Communication plans can also improve stakeholder and client relationships by helping everyone get on the same page and plan easily. With a good communication plan, no one is left in the dark. Additionally, it can help those using the communication plan to articulate smart responses quickly, which can be beneficial when your reputation is at risk.

To summarize, a few of the advantages of communication planning include:

• Effectively communicate with your audience
• Understand individual and team responsibilities
• Improve stakeholder and client relationships
• Articulate smart responses quickly

Avert a crisis with comprehensive communication planning

Communication planning is key to the success of any company because it can improve internal communication and your relationships with the public. Anyone can write a communications plan and share it, but what's most important is the message.

Ready to share your communications plan with customers, employees, or stakeholders? Draft your communications plan and share it with Mailchimp. With our email editor, you can design simple yet elegant emails to share messages with your audience.

Communication Strategies: Explained with Types & Examples

A communication strategy is a plan that outlines how an organization or individual will communicate with its target audience. It includes a set of goals and objectives, key messages, communication channels, tactics, and metrics to measure the success of the communication efforts.

A communication strategy is designed to help an organization achieve its communication goals, whether to inform, educate, persuade, or engage its target audience. It can be used for various purposes, such as promoting a new product or service, building brand awareness, managing a crisis, or influencing public opinion.

Effective communication strategies are tailored to the specific needs and preferences of the target audience and take into account the broader social, cultural, and political context in which they operate. They also rely on various communication channels, such as social media, email, traditional media, events, and advertising, to reach the intended audience.

How to design a communication strategy

Designing a communication strategy involves several steps that should be followed to ensure the strategy is effective and meets the organization’s objectives. Here are the general steps you can follow:

• Define your objectives: Start by defining the objectives of your communication strategy. Determine what you want to achieve with the communication strategy. Objectives can include increasing brand awareness, customer engagement, or sales.
• Identify your target audience: Identify the audience you want to reach with your communication strategy. Consider their demographics, interests, behaviors, and communication preferences.
• Develop key messages: Develop key messages that will resonate with your target audience. These messages should be clear, concise, and memorable.
• Determine communication channels: Determine the communication channels you will use to reach your target audience. These include social media, email marketing, website content, print materials, and other channels.
• Create a content plan: Develop a content plan outlining the content types you will create for each communication channel. Consider the format, tone, and style of each piece of content.
• Establish a timeline: Develop a timeline for the execution of your communication strategy. This timeline should include key milestones and deadlines.
• Evaluate and adjust: Evaluate the effectiveness of your communication strategy regularly and adjust as needed. Consider feedback from your target audience and analyze the impact of your communication efforts on your objectives.

Barnlund’s transactional model of communication with Example

Remember, an effective communication strategy is tailored to the needs and preferences of your target audience. Following these steps, you can develop a communication strategy that effectively communicates your message and achieves your objectives.

By the way, to communicate our strategy effectively within the team, we all need a robust collaboration platform. Miro is the leading visual collaboration platform. Build anything together on Miro. It’s free and as easy to use as a whiteboard , but endlessly more powerful. Do use the Miro platform for strong communication within your team.

Examples of communication strategy

Here are some examples of communication strategies:

• Clear and concise messaging: A communication strategy should focus on creating messages that are easy to understand and convey the intended meaning. This means using simple language, avoiding jargon, and being direct.
• Targeted communication: A communication strategy should consider the audience and tailor the messages accordingly. For example, if the target audience is teenagers, the communication strategy should use language and visuals that appeal to that age group.
• Multi-channel communication: A communication strategy should consider multiple channels to reach the audience. This could include social media, email, phone calls, in-person meetings, etc.
• Consistent branding: A communication strategy should use consistent branding across all channels to create a cohesive and recognizable brand identity. This could include using the same logo, colors, and messaging across all communication channels.
• Listening and responding: A communication strategy should include a process for listening to feedback and responding to questions or concerns. This could involve monitoring social media channels or creating a customer service team to respond to inquiries.
• Measuring success: A communication strategy should include measuring the messaging and channels’ success. This could consist of tracking social media engagement rates, customer satisfaction scores, or sales figures.

Internal Communication Strategy & Plan| Examples| Best practices

Types of communication strategies

Several types of communication strategies can be used depending on the specific situation and purpose of communication. Here are some types:

• Verbal communication includes face-to-face conversations, phone calls, and video conferencing. Verbal communication is an effective way to convey complex ideas and emotions and establish a personal connection.
• Written Communication: This includes emails, letters, reports, memos, and other written forms of communication. Written communication allows for precise and detailed communication and can serve as a permanent record of the communication.
• Nonverbal Communication: This includes body language, facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice. Nonverbal communication can convey emotions, attitudes, and intentions without using words.
• Visual Communication: This includes graphs, charts, diagrams, photographs, videos, and other visual aids. Visual communication can simplify complex ideas and data and make communication more engaging.
• Persuasive Communication: This is used to influence others to take a specific action or adopt a particular viewpoint. Persuasive communication can be achieved through various techniques such as storytelling, emotional appeals, and logical arguments.
• Crisis Communication: This is used to address and manage communication during a crisis, such as a natural disaster, product recall, or data breach. Crisis communication requires timely and accurate information, empathy, and transparency.
• Interpersonal Communication: This refers to communication between individuals and is often used in social or professional contexts. Interpersonal communication can include active listening, feedback, and negotiation skills.

Integrated Marketing Communication Strategy  

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10 communication plan templates—and how to write your own

There's a warning on the box my steam iron came in that says, "Do not iron clothes while wearing them."

This gave me pause for a few minutes, but it got me thinking about the kind of lawsuit that prompted lawyers to include an otherwise obvious warning on the box and the kind of crisis communication plan that came to exist in the aftermath.

Add that to the "pudding will get hot when heated" warning and the trademark "shower cap fits only one head" disclaimer, and you've got yourself an era in which communication plans are not only a helpful organizational tool but a very necessary one.

Successfully running a company requires clear communication across the board: with employees, customers, investors, and any other stakeholders. Any gap in communication can lead to difficulties that range from minor project blips to absolute disaster. And while they're necessary for crisis management, communication plans have plenty of other uses beyond ensuring your consumer doesn't give themselves third-degree burns.

Table of contents:

Communication plan templates 

How to write a communication plan

Communication plan essentials, what is a communication plan.

A communication plan is your blueprint for delivering key information to appropriate stakeholders. It outlines the information that needs to be communicated, who it's meant for, the channel it's delivered through, and the folks in charge of it to ensure clear, consistent, and purposeful communication.

This document can look different depending on what it's used for. Here are some examples to give you an idea:

If I were creating a crisis communication plan for the unlikely event that someone irons their shirt while wearing it, I'd consider all the steps we'd have to take to avoid scrutiny and legal issues, like seeking medical attention, designating a spokesperson to represent our company, or press release strategies to address the issue. (I'd also consider whether the box should come with a logical analysis puzzle the user needs to solve before they can open it, but that's just me trying to fix the world one steam iron at a time.)

A marketing communication plan plays a different role. It's designed to outline responsibilities and initiatives within the grand scope of the marketing strategy to keep teams aligned and informed. One initiative I'd underline twice for our steam iron product would be to produce marketing imagery that clearly demonstrates how to iron a shirt—i.e., on an ironing board, not a body.

A product launch communication plan helps keep everyone on the same page regarding brand messaging, intended effects, and progress throughout the launch. Let's take Apple as an example. They're known for their meticulously planned and executed product launches. Their communication strategy involves creating anticipation through teaser campaigns, leveraging secrecy to build excitement, and hosting live events to unveil new products.

Bottom line: communication plans run the gamut. When it comes to format, some plans may be in a table format, outlining talking points and deadlines. Others may contain more of a narrative, meant to inform and update the reader on how a situation is being handled.

You can use a communication plan for both external and internal communication. An employee communication plan, for example, is only meant for your team's eyes. On the other hand, public relations communication plans can be used internally and can also be shared with relevant third parties for outreach and marketing purposes.

Communication plan templates

A communication plan is that one bookmark every employee clicks at the beginning of their day until they associate its main page with the smell of coffee.

Knowing what it is and why it matters is one thing, but understanding the different ways you can use a communication plan is another. Since there are so many different types of plans, I've put together a few templates to highlight the differences. Pick your (well-labeled) poison.

1. Marketing communication plan

This communication plan outlines your marketing initiatives for each audience. It tracks relevant information, including the person or team in charge of the project, tasks, timeline, communication channels, audience, and notes.

It also organizes this information based on each aspect of your marketing strategy, whether it's targeting existing clients, potential leads, investors, events, or any PR third parties. 

2. Crisis communication plan

No organization is immune to unexpected and challenging situations that can potentially harm its reputation and operations. This communication plan outlines a systematic approach to addressing crises, including key team members, their responsibilities, communication channels, and the predefined strategy.

It should include clear guidelines for rapid response, methods for updating stakeholders, and ways to mitigate potential damage to the organization's image. The plan should always outline the key crisis management team, their roles and responsibilities, procedures for identifying the crisis, and how to work with media outlets and external entities.

3. Internal communication plan

This communication plan is designed to ensure employees receive timely and relevant information, have clear visibility of organizational goals, and stay informed about key developments within the organization.

It includes details on communication channels, such as newsletters, meetings, and virtual seminars. Typically, it outlines how the leadership team communicates with employees, how frequently they can expect updates, and methods for gathering feedback to enhance internal communication across the board.

4. Social media communication plan

A social media communication plan guides a company's strategy in utilizing social media platforms for its communication goals. It's important for building a strong online presence, engaging with your target audience, and managing your company's reputation in the digital world.

This plan includes an overview of your social media content strategy , detailing the type of content you intend to share, how often you should publish posts, and the voice of the message. 

To make the most of your social media communication plan, define the target audience on each platform, outline KPIs for measuring success, and establish helpful guidelines that can tie into your crisis communication plan and leverage social media in case of an emergency.

5. Change management communication plan

If your company goes through grand-scale change such as mergers, rebranding, restructuring, or process optimization , a change management plan is crucial for ensuring your team is informed, engaged, and supportive of the changes. 

The team's going to need an explanation and a plan of action now that Janice is walking down the office toward the door marked "manager" with a big smile on her face.

Its goal is to facilitate a smooth transition and should always include clear messaging regarding the reasons for the change, the anticipated benefits, and how this could affect employees. It outlines the timeline for the change, strategies for addressing concerns, available communication channels, and any feedback regarding the process.

6. Non-profit communication plan

Non-profits operate differently from other organizations, and their communication plans reflect that. The document effectively conveys the non-profit's cause, engages stakeholders, and develops support. 

Since it's designed to build awareness, foster donor relationships, and maintain a level of transparency about the organization's impact, a non-profit communication plan should include well-crafted messaging that aligns with the org's values, outlines the strategy for reaching and mobilizing donors, and plans how to make the most of communication channels such as social media, newsletters, and events.

For a unique touch that sets your non-profit communication plan apart, emphasize storytelling to humanize your cause and connect with your audience on an emotional level. For example, you might include an initiative that triggers an automatic email when a donor registers or makes a contribution—something that reflects their impact on the cause.

7. Product launch communication plan

Developing a new product is a stressful and tedious process on its own. Introducing it to the world can be its own hassle, but a good communication plan can help simplify the process by creating anticipation, generating excitement, and breaking down the approach for a successful product launch.

Your plan should include key features and details about the product, the target audience, and market positioning . To nurture and engage that anticipation, you should also include a timeline for communication activities and strategies that cover the channels you intend to use, like social media, email marketing, and press releases.

To take it a step further, include messaging that addresses potential challenges and opens up the opportunity to receive feedback and gauge your customers' response to the launch.

8. Public relations communication plan

This communication plan is ideal for organizations that want to manage their brand reputation and build relationships with the public. Your brand image is an important aspect of business that can affect operations on every level, and nurturing it requires strategic communication, especially with media and public inquiries. You want the public eye to see you in your nice, freshly-ironed shirt.

A public relations communication plan includes key messaging, a media relations strategy, and a calendar of planned PR initiatives, as well as goals, target audiences, and metrics for monitoring the success of your PR efforts.

9. Employee communication plan

Any organization with a team bigger than six people can face major communication challenges, to say nothing of companies that employ staff in the hundreds and thousands. Company news, updates, policies, and initiatives that employees need to be aware of can be difficult to disseminate properly.

Sure, you can take your chances on a company-wide email, but it'll likely end up buried unopened somewhere in everyone's inbox, and you'll be standing there with the corporate equivalent of eating mango-scented shampoo.

An employee communication plan helps foster organizational transparency and workplace alignment within your team. It'll contribute to your company culture and enhance your employees' sense of belonging and connection to company goals.

This plan includes channels for internal communication as well as a content strategy that touches on employees' needs and concerns. While an internal communication plan focuses on the company's business goals, an employee communication plan addresses the company's internal development initiatives. 

10. Event communication plan

This communication plan guides your organization's efforts surrounding an event, ensuring effective promotion, coordination, and engagement. It's useful for managing the flow of information before, during, and after an event.

The plan includes key messaging, the timeline for the event's communication activities, strategies for putting channels like social media and email marketing to use, and how to properly approach inquiries and feedback from event attendees.

Each type of communication plan contains a different set of elements, but the process of putting a communication plan together, regardless of its purpose, remains the same. 

1. Set communication goals

I hate sounding like every therapist ever, but communication goals are very important. If your roommate doesn't understand that your scream of pain from the other room means you might have accidentally ironed a shirt while wearing it, help isn't coming, and your room will smell like barbeque. 

Your goals can range from increasing brand awareness and engagement to notifying stakeholders about a new product launch or managing an emergency. Setting these goals beforehand lays the foundation for the entire plan and defines communication channels, messaging strategies, and evaluation metrics. Focus on setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) business objectives .

If I were ironing a shirt, I'd outline my goal for a smooth, freshly-ironed shirt free of wrinkles, and I'd prepare for that by neatly placing the shirt, being conscious of those pesky corners, and keeping it nice and aligned before getting started. In the same vein, If I were writing a communication plan that focuses on brand awareness, I'd outline goals for social media campaigns and content marketing strategies. I'd aim to increase user engagement on each social media platform by a certain percentage, increasing visibility, ad clicks, and interaction with my brand.  

Clear communication goals give your organization a sense of direction and allow your team to accurately measure success, making adjustments based on tangible results.

2. Identify the audience

Each audience you're trying to reach through your communication plan will have its own unique expectations and concerns. The plan and the message within need to align with the audience's values and interests.

If you're writing for investors, the plan needs to outline your communication goals for them specifically, touching on relevant topics and important points. It would also designate how the information will be conveyed, by whom, and how to move forward if any variables were to shift. 

Conduct thorough market research , and collect relevant insight into your target audience's demographics, behaviors, and preferences. What data are you sharing with your investors? What kind of information would be both relevant and important to share with them? How can you best phrase that communication so it has a positive impact?

Who's telling the board that a customer ironed their shirt while wearing it?

A good practice is to segment your audience and create detailed personas to ensure your message is not only read but understood and embraced.

3. Outline key messages

The key information you're distributing through your communication plan is a delicate balance between the organization's goals and resonance with the audience. 

For example, a product launch communication plan doesn't really need your 25-year company trajectory outlined and explained. The key information here would pertain to the product itself, the process for the launch, steps to take, tasks to perform, and the timeline for the entire project.

Make your messages clear, concise, and compelling to leave a lasting impression. 

4. Choose communication channels

Outline which communication channels are best suited to execute your plan. For example, an employee communication plan should utilize private internal channels like meetings, internal platforms, or emails. Product launch communication plans should leverage external channels as well, like websites, social media, newsletters, and press releases.

Choose communication channels that fit the plan and can be integrated for a cohesive communication strategy that aligns with both your company's goals and the audience's preferences. Ask yourself: 

Who's meant to read this? 

How can I reach them? 

Is this private internal communication or is it meant for public distribution? 

Which channel would have the best visibility for my audience? 

5. Create a timeline

For the plan to be effective on any level, you need to outline its execution in a detailed timeline that sets the start and end dates of each initiative or item on the document.

Details such as specific dates for key events, launches, and regular updates anchor the plan and facilitate a proactive approach. The timeline is your audience's visual roadmap, and it is handy for allocating resources when you're executing your communication plan. 

6. Allocate resources

Putting the plan into action will require resources like budgets and staffing needs. Even time is a resource that needs to be considered. For example, your budget should account for advertising costs, materials, technology investments, and communication channels.

Allocating resources as soon as the timeline is clear ensures the communication plan runs smoothly and delivers the intended message across all initiatives. 

7. Designate responsibilities

If you run into an unexpected crisis situation while at the helm of an organization, even the most detailed communication plan won't make a difference if no one knows what they're supposed to be doing.

Designate responsibilities and outline who owns which task so that when the plan goes into action, your team can just refer to the document to know who's taking care of each task, who to reach out to, and what their part in the operation is.

This is important even in non-crisis situations. Let's say you're launching a new tech product. Your plan should designate your marketing director as responsible for presenting the new product concept and strategy to the company's executive board. It should also designate your marketing coordinators as responsible for any workshops or seminars for external partners like retailers and distributors. 

8. Create contingency plans

Always prepare for the unlikely. Create contingency plans to deal with challenges that might come up when you're executing your plan. What should the team do in the case of negative public reactions or technical difficulties? Who's taking charge of directing efforts in each aspect? How do you address potential issues should they arise? How do you pivot or proceed if you don't achieve your goals?

Be prepared for gaps in the execution, and outline proactive responses to bring the plan back on track.

9. Set metrics for evaluation

Measurement and evaluation are key for the development of your communication plan. You want to track and gauge how well the efforts outlined in your plan are performing.

You can monitor public perception and sales volume before and after implementing your crisis communication plan, or you can monitor KPIs like audience engagement, reach, and conversion rates when your new marketing plan goes into effect. In the case of internal and employee communication plans, you can monitor the change in processes and how it affects your team's efficiency and comfort levels. 

Leverage your communication channels to identify these metrics and areas for improvement, so you can keep adjusting your plan as you go.

10. Perform testing and gather feedback

While testing and gathering feedback are encouraged throughout the process, this relates more to testing your communication plan before you launch it.

For example, you can test how effective your communication plan is and how well it would be received through focus groups, pilot programs, or even internal experimentation.

Once you have feedback from your target audience, you'll be better positioned to refine your messaging and its presentation, and address pitfalls before you execute the plan.

You don't want your communication plan to be just another document in your arsenal of organizational tools. The goal is to make it a piece of your strategy that actively contributes to better communication and company-wide transparency. In order to write an effective communication plan, here are some essential points to consider:

Establish messaging and branding guidelines: Stick to your organization's tone, style, and visual uniqueness to keep your brand identity alive in all communications.

Monitor and adjust: Keep an eye on the plan's performance. Make efforts to adapt based on emerging trends, feedback, and unforeseen challenges.

Report and review: Set KPIs and review them to gauge the effectiveness of the communication plan and better prepare for future strategies.

Document your plan: Keep your plan detailed and well documented , so all team members are on the same page regarding your strategy.

Consistency and long-term planning: Maintain and encourage consistency in your messaging and plan for the long term. Align initiatives with your long-term communication goals.

You can launch exceptional initiatives with a communication plan template and set a unique process that's invaluable for your company's strategy in marketing, PR, change management, and crisis situations. The right plan can make your operations smoother, a bit like a steam iron would your shirt if you're conscious enough to not turn yourself into an ironing board.

Most importantly, it defines how your organization communicates—both internally and externally. It sets the pace and tone for future initiatives. As you become more accustomed to how they work, you'll be able to customize and create your own document templates for other aspects of your business. As you establish the foundation for business communication, you'll be able to automate every part of your project management flow and communicate those goals seamlessly. Find out how Zapier can help you streamline project management . 

Related reading:

The 6-step client onboarding checklist (with template)

7 meeting minutes templates for more productive meetings

One-pager examples and how to create your own

An exhaustive guide to customer acquisition strategy (with 13 examples)

20 free proposal templates to ace your pitch

How to create a sales plan (and 3 templates that do it for you)

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Hachem Ramki

Hachem is a writer and digital marketer from Montreal. After graduating with a degree in English, Hachem spent seven years traveling around the world before moving to Canada. When he's not writing, he enjoys Basketball, Dungeons and Dragons, and playing music for friends and family.

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Communication Strategy Framework And Why It Matters In Business

A communication strategy framework clarifies how businesses should communicate with their employees, investors, customers, and suppliers. Some of the key elements of an effective communication strategy move around purpose, background, objectives, target audience, messaging, and approach.

Table of Contents

Understanding a communication strategy framework

Fundamentally, an investment in a communication strategy framework (CSF) is an investment in success.

This is because success is dependent upon the individuals within a business and how well they communicate with internal and external stakeholders.

To encourage communication conducive to success, strategies formulated for a CSF must facilitate behavioral change.

For example, a business must communicate to its customers that it understands (and can subsequently meet) their needs. Suppliers want a business arrangement that is mutually beneficial.

A business must also satisfy investors with confident communication regarding future profitability.

Importantly, the CSF is a written plan in the form of a company vision . It clarifies what successful communication looks like and inspires stakeholders to work toward ambitious goals and objectives.

Key components of a communication strategy framework

While developing a CSF is more of an art than a science, there are several key components which should not be overlooked:

• Purpose – a brief statement regarding the communication strategy and how it will be implemented.
• Background – or a description of the initiative and the ideal outcome to be achieved.
• Objective(s) – all company communications should be in alignment with company objectives. Note that communication is not an end in itself – it should always guide broader objectives that reinforce a core vision or goals.
• Target audience – who is the strategy created for? Remember to create a strategy for each target audience.
• Messaging – to create a robust communication strategy , it’s crucial to understand what the target audience wants to hear and how they want to hear it. Communication should rely on storytelling that incorporates an interesting narrative, compelling imagery, or human interest. Research is crucial in understanding each audience and then crafting a story that is concise and relatable.
• Approach – how will the strategy be implemented? A business communicating a product recall may place television and newspaper advertisements. A business looking to increase investor confidence and transparency may conduct an external audit of internal operations.

Benefits of developing a communication strategy framework

For businesses undecided about developing a CSF, they should know that there are numerous benefits to doing so:

• Stronger relationships – customers who enjoy a strong relationship with a business tend to become loyal, repeat buyers. A stronger relationship with suppliers means they are more likely to accommodate a specific business’s needs. Businesses who invest in shareholder relationships get easier and continued access to investment capital.
• The ability to overcome obstacles – successful communication strategies have the potential to overcome obstacles that hinder growth . For example, a business that communicates well with governmental agencies may no longer be subject to red tape or excessive industry regulation.
• Increased awareness – businesses that take the time to engage in constructive communication with stakeholders naturally learn more about their specific needs, attitudes, and interests. With this newfound information, they can fine-tune their strategies to maximize effectiveness.

Key takeaways

• A communication strategy framework is a foundation for all internal and external messaging throughout a business.
• A communication strategy framework seeks to align company values, goals, and objectives with behaviors that contribute to long term success.
• Businesses that create communication strategy frameworks enjoy stronger, deeper, and longer-lasting stakeholder relationships. Some can also overcome traditional obstacles to growth such as government or industry regulation.

Key Highlights

• A communication strategy framework (CSF) outlines how businesses should communicate with various stakeholders.
• Success in business relies on effective communication with internal and external stakeholders.
• Investing in a CSF is an investment in success, as it facilitates effective communication that drives behavioral change.
• CSF guides stakeholders towards ambitious goals and objectives through a written plan resembling a company vision .
• Purpose : A concise statement on the communication strategy ’s implementation.
• Background : Describes the initiative and the desired outcome.
• Objective(s) : Aligns all communication with company objectives, reinforcing the core vision or goals.
• Target Audience : Identifies who the strategy is for and may involve separate strategies for different audiences.
• Messaging : Focuses on understanding the audience’s preferences and crafting concise, relatable storytelling.
• Approach : Describes the implementation methods, such as advertising or audits.
• Stronger Relationships : Improved relationships with customers, suppliers, and shareholders lead to loyalty and better access to capital.
• Overcoming Obstacles : Effective communication can help overcome growth -hindering obstacles like government regulations.
• Increased Awareness : Constructive communication helps businesses learn more about stakeholders’ needs, enhancing strategy effectiveness.
• A communication strategy framework guides all internal and external messaging in a business.
• It aligns values, goals, and objectives with behaviors that contribute to long-term success.
• Businesses benefit from stronger relationships, overcoming obstacles, and increased awareness when they create communication strategy frameworks.

Applied Communication Strategies

Read Next: Lasswell Communication Model , Linear Model Of Communication .

Connected Communication Models

Aristotle’s Model of Communication

Communication Cycle

Berlo’s SMCR Model

Helical Model of Communication

Lasswell Communication Model

Modus Tollens

Five Cannons of Rhetoric

Communication Strategy

Noise if Communication

7 Cs of Communication

Transactional Model of Communication

Horizontal Communication

Communication Apprehension

Closed-Loop Communication

Grapevine In Communication

Integrated Marketing Communication

Social Penetration Theory

Hypodermic Needle

7-38-55 Rule

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Blog Graphic Design 5 Ways to Make an Exciting Business Communication Plan

5 Ways to Make an Exciting Business Communication Plan

Written by: Daleska Pedriquez Sep 28, 2021

Good communication is a very important aspect of our lives.

A business with struggling internal and external communications often lags behind in growth and suffers from poor employee retention.

That is why most organizations learn how to create a  business communication  plan.

This ensures that the company won’t fall prey to any of the pitfalls above and ensures seamless communication.

Don’t know how to start creating a communications plan? No problem. With Venngage’s plan templates, you can design effective plans without design experience.

START CREATING FOR FREE

Click to jump ahead:

• What is a communication plan in business ?

What are the benefits of having a good business plan communication?

Examples of business communication strategies, business communication plan templates, what is a communication plan in business.

Business communication can be divided into two categories: internal and external.

Internal communications deal with how effectively anybody within the company communicates with each other.

It deals with issues regarding the flow of information, processes, and ideas in more specific terms.

On the other hand, the external part deals more with communication with the shareholders and the customers.

However, an internal communication plan, like this project plan template , is effective if the target audience in the organization understands and embraces it.

CREATE THIS PLAN TEMPLATE

It is not as simple as putting all those strategies in a manual, handing them out to your employees, and telling them to go nuts with it. Obviously, that won’t work.

A good communication plan needs to be able to seep itself slowly but effectively into your company’s culture and values.

Employees need to eat, sleep, and breathe good communication.

This is the reason why you need to have solid communication strategies in business . Be strategic about it, like with this crisis communication plan, and include some out-of-the-box ideas.

A business communication plan needs to have consistency, variety, informativeness, and entertainment.

That is what we want to help you with today. We want to give exciting business plan strategies that you can implement to boost your organization’s communication exponentially.

But before we go into that, let us dive into the importance of a communication plan.

Once your branding has been imported, you can add your  brand colors  to all templates with one click.

Related: 8 Steps to Create an Actionable Employee Development Plan [with Templates & Examples]

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Let us get to know first what great things will happen if communication is seamless within the company.

Things get done faster.

You can also use this template to convince investors and partners about the benefits of working with your company.

Design infographics like the above example using Venngage’s extensive icon library. We offer 40,000 icons as well as diverse people icons .

With a good business communication plan, the target audience within the organization knows the proper flow of information and absorbs the key messages.

Employees will also know whom they can talk to about certain things and whom they can’t talk to. The result? The communication strategy will help tasks around the company get done faster.

Solving issues and problems is quicker.

Problems and issues will always arise if you have a thriving business. Whether it’s logistics, sales, marketing, operations, etc., challenges abound almost daily.

For example, this sales action plan outlines how the business works, as well as performance indicators. This will help team members understand the budget and their goals.

With good communication channels, any issues with workflow get solved faster, and the company keeps moving forward and growing.

Design plans effectively with Venngage’s real-time collaboration feature, available with every Venngage Business account.

Employees feel more valued.

A company that fosters great internal communications with its people will always gain the latter’s loyalty. That loyalty can kick-start a lot of things like better efficiency and output.

Teams will also grow closer and form bonds. That is when the company can maximize even a small workforce.

Related:  How to Improve Employee Engagement with Visuals

Customer service improves.

Good communication plans also extend to one’s target audience. Customers always love swift, timely, and helpful responses.

A customer service mind map, like this example below, will make it easier for businesses to keep customers happy.

CREATE THIS MIND MAP TEMPLATE

If your company knows how to communicate its key messages with customers properly, you will react quicker than if you do not.

Employee retention rate increases.

What happens when employees feel more valued and have an easier time communicating with each other?

You get a lot of people willing to stay for a long time.

Bad employee retention rates cost companies a lot of money and task stagnation. Create an internal communication plan to manage this strategy, like this performance review process mind map.

Pair the communications strategy with effective communication channels to boost employee retention.

Create personalized documents with the  Venngage for Business  account. You can upload your own images to the editor. Or use one of the images from Venngage’s stock photo library.

Now that we have learned the benefits of a great business communication plan, let’s find out some of the most effective and exciting strategies out there.

Integrate fun videos into your communications strategy

If you want a good business communication plan example, then think of a video.

It’s no secret that videos can help people be more engaged, learn effectively compared to reading and writing, and understand key messages faster.

This one is really a no-brainer for external and internal communications.

An example of video communication is this video series about racial healing.

Other good examples of using videos in your business plan communication are monthly messages from the CEO.

Challenges and appreciative messages from the head of the company can easily be relayed to the employees. This is something that your people will surely love.

What is a communications strategy that works? Scheduled open meetings.

Scheduled open meetings are helpful for the company’s growth and can be something employees really look forward to.

How are they impactful for internal communications? And why should they be included in a communications strategy mind map, like this one? There are several great benefits that we should talk about.

First, open meetings encourage employees to share their thoughts and ideas.

This allows people to help grow into leadership roles while helping the company flourish by getting lots of fresh ideas.

Secondly, it can also be a place for employees to give their feedback. This helps the company continuously learn how their people feel so they can adjust accordingly.

Lastly, open meetings help empower employees and make them feel that they have a voice within the company. Issues also get resolved faster through these meetings.

For these reasons, every internal communication plan should include room for open meetings.

How to create a communication plan? Employee newsletters.

Another asset that should be added to an internal communication plan is employee newsletters , like this example.

CREATE THIS NEWSLETTER TEMPLATE

These help teams easily assimilate information in an entertaining and informative way.

Employee newsletters should be equal parts informative, professional, and sometimes silly.

If you look at an internal communication plan example from a company, it should include newsletters.

They are a great way to learn about new protocols, new products, and emergency news around the company, like in this reopening guide email.

With a  Venngage for Business  account, you can access the export as HTML feature. This makes it easier to import your design into Mailchimp or Outlook for a clickable email campaign.

Don’t forget to put stuff like fun and inspirational news about your people, whether it’s a bit personal (as long as it is still within respectable boundaries) or professional.

Related:  65+ Engaging Email Newsletter Templates and Design Tips

Good business plan communication strategies make training interesting.

During internal communications planning, the first thing that you need to think about is training or, more specifically, how you continuously and effectively train the workforce.

Jazz up your seminars by using entertaining tools like  infographics  and short videos. Infographics like a  project timeline template are also a great way to improve internal communications.

CREATE THIS INFOGRAPHIC TEMPLATE

Infographics are a fun and effective way to summarize data and information through the use of charts and eye-popping graphics.

Fire up the Venngage app and start making an infographic using hundreds of ready-made templates.

Use the large database of images, icons, and charts to give your training that much-needed punch.

Next, try to implement fun video slideshows in their training to keep their visual minds stimulated.

Videos are by far more effective than oral learning, so use those to your advantage.

Keep things consistent. Training shouldn’t be done just once and never again. Have a monthly training session if you can. And use visuals like this microlearning infographic.

Just make sure that you keep them entertained while you are at it.

Remember, when it comes to training, if they snooze, you lose.

Related:  How to Make Engaging Training Materials with Visuals (+ 20 Template Examples)

Another good business communication plan example? Use digital workspaces.

Digital workspaces allow teams to work and complete projects in a more efficient and timely manner.

That is why it is always a great idea to use those apps as part of your business plan communication strategy. You can adapt the communication plan below to accommodate digital workspaces.

With digital workspaces, everything is done online, so people can work faster even if they are at home.

This also allows them to communicate and post updates wherever they are.

Best of all, every step of the project is recorded with timestamps, so everyone can easily backtrack tasks and conversations.

Related:  18+ Project Management Infographics for Pain-Free Project Planning

You now know the importance of a communications plan. Here are some templates that will help you build better plans for your company.

Nonprofit campaign communications plan template

Using colors and lines, the template divides each section so the team is completely aligned. And you can adapt the visual for other types of companies, as well.

Marketing plan template

There are so many processes in a business. Keeping managers and team members on the same page can be a challenge.

This template can be customized for a variety of purposes, including creating a communications plan for a company.

Business update newsletter

We’ve already mentioned how useful newsletters are for boosting internal and external communications.

This customizable newsletter template is perfect for sharing updates with customers. It can easily be adapted to share news within a company, as well.

 Informational infographic template

Sharing information with employees doesn’t have to be boring. With this template, you can educate your target audience effortlessly.

The template has plenty of room to share information via text. But you can also add a diagram to illustrate your point.

Did you know you could create Smart Diagrams  with Venngage? Look for the Smart Templates tag in the Venngage library and start creating for free.

Customer onboarding plan

What’s one of the most important facets of a customer-facing business? Onboarding the customers efficiently.

Boost your communications plan by adding the following customer onboarding process infographic .

This template uses text, icons, and colors to make it more readable. These elements also make the steps in the infographic easy to follow and implement.

Good communication goes a long way.

Learning how to create a communication plan means that you need to understand how to make things fun for people.

That is why you need to implement some out-of-the-box ideas and refine the more traditional ones.

Get successful at this, and your company will reap the big benefits.

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How to create a business analysis communication plan

Lucid Content

Reading time: about 6 min

Business analysts help companies improve their processes, systems, and operations by analyzing current practices, defining business needs, and proposing solutions. In other words, business analysts (BAs) are in the business of change. 

Once BAs define the problems and the solutions, they help initiate changes through careful communication and planning across the organization. Because business analysis covers the entire organization, BAs must facilitate cross-functional communications that effectively speak to the needs for change and the path forward so stakeholders at every level support the initiative.  

That’s where a strong communication plan comes in.

BAs must be skilled communicators, enabled by a robust communication strategy and plan. Without buy-in from employees and leaders throughout the company, change initiatives will fall flat. 

Below we’ll cover what a business analysis communication plan is, why it’s important, and best practices for developing a BA communication strategy.

Why is it important to have a communication plan?

A formal communication strategy helps business analysts communicate change requirements, project initiatives, and business needs clearly and consistently. This is an important part of the communication strategy because business analysts must be able to communicate clearly across the organization throughout the iterative change management process. 

As projects and requirements evolve and different stakeholders engage in the process (or are impacted by the initiatives), communication acts as the glue that holds everything together and keeps everyone on the same page.

A communication plan provides a roadmap to guide messaging decisions and ensure that information is relayed in the right way to the right people. 

In short, a strong communication plan:

• Keeps things organized
• Drives efficiency through a set process
• Ensures the communications reach the right audience

What is a business analysis communication plan?

Requirements communication is an important part of a BA’s responsibilities. Ongoing, iterative communication helps BAs convey key business requirements, findings, and recommendations throughout the business analysis process. 

Business analysis and requirements communication involve numerous activities including:

• Managing conflicts
• Determining the requirements format
• Creating a requirements package
• Presenting the analysis and requirements
• Reviewing requirements
• Obtaining requirements signoff

To successfully communicate through each of these tasks, BAs need a clear communication plan. 

A business analysis communication plan is a framework that helps BAs document: 

• What information needs to be shared.
• Who needs to receive the information.
• When information should be delivered.
• How information will be shared (platform and setting).
• Required stakeholder actions (sign off, review, give feedback).
• Next steps after stakeholder actions.

A communication plan should outline the purpose of the communication, how those goals will be achieved, the audience, the timeline for delivery, and how results will be measured.

Use visuals to outline your communication plans and keep track of key messaging strategies. Visuals like a communication plan chart or communication matrix can help you get started.

Visualizing your communication plan will keep your framework organized into key categories such as stakeholders, deliverables, task or project owners, priority, and delivery method. Take advantage of visualization solutions that are easily shareable and collaborative to disseminate information efficiently and keep everyone on the same page. 

Best practices for developing communication plans

Creating and implementing a robust communication plan takes work. But the payoff is worth it. Use the following tips and best practices to nail your business communication every step of the way.

1. Determine your communication goals

What is your purpose for the communication? For instance, are you managing conflict, creating a requirements package, or seeking sign-off from stakeholders? Each objective will affect how you communicate with your audience and the tools and strategies you use. 

For example, if you are managing conflict surrounding business requirements and stakeholder expectations, you might have to get everyone in a room together to have a meeting to bridge the gap. Or, you may need to prepare a presentation with additional supporting research to back up your initial requirements analysis. 

2. Consider your audience 

How you communicate information will also depend on who your audience is. Consider what communication format and messaging is most effective for each individual or group you’re communicating with. 

For example, your audience may be most receptive to a formal presentation with follow-up emails. Meet your audience where they are while ensuring all requirements are fully documented throughout the process for reference.

Communication methods could include:

• Status reports
• Meeting summaries
• Presentations
• Video conferencing
• Chat or email
• Shared collaboration tools like interactive visuals

3. Pay attention to frequency

Communication can make or break your company’s engagement. While what you say is important, how often you communicate can play an equally important role in building trust and keeping everyone on the same page throughout the change management process. 

Don’t leave people to guess what is going on in the business or how it might impact them. Bring people into the conversation so you are always working from the most up-to-date information and ensuring no one is left in the dark. 

Paying attention to the frequency and cadence of your communications will improve engagement and buy-in from your stakeholders across the organization.  

4. Use visuals to deliver your communication

Communication must be consistent and clear. Avoid text-heavy, complex plans in favor of easy-to-digest roadmaps. While many BAs outline their plans in spreadsheets or text documents, visuals can help you organize and present your messaging plans and information simply and effectively through every business analysis stage.

The following templates can help you get started:

BPMN process flow diagrams help analysts understand current business processes and identify opportunities to improve them. These are a great addition to your BA toolbelt both for analyzing and documenting as-is processes as part of your analysis, as well as communicating your findings to stakeholders. Use these diagrams to illustrate current processes and pinpoint where and how your recommendations fit in.

Current vs. Target Balanced Scorecard

Balanced scorecards help BAs compare current business metrics to strategic goals. These are a great tool for analyzing the gap between where the business is now and where it would like to be. Use balanced scorecards to help communicate gaps in your strategic targets and support your case for recommended requirements.

Business Model Canvas

A Business Model Canvas is a one-page document that summarizes your business plans. This is a great asset for BAs because it succinctly communicates strategy, plans, and vision with enough detail to provide context and clear information about process and decision-making. 

Business Model Canvas organizes the following information in one easy-to-digest visual:

• Value proposition —What problem are you solving
• Key partners —Who needs to be involved in producing and delivering these solutions
• Key activities —What needs to be done to achieve your goal
• Key resources —What you need to deliver these results
• Customer relationships —How do you talk to your market about these solutions
• Customer segments —Who needs your solution 
• Channels —How will you deliver your solution

This visual is a great tool for organizing your plans and communicating the business value of your recommendations to stakeholders at every level.

A successful business analysis isn’t complete without a well-executed communication plan. Use these tips to bring your organization together on key business requirements and make an impact today. 

Create a robust communication plan and strategy to gain employee buy-in and communicate key details with stakeholders in Lucidchart.

About Lucidchart

Lucidchart, a cloud-based intelligent diagramming application, is a core component of Lucid Software's Visual Collaboration Suite. This intuitive, cloud-based solution empowers teams to collaborate in real-time to build flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, customer journey maps, and more. Lucidchart propels teams forward to build the future faster. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucidchart.com.

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Creating a Communications Plan: The Key to Effective Outreach

More than having a great product or service is required in any business. To truly succeed, effective communication is indispensable. It is the foundation on which you build your business relationships, the key to unlocking your team’s potential, and how you can connect with your customers. Without it, your business is at a significant disadvantage.

By prioritizing communication, you will set yourself up for success and position yourself to achieve your goals. Remember, communication is not just important – it is essential. It serves as the glue that binds teams together, ensures everyone is on the same page, and propels organizations toward their goals. However, achieving this cohesion and clarity requires more than casual conversation—it demands a strategic approach.

This is where the concept of a communications plan comes into play, serving as a roadmap to guide outreach efforts and ensure that messages are delivered effectively.

Table of Contents

Understanding the Importance of Communication Planning

In the modern business, planned communication is not a luxury—it’s a necessity. Communication planning is the compass that aligns messaging with organizational objectives, ensuring that every interaction serves a purpose and moves the company forward. Take, for example, a company launching a new product. Without a comprehensive communications plan, key messages may get lost in the noise, and the intended audience may remain unaware of the product’s unique value proposition.

A well-thought-out plan, on the other hand, can transform the trajectory of a product launch. Organizations can ensure that their message resonates with the right people at the right time by identifying the target audience, selecting the most effective communication channels, and crafting engaging content. This enhances brand reputation and fosters more profound connections with stakeholders, from customers to investors.

A communication plan is equally indispensable in project management. Imagine a large-scale project with multiple team members and stakeholders involved. With a clear strategy, communication and clarity can ensure progress and lead to a smooth process. Teams can establish channels for sharing updates and ensure everyone stays informed throughout the project with an effective communication plan template.

Communication planning is more than just delivering messages—it’s about achieving results. Effective communication is important for success in any venture, whether launching a new product, managing a project, or dealing with a crisis. Organizations can create a communication plan that meets and exceeds expectations by identifying specific goals, determining the best channels for reaching the audience, and delivering engaging content.

In the fast-paced business world, good communication is not just a nicety—it’s essential to driving growth and achieving success. Organizations can ensure they effectively communicate with their audiences and achieve their objectives by creating a communications plan that sets SMART goals, identifies key messages, and leverages multiple tools and channels.

The Fundamentals of Communication Planning

Effective communication doesn’t happen by chance in business—it results from planning and strategic thinking. To lay a solid foundation for successful outreach, organizations must delve into the fundamentals of communication planning. This involves a multifaceted approach encompassing defining objectives, identifying target audiences, and selecting appropriate channels for message delivery.

At the heart of any communication plan lies a clear understanding of objectives. Defining specific goals is crucial for guiding communication efforts, whether increasing brand awareness, driving sales, or managing a crisis. For example, a company aiming to expand its market may set objectives to increase brand visibility among a younger demographic through targeted social media campaigns.

Identifying the intended audience is equally essential. A one-size-fits-all approach rarely yields optimal communication results. Organizations can craft their messages to resonate with different segments by segmenting based on demographics or behavioral patterns. For instance, a luxury fashion brand may target affluent millennials on Instagram with visually stunning content while reaching out to baby boomers through traditional print media.

Selecting the proper communication channels is another critical aspect of the planning process. With various options available, from social media platforms to traditional print media, organizations must choose channels that align with their audience’s preferences and behaviors. For instance, a tech startup targeting a younger, tech-savvy audience may prioritize channels like Instagram and TikTok, while a B2B enterprise might focus on LinkedIn and industry-specific forums.

Moreover, strategic thinking is key to adapting to changing circumstances. In today’s fast-paced business environment, flexibility is paramount. A crisis communication plan, for example, requires organizations to anticipate challenges and craft proactive strategies for mitigating reputational damage. Organizations can confidently navigate crises and minimize negative impacts on their brand by identifying potential risks and crafting preemptive responses.

Effective communication planning involves aligning objectives with audience needs and selecting the most suitable channels to deliver compelling messages. By embracing strategic thinking and remaining adaptable in the face of uncertainty, organizations can ensure that their communication efforts yield tangible results and propel them toward their goals.

Key Components of a Communications Plan

A robust communications plan is more than just a collection of ideas—it’s a strategic framework that guides every aspect of an organization’s outreach efforts. To build an effective plan, it’s essential to break down its components and understand how each contributes to overall success.

At the core of any communication plan lies the messaging—the central ideas and themes organizations aim to convey to their target audience. Crafting clear, concise, and compelling messages is essential for capturing the audience’s attention and driving desired actions. For example, a nonprofit organization advocating for environmental conservation may develop messaging focused on raising awareness about the importance of sustainability and inspiring individuals to take action through small, everyday changes.

Once messaging is established, organizations must determine their tactics to deliver those messages effectively. This may involve various communication methods, including social media, email marketing, public relations campaigns, etc. For instance, a tech company launching a new product may employ a multi-channel approach, combining press releases, influencer partnerships, and targeted advertising to generate buzz and drive sales.

A well-defined timeline ensures communication efforts unfold smoothly and align with organizational objectives. By setting clear deadlines and milestones, teams can stay on track and adapt their strategies. For example, a retailer planning a holiday marketing campaign may establish specific launch dates for promotional activities, sales events, and customer outreach initiatives to capitalize on seasonal trends and maximize impact.

Evaluation Metrics

Finally, an effective communication plan must include metrics for measuring success and evaluating the effectiveness of communication efforts. Whether tracking website traffic, social media engagement, or customer feedback, having measurable indicators allows organizations to assess performance objectively and make data-driven decisions. For instance, a healthcare provider launching a new patient portal may track user adoption rates, satisfaction scores, and online appointment bookings to gauge the platform’s impact on patient engagement and satisfaction.

Successful communication plans come in various forms and serve diverse purposes across industries. For instance, a crisis communication plan for a financial institution may focus on maintaining trust and transparency during market volatility. In contrast, an internal communication plan for a global corporation may prioritize keeping remote teams connected and informed.

By breaking down the essential elements of a communications plan and providing examples of successful strategies in various industries, organizations can gain insights into developing tailored plans for achieving their communication objectives.

Steps to Creating an Effective Communications Plan

Developing a comprehensive communications plan requires a systematic approach encompassing research, strategy development, implementation, and ongoing evaluation. By following a step-by-step process and emphasizing collaboration and feedback, organizations can create a roadmap for effective communication that aligns with their goals and resonates with their target audience.

Step 1: Research and Analysis

Before diving into the planning process, conducting thorough research and analysis is essential to gain insights into your audience, competitors, and industry landscape. This may involve gathering data on consumer preferences, market trends, and communication channels used by competitors. For example, a hospitality company planning a rebranding campaign may conduct surveys and focus groups to understand customer perceptions and preferences regarding their brand.

Step 2: Define Objectives and Audience

Based on the research findings, define clear objectives for your communication plan and identify your target audience. Whether raising brand awareness, increasing sales, or improving customer satisfaction, setting SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) is essential for guiding your communication efforts. For instance, a software company launching a new product may set objectives to generate a certain number of leads within a specific timeframe and target software developers and IT professionals as their primary audience.

Step 3: Develop Key Messages and Tactics

Craft concise, compelling key messages that convey your value proposition and resonate with your audience. Once the messaging is established, determine the tactics and communication methods you’ll use to deliver these messages effectively. For example, a fashion retailer promoting a new clothing line may use social media influencers, email newsletters, and in-store events to reach their audience and drive sales.

Step 4: Identify Communication Channels

Select communication channels that align with your audience’s preferences, such as social media, email, traditional media, or in-person events, to effectively deliver key messages. For instance, a nonprofit organization raising awareness about a social cause may leverage social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter to engage younger audiences while utilizing traditional media outlets to reach older demographics.

Step 5: Implementation and Monitoring

Once your communication plan is developed, it’s time to implement it and monitor its effectiveness. Assign roles to team members, establish timelines for execution, and create mechanisms for tracking progress and collecting feedback. Regularly review and evaluate your communication efforts against predetermined metrics to identify areas for improvement and make adjustments as needed. For example, a tech startup launching a crowdfunding campaign may assign roles for managing social media outreach, monitoring campaign performance, and responding to donor inquiries.

Step 6: Collaboration and Feedback

Throughout the planning and implementation process, emphasize collaboration and feedback among team members and stakeholders. Encourage open communication and create opportunities for sharing ideas, insights, and concerns. By fostering a culture of improvement, organizations can ensure that their communication efforts remain relevant, effective, and aligned with their overall objectives.

In conclusion, creating an effective communications plan requires careful planning, strategic thinking, and collaboration among team members and stakeholders. By following these steps and emphasizing the importance of research, goal-setting, and ongoing evaluation, organizations can develop a roadmap for communication that drives results and achieves their desired outcomes.

Maximizing Impact: Tips for Successful Delivery

Delivering a communications plan is where the rubber meets the road—it’s where strategy transforms into action and where the success of your efforts is determined. To ensure your communication plan achieves maximum impact, consider the following practical tips for successful execution:

1. Embrace Creativity:  

Standing out requires creativity in today’s crowded marketplace. Think outside the box and find ways to engage your audience. Creativity can captivate attention and leave a lasting impression through compelling storytelling, interactive content, or innovative campaigns. For example, a cosmetics brand may create a series of visually stunning tutorials featuring influencers to showcase their latest product line engagingly and memorably.

2. Prioritize Authenticity:  

Authenticity breeds trust and loyalty. Be genuine in your communication efforts and strive to connect with your audience personally. Authenticity builds credibility and fosters meaningful customer relationships, ultimately driving brand loyalty and advocacy. For instance, a food delivery service may share behind-the-scenes stories of its delivery drivers to humanize its brand and showcase its commitment to customer satisfaction and safety.

3. Maintain Consistency:  

Consistency is important to building brand recognition and reinforcing key messages. Ensure your communication efforts are aligned across all channels and touchpoints, maintaining a cohesive brand identity and voice. Consistent messaging fosters brand familiarity and helps to keep your audience engaged and informed. For example, a fitness apparel company may consistently promote a message of empowerment and inclusivity across its social media platforms, website, and advertising campaigns, reinforcing its brand values and resonating with its target audience.

In today’s business, effective communication is non-negotiable. The thread connects organizations with their audience, drives engagement, and fosters growth. By investing in developing a tailored communication strategy, businesses can unlock their full potential.

As you reflect on the insights shared in this post, I encourage you to take action and embark on your journey of communication planning. Whether you’re launching a new product, managing a crisis, or simply seeking to strengthen relationships with your audience, a well-executed communication plan can make all the difference. Remember, success is not just about what you say—it’s about how you say it and its impact on those who receive your message.

So, seize the opportunity to create your communication plan rooted in creativity, authenticity, and consistency. Your audience is waiting to be inspired, informed, and engaged—what will your message be?

What is meant by planning communication?  

Planning communication involves strategically organizing and coordinating the dissemination of messages to achieve specific objectives. It encompasses identifying target audiences, selecting appropriate communication channels, and creating messages that resonate with the intended audience.

Example:  Using a timeline, a coordinated and impactful launch strategy can be achieved by planning communication for a product launch via social media posts, email newsletters, and press releases.

How is effective communication planned?  

Effective communication is intended by setting clear objectives, understanding the target audience, selecting suitable communication channels, and crafting compelling messages. It involves aligning communication efforts with organizational goals and continuously monitoring and adapting strategies based on feedback and performance metrics.

Example:  A nonprofit organization plans effective communication for a fundraising campaign by conducting audience research, segmenting donors based on giving preferences, and tailoring communication messages and channels accordingly.

What should a communications plan include?  

A communications plan should include objectives, target audience analysis, key messages, communication channels, a timeline, responsibilities, and evaluation metrics. It is a roadmap for guiding communication efforts and ensuring consistency and effectiveness.

Example:  A crisis communication plan for a healthcare organization includes key messages for addressing patient concerns, communication channels for disseminating updates, and designated spokespeople responsible for managing media inquiries during emergencies.

What is the purpose of your communications plan?  

A communications plan aims to facilitate effective communication by outlining clear objectives, identifying target audiences, and defining strategies and tactics for delivering messages. It ensures that communication efforts align with organizational goals and resonate with the intended audience.

Example:  A communication plan for a new employee onboarding program aims to provide timely and relevant information to new hires, fostering a positive experience and facilitating their integration into the organization.

What is the meaning of a communication plan?  

A communication plan is a documented strategy that outlines how an organization will communicate with its stakeholders to achieve specific goals. It includes target audience analysis, key messages, communication channels, and evaluation metrics.

Example:  A communication plan for a corporate rebranding initiative outlines the messaging strategy, identifies internal and external stakeholders, and specifies the timeline and channels for announcing the rebrand to employees, customers, and the public.

Why is planning important in communication?  

Planning is essential in communication to ensure that messages are delivered effectively, consistently, and aligned with organizational goals. It helps to avoid miscommunication, fosters clarity and understanding, and maximizes the impact of communication efforts.

Example:  Planning is important in crisis communication to anticipate potential scenarios, develop response strategies, and establish protocols for communicating with stakeholders during emergencies, minimizing reputational damage, and maintaining public trust.

What are the basics of communication planning?  

The basics of communication planning include defining objectives, identifying target audiences, crafting key messages, selecting communication channels, developing a timeline, assigning responsibilities, and establishing evaluation metrics. These elements form the foundation of an effective communication strategy.

Example:  The basics of communication planning for a corporate event include setting objectives such as increasing brand awareness, identifying target audience segments such as industry professionals and media representatives, and selecting communication channels such as email invitations, social media announcements, and press releases.

What are the essentials of a communication plan?  

The essentials of a communication plan include clear objectives, audience analysis, key messages, communication channels, a timeline, responsibilities, and evaluation metrics. These elements are crucial for guiding communication efforts and ensuring that messages are delivered effectively to achieve desired outcomes.

Example:  The essentials of a communication plan for a product launch include defining objectives such as generating buzz and driving sales, conducting audience analysis to identify target demographics and preferences, and selecting channels such as social media, different marketing, and influencer partnerships to reach potential customers.

Your guide to crafting an internal communication plan

Last updated

Reviewed by

Warren Jonas ACC

The method and strategy you use to share updates, company news, or operational guidance fall into the category of internal communications. If you don’t have a dedicated internal communication plan, it’s time to develop one.

Today’s business environment, regardless of your industry, is fast-paced and ever-changing. A robust internal comms plan is your company’s ticket to success, as it facilitates the seamless and efficient flow of information.

So, if you’re struggling to organize a communications strategy with your teams, keep reading. This guide offers actionable insights and step-by-step tutorials for crafting an effective internal communication plan that keeps everyone within your organization in the loop.

• What is an internal communication plan?

Let’s start with the basics. An internal communication plan typically lives as a flexible document for everyone to see, reference, and use that outlines how people within your company share information. Think of it as a structured approach to getting the word out—whether it’s an announcement about casual Fridays or a more official state-of-the-company quarterly address. 

An internal communication plan often documents key messaging initiatives and definitions, including the following:

Your company’s audiences or target departments

The channels you’ll predominantly use to communicate

The frequency with which you’ll expect teams to communicate

Metrics to gauge communication and messaging effectiveness

This approach is also highly effective for organizing who should handle communications. This person or people should be prepared and ready. In larger organizations, multiple preparation sessions are conducted to ensure leadership is primed and equipped to carry out the planned communications.

Internal communication plan vs. internal communication strategy

Think of your communications strategy as the long-term roadmap defining how your sharing of information aligns with core business goals.

The internal communication plan is different. It’s a detailed outline defining the range of tactical activities that ultimately support your overall comms strategy. The comms plan is your action roster of how-to steps for facilitating effective information and data sharing.

Internal communication plan vs. external communications

Internal communications refers to information shared with target employees or anyone within a company’s organizational structure.

External communications, on the other hand, refers to messaging that targets external audiences, including customers, vendors, and the public.

• Why do you need an internal communication plan?

Companies, small and large, should have an internal communication plan for several reasons.

Firstly, it serves as a commitment to transparency and consistency, providing stability to your teams. It’s also a great historical resource you can reference later and adapt according to your business model, team dynamics, and growth.

Here are the primary advantages you can expect your internal comms plan to bring:

Improved employee engagement

By adopting an internal communication plan, you’ll see significant improvements in employee engagement. People tend to engage more favorably at work and with their job when they feel informed and connected to the company. 

Strengthened company culture

A robust internal comms plan will foster a healthy company culture rooted in transparency, where information sharing is a priority. Employees who feel informed are more likely to align and engage with the company’s overarching objectives and work toward them.

It also works the other way around. Companies that routinely share information encourage teams to share insights and observations themselves. This collaborative and healthy exchange leads to a positive company culture overall.

Seamless company-wide communications

Make sure your teams are getting essential information through dedicated channels.

A well-designed comms plan helps avoid unintended negative consequences. For example, when people don’t feel they are getting the information they need to perform their jobs—or if they are only informed occasionally—they may invent their own assumptions to fill in information gaps, potentially spelling disaster for projects, performance, budgets, and morale.

Company-wide communication is a great opportunity for senior leaders to share clear explanations and engage in Q&A sessions. These approaches facilitate interactive discussions where diverse perspectives can be shared, ensuring the whole organization has clarity.

Your internal comms plan should be official and available to all employees, which represents your company’s commitment to company-wide communication.

• Types of information to share

Use your internal communication plan to funnel necessary and important information to your teams. Here are some of the different types of internal communications you might include in your plan:

Employee recognition

Team milestones

Health and wellness initiatives

Employee benefits updates

Internal job openings

Training opportunities

Customer success stories and feedback

Emergency or crisis communications, protocols, or procedures

Financial, compliance, or regulatory updates

Company culture, values, or hybrid work opportunities

Corporate events, team-building activities, or holiday parties

• Guiding principles for an internal communication plan

When developing your internal communication plan, follow these guiding principles for effective results.

Transparency

Be prompt and diligent about sharing information and do so in a straightforward way.

While this might often be easier for positive communications, more complicated or negative information also needs to be shared readily and with transparency. Waiting too long to disclose information can negatively impact your company. For example, communicating bad news (about pay cuts or layoffs, for example) has to be swift or employees will become resentful for being left in the dark.

Communication among team members is more productive when infused with empathy.

Adopt emotionally intelligent approaches when having conversations and disseminating information. This is especially important during uncertain or challenging times.

Carefully consider how employees are likely to receive information so that you don’t overwhelm them or provide insufficient critical details. You’ll also need empathy to recognize and respect time zone differences, cultural variances, and individual preferences and needs.

Discoverability

Don’t just share critical information once. Consider creating hubs where that information can live publicly, making it easy for employees to reference it at a later date.

Keep in mind that people process information differently. Offering multiple options ensures more people can understand key points.

Company updates, new guidelines, and announcements should be delivered and then made available for teams to find and reference later. This also keeps the flow of information going for employees who join your company after the announcements were first made.

Adaptability

Your internal comms plan should remain as dynamic as your teams. Situations arise, and industries and guidelines shift constantly.

As your team grows and changes, so will its need for communication. You can ask your employees for regular feedback about how they prefer to be informed so you can deliver accordingly. It’s also a good idea to review your comms plan every few weeks to adjust channels or frequency if needed.

• Key components of an internal communication plan

Your internal communications plan should include seven key components. Of course, every business has a slightly different model and structure, so your official plan will also differ. However, the following core pillars are typical in most plans:

Analysis of the current state of your business: this is an overview of how your company communicates now and what you hope to improve with your internal comms plan. Use metrics and employee feedback to guide your analysis.

Goals: outline your core objectives and goals for the communication plan. Include goals you hope to achieve immediately, as well as long-term growth objectives.

Target audience: determine whether your internal comms plan will speak to all your employees or select teams. An all-staff messaging plan might differ from a managers-only plan.

Communication channels: understand how you’ll disseminate information, including tactics, channels, and strategies. Choose channels that make sense for your audience, and be prepared to upgrade tools and software to facilitate these.

Message strategy: decide what types of messages, including topics, you intend to share and why. Decide if you plan to share news, reviews, company growth statistics, regulatory updates, or anything else.

Messaging frequency: schedule a consistent frequency for sending messages and sharing information with employees. Stick to the plan you create, or your teams will lose faith in your efforts.

Metrics and evaluation tools: prepare a strategy for monitoring your internal comms performance and identifying whether you need any technology upgrades. For example, you might ask employees to share their thoughts on which comms channels work best.

• How to create an internal communication plan

Keeping these seven key elements in mind, create tables to help you visualize the flow of information throughout your company.

Step 1: Organizing your tables

Create your tables with appropriate columns labeled for audience, content, channels, and purpose.

Coordinate your rows with labels for daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, and ad-hoc. You can keep your grid adaptable so that you can make changes later on. However, the rows and columns should be more concrete.

Step 2: Segmenting your audiences

Consider segmenting your audience. For example, you might dedicate a specific internal comms plan for executive leadership, off-site teams, and employees.

Companies sometimes segment communications based on emergency versus non-emergency information.

Step 3: Selecting your communications channels

Choose a communication channel that aligns best with each of your audience segments. Think about your content, too, ensuring you choose the appropriate channels.

For example, you might want to use Slack as your channel for company updates but hold a virtual town hall webinar for big company announcements and Q&A sessions. It might also make sense to dedicate one specific channel to company alerts or emergencies.

Step 4: Plugging in the details

Once your tables are organized and labeled, you can start plugging in the details and messages.

Be mindful of the corresponding goals for each message and always prioritize those that build trust, connect staff to leaders, and resonate authentically.

• Challenges to consider

When you build out your business’s internal communication plan, be aware of and prepare for certain challenges that may arise. The following challenges are some of the most common:

Changing communication channels as the company innovates, as this requires flexibility

Remote and hybrid working environments, which call for unique communications

Company changes, like mergers or downsizing

Security and confidentiality of company messaging

What are the four types of internal communication?

Internal communications usually flow in four directions, which are also considered the four types of communication.

Downward communication from upper management to subordinates (e.g., goals and instruction)

Upward communication from lower levels of the organization to management (e.g., feedback and suggestions)

Lateral communication between colleagues at the same organizational level (e.g., collaboration and problem-solving)

Diagonal communication across departments or teams (e.g., addressing agility or responsiveness)

Which is the best example of internal communications?

Some of the most commonly leveraged examples of internal communications include all-staff emails, team meetings, and in-person/oral meetings. However, other digital software platforms like Slack, Monday, and ClickUp are also great ways to disseminate internal communications and information. It’s not uncommon for today’s companies to invest in intranet solutions to facilitate internal communications.

What are SMART goals for internal communications?

SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) can help keep your internal communication plan rooted in its core components and aligned with your company objectives.

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