Definition: A communication plan helps a company plan how to reach its audience. Communications planning helps firms provide a clear, measurable message. Modern marketing methods use multiple tools, such as storytelling and a communication strategy template, to help firms understand how to reach more people with their messages.
This post will explain the role of the communication plan in project management, public relations, project action plans, and other company communications so you can know what to put in your communication plan template. Let us begin-
Table of Contents
What is a Communication Plan?
A communication plan is a policy-driven approach for delivering information to stakeholders acceptably and effectively.
Specifically, it is a comprehensive plan for delivering strategic information to the intended audience to improve company results. Communication plans address the organization you want to contact, the message to send, and the methods or communication channels to reach them efficiently.
It should also clarify who can convey confidential or sensitive information and how it should be shared or transferred.
Key Takeaways
- A communication plan is a strategic way to communicate your word to the right people.
- It is essential for managing projects, dealing with the press, and various business interactions.
- A communication plan is essential to modern marketing tactics that help tell good stories.
- The plan lists the group to contact, the message to send, and how to contact people.
- There are rules about who can share private information and how it should be shared.
Importance of a Communication Plan
Following are some of the essential points that highlight the need for communication plans
1. Clarifying the objectives and goals of the agency
Considering the plan as a roadmap, a firm knows the destination, but it needs to be aware of its reach. The role of a communication plan is to solve the problem of clarifying an agency’s objectives.
2. Specifying relationships among audiences, channels, messages, activities, and materials
Researching the communication planning process will help a firm identify whom it wants to reach, informing them what form of information it wants to extract from them and the channels to reach them.
The firm will find that each individual or organization it seeks has unique features and different demands. Planning is influential in coping with this by communicating the most effective way to converse with them.
3. Identifying and implementing a variety of communication activities
Several different communication methods are used to spread a firm’s message to an audience. This will help it decide which activities it shall engage in to avoid continuously being pulled on different roads.
4. Clarifying stakeholders’, staff members, and others’ roles in the process
People in an organization should know their contribution to the organization and what departments they are responsible for. A well-defined plan will help them manage their responsibilities and contribute effectively to their firm.
5. Including stakeholder input in the communication process
Stakeholders are some of the most influential persons in an organization. A specifically designed communication plan for stakeholders will describe how much the organization values their input.
6. Gauging the success of plans and areas in need of strengthening
Organizations often do a mid-way analysis or a course review to determine their strengths, weaknesses, and speed-breakers in their progress and form new methods and approaches to combat such issues. They can develop a unique, specified, tailored evaluation strategy to gather all the necessary information to improve their plan.
Top benefits of communication planning
Making a complete communication plan has many benefits that go beyond the scope of a single marketing campaign. It gives your company the tools it needs for efficient and effective messaging, which leads to several key benefits:
- Definition of Clear Goals: A well-organized communication plan is like a map that helps your business get where it wants to be. Writing down your goals and the steps you need to take to reach them can ensure that everyone on your team is on the same page.
- Understanding Your Audience: When you plan your messaging, you can carefully examine and learn about the people you want to reach. By understanding their specific likes and concerns, you can ensure your words hit home with them and pick the best channels to connect with each group.
- Optimizing Communication Strategies: There are many ways to get your message out there, and a strategic plan can help you choose the best. This goal ensures that your resources are put toward the things with the most significant effect.
- Making Roles and Responsibilities Clear: For a conversation to work, it is essential to know how tasks are assigned to team members and stakeholders. A detailed plan sets clear roles and functions for everyone, which encourages teamwork and ensures that everyone is on the same page.
- Promoting Creativity and Inclusion: Including a wide range of people in the planning process, from staff to partners and beyond, brings many different points of view. This openness boosts imagination and ensures that your communication strategy works for more people.
- Including Feedback: Asking peers for feedback and including it in your communication plan shows that you care about their points of view. This flexible method lets you keep improving and perfecting your strategy.
- Measuring Success and Finding Opportunities: It is essential to monitor the effectiveness of your communication plan. By examining what went well and what could be done better, you can change and adapt your method to ensure continued success.
In addition, a well-thought-out communication plan has unique operational benefits, such as
- Getting rid of app overload: By clarifying which platforms are best for different kinds of contact, you can eliminate the need to constantly switch between apps. This streamlining saves time and increases output by letting people focus on the important work instead of the details of running the business.
- Making collaboration better: A clear communication plan clearly outlines where and how the team should work together. By eliminating obstacles to successful collaboration, clear guidelines make team members feel more at ease and boost their confidence, especially in remote or distributed teams.
- Avoiding Duplicate Work: If you know exactly where information is stored, you will not have to do the same work twice. By avoiding the problems that come with “work about work,” team members can focus on tasks that matter, which makes the group more efficient and transparent.
Elements of a communications plan
A communication plan tells people inside and outside a company how to share information, when, and what to share. Here are the main parts of a robust communication plan that we will break down:
- Audience Identification: Identify and group your customers. Figure out who needs certain information or updates, like department heads needing performance reports or clients looking for project milestones.
- Message Timing: Time is significant. Figuring out the best times to share information to have the most effect and benefit is crucial.
- Choice of Channels: Use the correct mix of media. You could use business intranets, memo blasts, project management tools, or face-to-face meetings to communicate your point.
- Content Strategy: Be very clear about what you need to share. Each group in your audience needs information made explicitly for them, whether they need executive summaries for the board or complete guides for technical teams.
- Authority and Privacy: It is essential to be clear about who can share private information. This could include rules for sharing private information or communicating during a crisis.
- Feedback Mechanisms: Make sure the street goes both ways. Set up straightforward ways for people with a stake in the matter to give their opinions, like surveys, idea boxes, or interactive town halls.
- Documentation and Record-Keeping: Keep very accurate records. Whether you are saving email correspondence, meeting minutes, or feedback logs, you need to leave a trail for accountability and future use.
How to write a Communication Plan?
Following are some steps that an organization should follow to write an effective communication plan:
1. Conduct an audit of your current communication materials
Any company that wants to write down a plan should know how it will be used. It is essential to closely examine how people are communicating in the company right now. It helps figure out where the organization’s problems are.
To do a good audit, a company needs to carefully collect and analyze data and information based on how well its current marketing plan is working and create a plan based on what has worked in the past. A company can also try holding focus groups or sending surveys to the people it wants to reach to find problems with how interactions are currently set up to date.
2. Set SMART goals for your communications plan
After you finish your audit, the next step in making a communication plan is to set SMART goals. A company needs to set clear goals based on what it learned from the last audit.
A group should ensure its targets and goals are SMART, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based. To put it another way, this step involves figuring out and writing down the business goals. Every time the company sets a goal, the team must do everything possible to reach it.
This means the team will only reach its goals if it knows what it is trying to do. These goals will be discussed at a meeting, and clear, underlined words will be used to clarify them.
3. Identify the audience for delivering your communication plan
Good communication involves audience focus and listening. A corporation must determine its target audience after setting goals. It might be shareholders, employees, the media, or something else. Some approaches to identify the target audience:
Find out what current customers desire by asking what they enjoy. A firm could utilize Google Forms or SurveyMonkey to get community data. Demographic questions will help them gather meaningful information.
Google Analytics to learn about current website visitors. We are comparing the types of people who follow our competitors on social media to ours. After gathering data, a corporation should explain its customer in one to two sentences.
4. Outline and write your communication plan as per your audiences
An organization should represent itself after defining its audience. A firm must outline and identify stakeholders to draft its communication plan.
Creating a chart with the firm’s messages, target audience segments, and channels is ideal. Firms should create a communication plan like this after outlining the following:
- Purpose (For what reason the communications plan is prepared)
- Escalation Framework (including the ‘first line of defense and greater response team’)
- Roles and responsibilities assigned to each employee
- Do’s and Don’ts related to the task.
- Maintenance of an effective response plan
Collaboration with organizational stakeholders improves communication plan accuracy. Strategies mitigate hazards to plan goals.
5. Determine the channels for sharing the communication plan
The channels adopted by an organization depend upon the message to be delivered and the targeted audience.
An organization should have specified distribution channels concerning its goals related to its communication plan. Some of the most commonly used channels used by companies are:
- Forming a Company Blog
- E-mail Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- SMS Marketing
- Media Relations
- Print Collateral
- Podcast Advertising
- Print and Television Advertising or Traditional Advertising
6. Decide which team members are responsible for delivering the message
After determining the audience and the modes of the communications plan, the firm needs to find and select the team members accountable for delivering their goals and messages to the world.
For example, if the HR team of an organization is pitching a new growth matrix to leadership, it might ask the Director of HR to deliver the initial pitch in the debut meeting.
Once the leadership is on board, the firm might ask each Human Resource representative to deliver one training session to every internal team to ensure that every employee knows what is going on internally and the reasons behind it.
7. Estimate a timeline for each step of the communications plan
A firm shall have an estimate of the time spent on the performance of each step in executing the strategy.
For example, for a minor in an advertisement campaign, the advertising department might estimate that tackling the issue will take a month, which may include meetings with the client, stakeholders involved, and other employees to discuss further processes.
8. Measure the results of the communication plan
You should measure the results of the communications plan after presenting it to relevant stakeholders and determining the successful phase and areas for improvement.
Measuring every single thread of the company is a critical task to get an idea and analysis of the performance of each department, who achieved the desired target, and which section needs more funds or employees to improve its efficiency.
The measurement of results or outcomes depends upon the methods adopted by a firm. These methods aid in getting a report on each department of the firm, finding loopholes, and acting accordingly to improve the execution of the tasks.
Who should use a Plan of Communication?
Different types of organizations should make a communication plan for effective project management and business action plans. Let us have a look at the types of organizations that should make an action plan as per a communication plan template-
- In-house marketing and advertising teams—Small and Medium Businesses to big business enterprises—should all have a proper communication plan.
- Agencies worldwide – A communication plan is essential for agencies and their clients for effective project management.
- Non-profit organizations – A communication plan alleviates the tasks of social media, PR, and project management for marketing and project management.
- Marketing and communications consultants and managers – A project manager or marketing consultant should have a communication plan for working with clients while handling a project.
How to make a Communication Plan Template?
Key steps that should be incorporated into your communication project template are
1. Summarize your communications plan by including
- The basis for creating your communication plan
- The status of communication in your project or business team
- The responsibilities, objectives, and events of communication
- Different success criteria and feedback measures
- Planning for risks and issues
2. Have an introduction
- Include a background with vision, objectives, goals, timeframes, scope, existing communications stakeholders/staff, current communication tools, results of past communication surveys
- Incorporate a situational analysis by analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
3. Incorporate the future state of your communication objectives
- Have objectives like increasing stakeholder awareness, team efficiency, and team culture
- Have proper communication guidelines to make your messages audience-specific and result-driven
4. Include stakeholder details
- Incorporate details of your different target audiences, like Project board (director, sponsor, and other board members), Project team members, Project management team (project manager, project leaders), Project management office, Related project teams, Internal audit or strategy staff, Related business unit managers, Governance and regulatory bodies and External suppliers and contractors
- Understand the requirements of different stakeholders
- Include the key messages associated with project status, issues, risks, deliverables, and resources
5. Include your communication channels
- Include your communication delivery channels
- Ensure effective information collection
6. Make your communications plan
- Include communications schedule
- Have communications events
- Incorporate communications responsibilities
7. Incorporate a project feedback system
- Include feedback measures
- Have success criteria
8. Have an appendix
- Include documents relevant to your communication plan
- List any of your planning assumptions
- List risks that you have identified
Communication Plan Examples
Communication plans ensure an organization’s words get to the right people. I will show you examples of different communication plans below, pointing out what makes each unique and using real-life examples when they make sense.
1. Strategic Communication Plan
The goal is to ensure that the organization’s communication efforts align with its general goals, which will improve its standing and reputation with stakeholders.
Example: NASA’s plan to get people interested in its projects through strategic communication. This means spreading the word about how important space exploration, scientific discovery, and technology development are through public events, social media, and news releases to get more public support and funding.
2. Project Communication Plan
The goal is to keep everyone interested in the project informed about its growth, decisions, and changes.
Example: The construction of the new international airport terminal project. The project manager sets up regular meetings with the construction team, newsletters with monthly investor updates, and a website for the public to get information and give feedback. This ensures the project is open and involves all stakeholders throughout its lifecycle.
3. Marketing Communication Plan
The goal is to get people to buy, engage with, or become more aware of a product, service, or company.
Example: Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign. As part of this plan, famous names would be put on Coke bottles to make them more unique and to get people to share their experiences on social media. It used tailored ads, social media interaction, and marketing at the point of sale to get people talking about the product and boost sales.
4. Corporate Communication Plan
The goal is to build a good image and relationship with key stakeholders by managing and organizing all internal and external communication efforts.
Example: Apple Inc.’s corporate communication strategy focuses on brand consistency across all channels, secrecy before product launches to build anticipation, and direct communication from leadership to foster a sense of innovation and quality.
5. Crisis Communication Plan
The goal is to be ready for and react well to unplanned events that could hurt the public, the organization, or its stakeholders.
Example: Toyota’s response to the 2010 recall crisis. The company set up a Crisis Management Team, held news conferences to address safety concerns, and talked to customers directly on social media outlets, all of which showed that they were open about the problem and wanted to solve it.
Although each plan is different, they aim to ensure communication works well. For it to work, the plan must fit the group’s or project’s wants and circumstances.
Wrapping Up!
A communication plan affects an organization’s client base and audience.
Preparing a specified draft with a proper message and targeted audience helps develop customer relations and boost clients by stating clear goals.
This task is mainly performed by a company’s marketing and advertising department, which is responsible for spreading its organization’s awareness and message.
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