communication plan definition in business

Communication plan 101: Overview, content and examples

Last updated

22 February 2024

Reviewed by

Jean Kaluza

Strategic communication plans help businesses to run efficiently by relaying the right information to the right people at the right time. They ensure that everyone who needs to be informed is kept up to date with the task or event at hand, and serve to minimize consequences if issues arise.

Take, for example, a large university hospital spread across many campuses. A project manager in charge of transitioning the institution’s paper record-keeping to a digital platform will need an effective communication plan for a successful outcome. Or, a communication plan will help a retail chain's chief operating officer (COO) navigate and reduce adverse outcomes from retail thefts, inflation, controversial backlashes, and store closures.

After reading this article, you’ll know what a communication plan is and how to implement one effectively. You'll understand the elements of a communication plan and who to include to create a functional plan for a successful outcome.

• What is a communication plan?

The point of a communication plan is to make sure everyone with a stake or interest in a business or project and the outcomes of its actions are informed, updated as events unfold, and made aware of goals and objectives.

This leads to educated decisions and coordinated efforts, resulting in a productive, efficient business or project.

• The importance of communication plans

Communication failure can result in:

Higher costs

Late milestone deliveries

Business interruptions

Misunderstandings

These can have severe consequences for your business. A communication plan prevents such lapses because it defines strict parameters for everyone to follow.

• How communication plans are used

There are various types of communication plans, serving different purposes and with different advantages. These plans can be for:

Information: ensuring the recipients are provided with facts and resources to help them make an informed decision.

Persuasion: changing how the recipients of the message think or behave by using emotional messages rather than factual ones.

Collaboration: useful as a project management tool because it involves two or more parties working together to achieve a common goal. These project communication plans ensure all involved know their communication requirements' precise goals and objectives. It also can be a way for all team members to be held accountable for their part in the collaboration and to measure the progress of the project at each milestone.

Crisis management: these are plans business owners hope they never have to activate but should have in place to respond to unforeseen events. To prepare an emergency plan, identify potential risks and develop communication plans for each.

• Elements of a communication plan

Your plan should provide coordinated and consistent messaging to specific stakeholders or target audiences. It will achieve a clear and strategic purpose when put in place.

What should a communication plan include?

There are certain elements that an effective communication plan must contain.

Stating the communication plan’s objective upfront will direct the rest of the content.

Note who will receive and send content, when and where it will be delivered, why it is required, and how it will be provided.

Also, define communication channels, for example, email, Slack, or phone calls.

What shouldn't be included in a communication plan?

A communication plan should not include sensitive information like passwords, credit card details, or personal information. Also avoid offering personal opinions or displaying biases relating to individual stakeholders.

If your business has to follow compliance standards or government regulations, make sure any information in the communication plan doesn’t go against these.

Your communication plan should not contain ambiguities that might cause confusion or uncertainty. It should be clear and concise about the kind of communication you expect and when it should be supplied or received.

How should you communicate sensitive information?

If you need to communicate sensitive or confidential information, follow cybersecurity compliance standards and assign an appropriate secure communication channel.

Face-to-face meetings or encrypted, password-protected, or multi-factor authenticated platforms are secure methods of transmitting sensitive information. Limit these communications to the stakeholders who need to know that particular information.

• How to create a communication plan

Before you create a communication plan, identify your stakeholders and how elements of the plan correspond with those stakeholders. Communication goals, methods, and frequency may not all be applicable or may differ from one stakeholder to another.

1.  Set a communication goal

Suppose you want to reinforce a positive perception of your brand. Your communication goals might be to persuade the general public, shareholders, and prospective customers of the positive aspects of your company and its culture and to pass on facts that strengthen this claim.

Another communication goal may be to gather reports and other data on whether those efforts are productive.

2.  Choose a format

Communication plans come in various formats, including specifically designed software platforms. However, you can easily formulate a communication plan in a spreadsheet, on chart paper, or on a whiteboard.

3.  Identify stakeholders

Determine the stakeholders to include in the communication plan depending on the goal you are working toward. Identifying the stakeholders may require analyzing stakeholder relationships, such as:

How they are positioned in organizational charts

Their responsibilities and how they relate to your goals

Internal and external information needs

The location of the stakeholders

Once you identify the stakeholders you'll include in the plan, determine their level of demand for information to help achieve your goals and prioritize them accordingly. For example, invested stakeholders who might be involved when trying to reinforce a brand perception could include:

Loyal customers

The general public

Shareholders

The marketing team

The executive team

You would create a plan that includes who will be sending content, who will be receiving it, the kind of content that will be sent and its priorities, how it will be sent, and the frequency of the communication.

The difference between stakeholder engagement and communication management plans

A stakeholder communication plan should not be confused with a stakeholder engagement plan. When your business establishes a communication plan with stakeholders, it's usually a one-way channel from you to the stakeholders and typically does not result in a conversation.

Stakeholder communication plans may include:

Newsletters

Text messages

Social media posts

When businesses create stakeholder engagement plans, their purpose is to form relationships and connections with stakeholders, not just to inform and update them. These plans encourage participation in the form of dialogue or two-way communication between you and the stakeholders. They are usually people with an interest in your business’s decision-making or problem-solving processes.

4.  Identify methods of communication

The method by which information is dispersed will also differ between stakeholders. If stakeholders are not readily available because they're located elsewhere, internal reports, face-to-face meetings, and presentations, may not work under these circumstances.

When including stakeholders in other locations, consider using:

Online databases

Digital communication platforms

SMS texting

Video conferencing

5.  Determine who provides communication updates

Certain members of the business or team will be responsible and held accountable for the results of a communication plan.

For example, if the goal is to reinforce positive brand perception, the chief communications officer (CCO) on the executive team might use press releases sent by email to media outlets to inform the general public. The chief financial officer (CFO) may generate reports for the shareholders or convey information via video conferencing. The marketing team may use websites, advertising materials, and social media to remind prospective and loyal customers of a lasting positive impression.

The marketing team may also research whether the communication efforts are successful. If they find the efforts inadequate, they may advise the executive team and other marketing team members. This may be done through reports, presentations, meetings, and online communication platforms so they can make corrections before the positive perception decreases further.

6.  Determine the frequency of communication

Scheduling the frequency at which you expect team members to update stakeholders is an efficient way to hold them accountable. They can adhere to the schedule without you having to spend time sending reminders.

However, your plan should not include unrealistic or ambiguous expectations. It should also should assign appropriate priority levels to any communication content.

• How do you create a communication schedule?

Depending on your goal, whether a product launch, other event, project completion, or marketing campaign, teams will need to follow a timeline from start to finish. That's when a communication schedule becomes important.

It must display critical times when communication content is due. These timelines make it easy for everyone involved to plan their part in these efforts and deliver their content when the appropriate stakeholders need it.

• How to use a communication plan for project management

Whether you're a project manager for large or small projects, it might be necessary to convey information between team members, departments, employees in different professional roles, government employees, and other roles required for your project.

You can start by creating a directory including the emails, phone numbers, and locations for each role involved in the project. Then, the communication plan you create will identify these roles and your expectations from the people in them.

Don't get lost in the details

Don't include too many details in your project management communication plan, as this can cause confusion or uncertainty. A communication plan's purpose is not to provide a project roadmap but to ensure everyone involved is aware of their expected communication contributions (not their actionable contributions).

Standardize the process

Standardized communication plan formats so they’re the same for all projects will minimize effort and confusion, especially if the same team members work on different projects.

Team members will easily recognize what's expected of them when you consistently list criteria in a communication plan based on a template.

Keep your plan up to date

As goal phases or milestones start and end during the project, adjust the communication plan by adding or deleting stakeholders or changing other elements as needed to reduce wasted effort and time.

• What should you do if your project changes?

If the scope or direction of your project changes, explain to all stakeholders why the changes are necessary and how their communication process and expectations may also have to change.

Alerting them as soon as possible will get your project back on track. In addition, remember to update the plan.

• Communication plans aid efficiency and successful outcomes

Effective communication plans are essential for the profitability and reputation of a business. Whether using communication plans for project management or crisis management, they can help reduce costs, minimize missteps and errors, and efficiently propel your business to success.

Get started today

Go from raw data to valuable insights with a flexible research platform

Editor’s picks

Last updated: 22 April 2023

Last updated: 8 May 2023

Last updated: 16 August 2023

Last updated: 18 July 2023

Last updated: 9 July 2023

Last updated: 20 March 2024

Last updated: 21 March 2024

Last updated: 16 March 2024

Last updated: 5 April 2023

Last updated: 22 May 2023

Last updated: 29 May 2023

Last updated: 23 March 2024

Last updated: 25 June 2023

Latest articles

Related topics, log in or sign up.

Get started for free

.css-s5s6ko{margin-right:42px;color:#F5F4F3;}@media (max-width: 1120px){.css-s5s6ko{margin-right:12px;}} Join us: Learn how to build a trusted AI strategy to support your company's intelligent transformation, featuring Forrester .css-1ixh9fn{display:inline-block;}@media (max-width: 480px){.css-1ixh9fn{display:block;margin-top:12px;}} .css-1uaoevr-heading-6{font-size:14px;line-height:24px;font-weight:500;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;color:#F5F4F3;}.css-1uaoevr-heading-6:hover{color:#F5F4F3;} .css-ora5nu-heading-6{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:flex-start;justify-content:flex-start;color:#0D0E10;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s;transition:all 0.3s;position:relative;font-size:16px;line-height:28px;padding:0;font-size:14px;line-height:24px;font-weight:500;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;color:#F5F4F3;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover{border-bottom:0;color:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover path{fill:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover div{border-color:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover div:before{border-left-color:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active{border-bottom:0;background-color:#EBE8E8;color:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active path{fill:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active div{border-color:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active div:before{border-left-color:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover{color:#F5F4F3;} Register now .css-1k6cidy{width:11px;height:11px;margin-left:8px;}.css-1k6cidy path{fill:currentColor;}

• Project planning |
• Why a clear communication plan is more ...

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

Unmanaged business goals don’t work. Here’s what does.

How Asana uses work management to drive product development

How Asana uses work management to streamline project intake processes

How Asana uses work management for smoother creative production

We're here to power the doers who make social good possible.

What is a communication plan and why it’s important: a guide

For nonprofit organizations, a  communication plan  is a holistic approach to strategizing, documenting, and implementing  marketing , outreach, and communication practices across an organization’s departments and teams.

Communication plans define  what  information should be communicated,  who  should receive that information,  when  that information should be delivered,  where  (e.g., email, social media, mail) communication will be shared, and  how  those communications will be tracked and analyzed.

In this guide, we’ll look at the benefits of a communication plan, the steps for making a plan, and a template to get you started.

Top 7 benefits of communication planning

Nonprofit communication plans have many more benefits than a single  outreach campaign  could bring alone. An effective communication plan helps your team:

• Clarify your goals and objectives.  As your communications roadmap, your plan tells you where you need to go and how to get there.
• Articulate the relationships between audiences, messages, channels, activities, and materials.  The communications planning process will help you identify who you need to reach, what you want them to know, and how you will reach them. You will find that each of your audiences has unique characteristics, needs, and motivations. As you plan, you will discover the most effective ways to communicate with them.
• Identify and implement a variety of communications activities.  Since there are an infinite number of ways to spread your message, a communication plan helps you determine which activities will yield the best results. 
• Clarify staff member and stakeholder roles.  For effective communication, everyone needs to know what they will contribute and what they are responsible for. A well-articulated plan will help stakeholders get on the same page, feel a sense of ownership over their work, and articulate a consistent message.
• Find creative, collaborative solutions.  Involving staff, stakeholders, constituents, interns, and junior staff members in the planning process will bring in a number of diverse perspectives to reach your audiences more effectively.
• Incorporate stakeholder input in the communications process.  Asking for stakeholder and  community feedback  on your plan will show that you value their input and adjust your plan to be as impactful as possible.
• Evaluate your plan’s successes and growth areas.  Organizations will often do a mid-course review to determine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Then, they can create and implement new approaches. Develop a unique evaluation strategy to consistently gather the information you need to improve your plan.

Now that you’re familiar with the many benefits of communication planning, you’re ready to begin the process of making a communication plan for your organization.

How to make a communication plan: 8 steps

Ultimately, building a communication plan now will save you significant time, energy, and resources in your communications down the road. For ease of use, we’ve broken this planning  process down into eight simple steps:

• Audit your existing strategies and materials.  You likely don’t need to start your communication plan from scratch. Evaluate what’s working and what isn’t in your current communications with  volunteers , donors, and partners. 
• Set SMART goals.  Based on the results from your audit, determine goals for your communications. For the greatest impact, your goals should always be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). 
• Identify your target audiences.  Based on your SMART goals, determine your communications’ target audiences. For example, if your goal is to increase annual fundraising, you might focus on  potential major donors  with wealth and philanthropic indicators that suggest they could give more. 
• Establish your communication methods.  Once you have a good sense of your target audience, consider their communication preferences, such as the channels and platforms they use most. Then, focus your communication efforts on those channels.
• Determine communication cadences and timelines.  Depending on the goals, audience, and medium, the frequency of communication will vary widely. For example, while you’ll likely post updates on social media multiple times each week for maximum engagement, you might decide to send a more in-depth physical or digital  newsletter  once a quarter.
• Assign roles to team members.  Determine which departments and individuals are responsible for delivering each message. For example,  a board member  might be responsible for communicating with major donors, a development officer might be responsible for communicating with recurring donors, and a program coordinator might be responsible for communicating with volunteers.
• Document your plan.  You only have a plan if you remember to document it. Record your plan in a digital format that can be easily shared and updated.
• Share your communication plan with stakeholders.  Distribute your documented plan to relevant team members and stakeholders with instructions on how to use it. As a result, everyone will be on the same page, and your communications will be clear and consistent.

Rather than being a linear process, communication planning is, in fact, quite cyclical. Once you implement your plan, track and measure both quantitative and qualitative metrics such as views, click-throughs, and conversions to determine strengths and weaknesses. Then, adjust accordingly!

An easy-to-use communication plan template 

Keeping a detailed, up-to-date record of your communication plan is crucial to its success. Doing so creates continuity and consistency within and between departments. 

Although there are numerous ways to document your communications plan, the simplest approach is often the most effective. A  communication plan template , like the one below, can be specific  and  easy for everyone in your nonprofit to follow. Reference the information sourced in the steps above to answer each question in the form below:

Goal.  What do you want your communication to achieve?

Content.  What information or  call to action  will this communication contain? 

Timing.  When and how often will you deliver this communication?

Channel.  Where will you share this communication?

Methods . What tools/platforms will you use?

Audience . Who will receive this communication?

Owner . Who is in charge of sending out this communication?

While you may also want to develop an in-depth communication plan for your communications team, for the majority of stakeholders, this short template will be more accessible, quicker to update, and easier to reference than a lengthy guide.

Once you have your plan down, pair it with a robust,  all-in-one fundraising solution  that helps your team quickly identify audience segments, target them with engaging content, track results, and effectively implement changes.

Ready to Get Started?

• Digital communications & marketing

Related Content

How to create a donor stewardship plan: step-by-step guide

• Donor Engagement

Volunteer recruitment guide: 13 strategies to secure support

• Volunteer Management
• Volunteerism

Marketing automation for nonprofits: why it matters

• Fundraising ideas

How to Write an Effective Communications Plan [+ Template]

Published: January 05, 2023

Remember the " Tide Pod Challenge ?" That horrendous time at the beginning of 2018 when adolescents filmed themselves ingesting laundry detergent?

While it was a funny (albeit dangerous) start to the new year, this small boost of infamy was a PR mess for the detergent brand in question, Tide , whose crisis communication team had to figure out how to respond to America's teens swallowing their toxic product. Tide's parent company, Procter & Gamble, was swift in their response, thanks in large part to their communication plan .

In this post, you'll learn how to create an effective communication plan that prepares you and your company for any situation.

hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(53, 'd446120e-377e-425b-8225-931f288e9803', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"});

What is a communications plan.

A communications plan enables you to effectively deliver information to appropriate stakeholders. The plan will identify the messages you need to promote, to whom you're targeting those messages, and on which channel(s). Communications plans can be used in times of crises, but they are also used when pitching new initiatives or launching new products.

Communication plans can help you clarify the purpose of a product launch or new initiative and officially determine the messages you want to deliver to your intended audience(s).

Additionally, a communication plan can help your business during a time of crisis if a previous marketing message or business decision damages your reputation with internal stakeholders or customers.

If companies don't have a communication plan , they'll be unprepared when disaster strikes. It may be unlikely that your company will find teenagers eating your product for internet fame, but not so unlikely that you'll never find yourself needing a procedure to effectively handle difficult situations.

Need a free, easy-to-use communication plan template? HubSpot has 12. Check out this toolkit for everything you need to build your own.

This is part of a template offered in the toolkit. For this particular template, the organization is separated into phases, a description of that phase, and who needs to complete that action.

Download These Templates for Free

Now that we've gone over how a communication plan can be helpful, let's learn how to write one that will be effective.

How to Write a Communications Plan

• Conduct an audit of your current communications materials.
• Set SMART goals for your communications plan based on the results from your audit.
• Identify the audience to whom you plan to deliver your communications plan.
• Outline and write your plan, keeping your audiences in-mind.
• Determine the channel(s) on which you need to deliver your messages.
• Decide which team members are responsible for delivering the message.
• Estimate a timeline for how long each step should take.
• Measure the results of your plan after presenting to stakeholders, and determine successes and areas for improvement.

1. Conduct an audit of your current communications materials.

Before sitting down to get rollin' on your plan, you need to first decide where it'll fit into your business. So it's important you complete a "state of the union," or an audit of the current climate of communications within your company. This can help you identify any problem areas.

For instance, let's say you need to create a communications plan for a new product launch. To create your plan, you'll first need to perform an audit to identify gaps in your current marketing approach.

After performing the audit, you might find there is a major gap in your marketing materials in which you rarely discuss a topic that aligns well with your new product. You'll want to ensure this topic makes it into your communications plan.

Crisis Communication and Management Kit

Manage, plan for, and communicate during your corporate crises with these crisis management plan templates.

• Free Crisis Management Plan Template
• 12 Crisis Communication Templates
• Post-Crisis Performance Grading Template
• Additional Crisis Best Management Practices

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Free Communication Plan Template

Fill out the form to access the template..

To conduct an audit, you'll need to carefully gather and interpret data on your current marketing plan performance and build a path forward based on those results. Additionally, you might consider hosting focus groups or sending surveys to your audience to find gaps in your current communications materials.

Of course, you'll want to have the goal of your communications plan in-mind when conducting an audit. In the example above, noticing you're lacking material on a certain subject only matters if your goal is to drive leads and conversions to a product that aligns with that subject.

For instance, if you're launching a new email marketing tool and you notice you're lacking content on Google Ads, this might not be relevant information for your communications plan. However, if you're missing content on email marketing best practices, that's important information you can use to tailor your communications plan appropriately.

2. Set SMART goals for your communications plan based on the results from your audit.

After your audit, you'll want to lay out a few goals based on the data from the results. What do you want to achieve with this plan?

When in doubt, remember that your goals should be SMART : Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based.

For instance, if a small agency is writing a communications plan for its client, they might write a goal along these lines: "We plan to increase employment applications for our client by 25% over the course of one quarter."

Alternatively, perhaps your HR team needs to write a communications plan to pitch designing a new growth matrix for individual contributors who don't want to become managers.

If that's the case, your HR team will need to identify specific goals they hope to achieve as a result of their plan, even if the results are less quantifiable — for instance, their goal might be to "increase employee retention rates by 10% over the next year" or even "increase employee satisfaction, as indicated by their next NPS scores." They'll need to pitch these goals to stakeholders to get leadership on-board.

Download Your Free SMART Goal Template

3. Identify the audience to whom you plan to deliver your communications plan.

Good communication starts with knowing and understanding your listener. In this case, if a crisis communication plan is for stakeholders, which one(s) are you writing for? Stakeholder examples include employees, investors, customers, local government officials, or media outlets.

If you're writing for media outlets, a press release detailing your goals is a good idea for that audience. There should be a process for who will speak to the media outlets, an outline of what they will say, and an action plan put in place moving forward.

Alternatively, if your audience is your employees, you might want to create an up-to-date internal document for employees to refer to, as well as the contact information for the internal DRI if they have follow-up questions.

4. Outline and write your plan, keeping your audiences in-mind.

When you're ready to outline and write your plan, it's likely easiest if you start with a table or chart to identify the messages you need to promote, to whom you're targeting those messages, and on which channel(s).

Once you've created a general outline, here's how you'll want to structure your communications plan (feel free to copy these sections into a Table of Contents for your own plan):

• Purpose (what is this communications plan for)
• Escalation Framework (including 'first line of defense' and 'greater response team')
• Roles and responsibilities of each employee
• Do's and Don'ts
• How to maintain an effective response plan

(If you need help writing a communications plan, download our free, ready-to-use communications plan templates .)

When writing your communication plan, work with groups or representatives from your stakeholders to improve accuracy. Strategies should solve for goals or potential risks.

For instance, if you work for an agency aiming to promote a client's product, a risk might be spending money on paid ads without a guaranteed ROI. To solve for that risk, the agency should detail different steps to ensure the ads are effective before going public.

5. Determine the channel(s) on which you need to deliver your messages.

The channels you choose to communicate with your audience depends on your message, and to whom you want to deliver that message. For instance, if you're creating a communications plan for internal employees, you might send out your communications plan in a company-wide email, use a team communication app , or in-person team meetings to deliver your message.

Alternatively, if you're communicating with customers, you might determine it's best to communicate via an email newsletter, or via a press release.

Of course, the channel(s) you choose will depend on your goals, but it's important as you're writing your communication plan that you keep your distribution methods in-mind.

6. Decide which team members are responsible for delivering the message.

Once you determine your audience and channel(s) on which you'll deliver your communications plan, figure out the DRI for delivering the message.

For instance, if your HR team is pitching a new growth matrix to leadership, you might ask your Director of HR to deliver the initial pitch in the first meeting. Once leadership is on-board, you might ask each HR representative to deliver one training session for each internal team to ensure every employee understands what's changing internally, and why.

7. Estimate a timeline for how long each step should take.

You should have a ballpark estimate of how much time each step in executing your strategy will take. For instance, if your plan needs to go from the higher-ups down to the employees, it's good to take into account how long going through the chain of command will take. It's also smart to infer how long a media cycle will last.

For instance, for a minor slip-up on an ad campaign, the advertising agency might estimate the cycle for controlling the issue will take a month — including meeting with the client, stakeholders, and employees to discuss steps moving forward.

8. Measure the results of your plan after presenting to stakeholders, and determine successes and areas for improvement.

There's always room for improvement. Measure the results of the plan after presenting it to stakeholders, and determine aspects that went well, and areas for improvement next time.

For instance, the ad agency might not have met its goal of increasing prospective applications by 25% within a quarter. They might rework their goals to give themselves more time or pivot their quarterly focus to fit those goals.

Alternatively, if you notice certain language in your communications plan evokes a level of stress or fear with internal stakeholders, consider how you can re-word next time to ensure your communications plan feels helpful, beneficial, and positive.

Some aspects of building a communication plan can be a "choose your own adventure" journey. The key is choosing aspects that best reflect what your business needs in times when effective communication is key. What do your stakeholders need to know, and how are you going to best communicate that?

Communication Plan Examples

• Strategic Communication Plan
• Project Communication Plan
• Marketing Communication Plan
• Corporate Communication Plan
• Crisis Communication Plan

Communication plans can get tricky, but writing an effective one will prove itself with its longevity. The following communication plans include analysis for stakeholders you'd respond to and the procedures for what to include in those communications.

1. Strategic Communication Plan

Bright Hub Project Management's communication plan explains how, when, and why communication happens within its organization.

This example is great because it details how communication managers write crisis plans and acknowledges that sometimes the busy marketer or project manager takes on this responsibility.

Image Source

2. Project Communication Plan

Here's an example of a Billing Upgrade Project from Simplicable . This communication plan maps out all the important meetings and documents needed for the project. As you can see, it also includes necessary sections including audience, goals, format, and DRI.

3. Marketing Communication Plan

A marketing communication plan is essential for communicating to your target market, especially when launching new products or initiatives. This example from Smartsheet allows you to plan marketing communications strategies for customers, sales prospects, media partners, internal stakeholders, and events.

4. Corporate Communication Plan

Corporate communication plans outline how organizations communicate internally and externally. This example from Smartsheet is a nine-step roadmap that includes space for a mission statement, executive summary, situation analysis, key messages, and more.

5. Crisis Communication Plan

This communication checklist below, by Prezly , gives a great overview of the details of a crisis plan from beginning to end. It can be used as an effective guide when drafting a crisis management strategy.

Communication Planning Tips

Communication planning can be tricky, so here are some extra tips to keep in mind to help your plan shine: when describing procedures for handling crises, include who the situation involves. This lets stakeholders envision decision-making processes.

Additionally, if you're part of a larger company with a broad stakeholder list, it's okay to split up target audiences for your plan.

For instance, maybe your audience is more than just "consumers." Split stakeholder groups for easier comprehension and more distinct solutions.

Ultimately, your communications plan needs to clearly and succinctly provide necessary information to everyone involved in the business decision, product launch, or PR crises. Use the strategy mentioned above, as well as our communication plan templates , to ensure yours is as effective as possible.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in September, 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

Related articles.

How to Write a Press Release [Free Press Release Template + 2024 Examples]

Press Release Distribution: Top 11 Services + 4 Mistakes to Avoid

What is Public Relations? PR Definition Explained

13 Best Portable Apps in 2023

The 20 Best Free PDF Readers of 2023

The 24 Best Motivational Speeches Our Employees Have Ever Heard

The Ultimate Guide to Hiring a PR Agency in 2023

Should You Pay a PR Firm? [+PR Tactics You Can Manage In-House]

15 of the Best Public Relations Examples to Inspire Your Next Campaign

Bad Press Releases: 14 Rookie Mistakes to Avoid

Manage, plan for, and communicate during a corporate crisis.

Marketing software that helps you drive revenue, save time and resources, and measure and optimize your investments — all on one easy-to-use platform

Hey there! Free trials are available for Standard and Essentials plans. Start for free today.

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.

We use essential cookies to make Venngage work. By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.

Manage Cookies

Cookies and similar technologies collect certain information about how you’re using our website. Some of them are essential, and without them you wouldn’t be able to use Venngage. But others are optional, and you get to choose whether we use them or not.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are always on, as they’re essential for making Venngage work, and making it safe. Without these cookies, services you’ve asked for can’t be provided.

Show cookie providers

• Google Login

Functionality Cookies

These cookies help us provide enhanced functionality and personalisation, and remember your settings. They may be set by us or by third party providers.

Performance Cookies

These cookies help us analyze how many people are using Venngage, where they come from and how they're using it. If you opt out of these cookies, we can’t get feedback to make Venngage better for you and all our users.

• Google Analytics

Targeting Cookies

These cookies are set by our advertising partners to track your activity and show you relevant Venngage ads on other sites as you browse the internet.

• Google Tag Manager
• Infographics
• Daily Infographics
• Graphic Design
• Graphs and Charts
• Data Visualization
• Human Resources
• Training and Development
• Beginner Guides

Blog Graphic Design

5 Ways to Make an Exciting Business Communication Plan

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]

Return to Table of Contents

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.

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.

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

More Related Articles

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.

• Professional Services
• Creative & Design
• See all teams
• Project Management
• Workflow Management
• Task Management
• Resource Management
• See all use cases

Apps & Integrations

• Microsoft Teams
• See all integrations

Explore Wrike

• Book a Demo
• Take a Product Tour
• Start With Templates
• Customer Stories
• ROI Calculator
• Find a Reseller
• Mobile & Desktop Apps
• Cross-Tagging
• Kanban Boards
• Project Resource Planning
• Gantt Charts
• Custom Item Types
• Dynamic Request Forms
• Integrations
• See all features

Learn and connect

• Resource Hub
• Educational Guides

Become Wrike Pro

• Submit A Ticket
• Help Center
• Premium Support
• Community Topics
• Training Courses
• Facilitated Services

What Is a Project Communication Plan?

April 21, 2022 - 7 min read

In project management, one of the most effective ways of keeping stakeholders and teams aligned is through the use of a communication plan. But what is a project communication plan and how does it help keep projects running smoothly? 

In this article, we will cover the key components of a project communication plan, including identifying stakeholders, defining communication goals and strategies, determining communication channels, establishing a communication schedule, and assigning communication responsibilities.

Learn these need-to-know communication plan details and discover a pre-built template that will help you get all of your collaborators on the same page.

Why effective communication matters

Effective communication matters because breakdowns often occur when goals are not aligned, emails get lost, and the right tools aren’t created. 

One PMI survey found that 30% of respondents identified “poor communication” as the primary reason for scope gap and project failure. And, considering the cost of failure, it’s no wonder a communication plan is necessary for every project you launch. 

Creating an effective communication plan means setting your team up for success. 

What is a project communication plan?

A project communication plan is an agreement between collaborators and stakeholders that outlines what, when, and how information will be shared at key intervals. Information like status updates, task-related questions, and meeting details should all be included in this written guide. The goal is to define and streamline team communications as much as possible. 

Why is a communication plan important in project management?

A communication plan is important in project management because it helps get stakeholders, clients, freelancers, and team members all on the same page. Communication plans fail if there is excessive discussion around the project or the scope of each interaction (like detailed copy notes versus big picture suggestions) isn’t defined. These issues can have a significant effect on deadlines and budgets. 

A project communication plan also establishes professional boundaries. For example, your stakeholders may want to limit their interaction to email, whereas your freelancers may be comfortable with texting when the conversation is time-sensitive. 

Now that we are living in a post-pandemic working world, the importance of a good communication plan is even greater. Thousands of workplaces have now migrated to a hybrid or fully remote working model. With many teams widely dispersed across locations and time zones, communication has to be a top priority. A good project communication plan ensures that every stakeholder, no matter where they are based, is updated with the information they need when they need it.

What goes into a good communication plan in project management?

Here’s what every good communication plan in project management includes:

• A contact sheet with collaborator roles and relevant contact information that highlights project phase owners
• List what needs to be communicated throughout the project, like meeting updates and content outlines
• Include the five Ws of virtual communication (who, what, where, when, why) for each major communication type 
• Highlight good things to know regarding formality, personal pronouns, or special requests from collaborators
• Create a schedule of events for any pre-planned phone calls, virtual status meetings that actually work, and digital check-ins
• Designate status update types, where they will be located, and who will update them
• Assign reviewers to tasks that require them
• Define the communication method, date/time, and frequency of each major communication type

Communication plan examples

Your unique roadmap to an effective communication plan will vary depending on your client, team, and project scope . Use these examples to inspire and inform your next outline.

• Project update protocol: Agree with the client on how often they’d like to be updated on the status of their project. What will the project update include (relevant stats, milestones, and next phases)? Will this project update be delivered via email, Zoom call, or Wrike task? Iron these details out to enable more transparent and professional communication.
• Customer complaint resolution: Label the communication “customer complaint," assign a goal and timeline, then add an approver. Designate the next steps for the approval in the task itself. Have the approver update the task status from Open to Closed once the complaint is resolved.
• Order fulfillment: Manually enter the order, add name and description (including items, SKUs, location, etc.), then assign it to a team member. Automate supply chain operation by creating task dependencies for every new order, like triggering the completion of the order task to notify a member of the customer service team when they should email the customer with an update. 
• Web copy creation: Add a list of review process statuses that include “web page outline," “web page in progress," and “webpage ready for review." Ask team members who draft the copy to @mention reviewers when they have completed each page to keep the project moving forward. 

What are the benefits of a good project communication plan?

The benefits of a good project communication plan include staying in line with budget, timeline, and scope expectations, to name a few. The right strategy can solve most major communication breakdowns before they even happen. 

Having a plan upfront makes it easier to focus on task completion instead of forgetting who said what at the last meeting or sifting through dozens of email chains for the latest update. 

An effective project communication plan also saves you the effort of having to answer individual “what’s the status” emails. When there is a plan to ensure that all stakeholders are kept appropriately informed, your project team can respond to change, ensure good client management, and maintain a high standard of communication. 

Introducing Wrike's communication plan template

In addition to Wrike’s tailored project management capabilities, we have yet another resource you can use to maximize team productivity: the communication plan template . Add this template to your workflow, plug in your most important information, and kick off your project with an efficient system for sharing and requesting updates. Inside Wrike’s communication plan, you’ll find designated areas for:

• Stakeholder analysis summary and roles they will play in the project
• Key project interests or goals
• Team leads for the project
• Preferred communication channels with proper protocols
• Expectations for communication frequency
• Recurring task creation

Each of these features makes it easy for stakeholders to stay informed and involved while heightening your team’s ability to function, even over long periods. Try Wrike’s two-week free trial and see how our communication plan template helps unify teams and stakeholders.

Maria Waida

Maria is a freelance content writer who specializes in blogging and other marketing materials for enterprise software businesses.

Related articles

How To Create the Perfect Stakeholder Management Plan

Create a stakeholder management plan that guarantees success. On-time and on-budget delivery meets an effective stakeholder management strategy with Wrike.

3 Ways to Improve Remote Teams’ Communication

The move to remote work has changed the way that teams must now collaborate with one another. Here’s how to improve remote team communication in your organization.

How to Get Stakeholders on Your Side With Campaign Transparency

Project transparency is key for keeping clients up-to-date with project and campaign progress. Find out the importance of stakeholders in a project and how to get them on your side with Wrike.

Get weekly updates in your inbox!

You are now subscribed to wrike news and updates.

Let us know what marketing emails you are interested in by updating your email preferences here .

Sorry, this content is unavailable due to your privacy settings. To view this content, click the “Cookie Preferences” button and accept Advertising Cookies there.

• Entrepreneurship
• Starting a Business
• My #1 Online Biz
• Business Planning
• Advertising
• Content Marketing
• Digital Marketing
• Public Relations
• Business Model
• Financial Forecasting
• Market Research
• Risk Management
• Business Plan
• Conferences
• Online Communities
• Professional Associations
• Social Media
• Human Resource
• Productivity
• Legal Requirements
• Business Structure
• Mission Statement
• Financial Plan
• Market Analysis
• Operational Plan
• SWOT Analysis
• Target Market
• Competitor Analysis
• Customer Profiling
• Market Trends
• Pricing Strategies
• Sole Proprietorship
• Partnership
• Cooperative
• Corporation
• Limited Liability

Why Your Business Needs a Communication Plan

by Mike Vestil  

Communication is the backbone of any organization, and having a clear and effective communication plan in place is essential for success. A communication plan is a document that outlines the objectives, strategies, and tactics a company will employ to communicate with its stakeholders.

This plan describes the information that needs to be communicated, who needs to receive it, and how it will be relayed. With a well-formulated communication plan in place, organizations can enhance collaboration, resolve conflicts, and improve overall performance. In this article, we will delve deeper into the importance of having a communication plan and how you can develop an effective one.

Introduction

A communication plan is a document that outlines the strategies and approaches that a company will use to communicate with its stakeholders, including employees, customers, suppliers, and investors. It is a formalized plan that identifies the goals of communication, target audiences, key messages, and timing.

The purpose of a communication plan is to ensure that all communications are consistent, effective, and audience-appropriate. It provides structure and guidance for communication-related decisions and actions, thereby minimizing confusion and maximizing the impact of communication efforts.

The importance of a communication plan cannot be overstated, as effective communication is integral to successful business operations. A well-designed plan can help a company build strong relationships with stakeholders, enhance brand reputation, and achieve organizational objectives such as revenue growth, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement.

The purpose of a communication plan is to establish a framework that guides communication efforts within a project, organization, or team. The plan outlines the goals, objectives, and strategies to be used when communicating with various stakeholders, such as employees, customers, suppliers, investors, and the media.

The plan’s primary objective is to ensure that stakeholders receive the right message at the right time through the right channel. By doing this, the plan helps reduce communication inefficiencies, misinterpretations, and errors, which can lead to negative outcomes, such as delays, disputes, low morale, and lost opportunities.

Furthermore, the communication plan serves as a reference document that ensures consistency in communication across the organization, project, or team. The plan establishes guidelines for language, tone, style, format, and content, ensuring that communications remain aligned with organizational values, branding, standards, and legal requirements. By doing this, the plan enhances the organization’s reputation, credibility, and trust, which are critical in building relationships and achieving success.

The communication plan also helps to identify potential communication risks, such as misunderstandings, conflicts, cultural differences, and information overload. By analyzing these risks, the plan outlines mitigation strategies that help reduce the likelihood and impact of the risks. In addition, the plan outlines the roles and responsibilities of the communicators, ensuring that everyone understands their duties and obligations concerning communication. This helps to avoid confusion, duplication of effort, and omission of critical communication activities.

Overall, the purpose of the communication plan is to provide a roadmap for effective and efficient communication that supports the organization’s strategic objectives, enhances stakeholder relationships, reduces communication risks, and ensures consistency and alignment in communication activities. By having a well-crafted communication plan, organizations, projects, and teams can communicate effectively, build trust and credibility, and achieve their goals.

A communication plan is a document that outlines how an organization will communicate with its stakeholders, including customers, employees, suppliers, and investors. This plan is important because effective communication is essential for achieving organizational goals and objectives.

Without a communication plan, the organization may experience confusion, miscommunication, and ultimately failure. A communication plan can help to build relationships with stakeholders, increase employee engagement, improve customer satisfaction, and enhance the organization’s reputation.

It can also be used to manage crises and mitigate the impact of negative events. By identifying key messages, target audiences, communication channels, and metrics for evaluating success, a communication plan can ensure that the right message is delivered to the right people at the right time.

Key Elements of a Communication Plan

One of the most critical aspects of a communication plan is identifying the target audience. It is essential to know who the message is intended for so that it can be tailored to meet their specific needs, interests and preferences. The audience can be defined by demographics like age, ethnicity, gender, income, or location. It can also include psychographic information such as personality traits, values, lifestyles, and attitudes.

Understanding the audience becomes even more critical for international or multicultural audiences as barriers such as language and cultural differences can lead to misinterpretations, misunderstandings and even mistrust.

Once the audience has been identified, the next step is to determine the appropriate message that resonates with them. Messages can either be informational or persuasive, depending on the desired outcome. The message should be clear, concise, and consistent across all channels. The tone and language used should align with the audience’s communication style and preferences while conveying the intent effectively.

The channels selected to deliver the message should also align with the audience’s behavior and preferences. Traditional channels such as newspapers, radio, and television may not be the best choice for a younger audience as they prefer social media platforms. Likewise, direct mail may not be an ideal choice for an audience that prefers email communication. The channels chosen should provide maximum exposure to the audience, and the mode of delivery should be easy to access and convenient.

Timing is another crucial factor to consider when communicating with an audience. The message should be communicated at a time that is convenient for the audience and aligns with their schedules. For example, if the target audience is working professionals, it may be advantageous to send communications outside of working hours or on weekends when they are most likely to check their emails or social media accounts.

Finally, the responsibility for executing an effective communication plan may vary depending on the size and complexity of the project. It may be the responsibility of an individual or a team to manage the plan and ensure its successful execution. The team members responsible should have clear roles and responsibilities, and deadlines should be set to ensure timely delivery of the message.

The subsection Message is a critical aspect of any communication plan as it is the information being conveyed to the target audience. When crafting a message, it is essential to understand the audience and tailor the message to their needs and interests, ensuring it resonates with them.

The message should be clear, concise, and easily understood by the target audience. The language used should also be appropriate for the audience, avoiding technical jargon and using simple language where necessary. Furthermore, the message should be consistent across all channels to ensure that it is easily recognizable and reinforces the core message.

It is also crucial to consider the tone and style of the message. The tone should match the intent and be appropriate for the subject matter. The message should be positive and convey a sense of authority and credibility to gain the trust of the audience. Additionally, the message should be emotive and appeal to the audience’s emotions as this can help to create a deeper connection with the message.

When crafting the message, it is essential to consider the key messages that need to be conveyed. These are the most important points that need to be communicated and should be prioritized over any other information. The key messages should be simple, memorable, and directly related to the audience’s needs and interests. They should also be consistent with the brand’s values and messaging.

One key consideration when crafting a message is the use of visuals. Images, videos, and other visuals can help to convey messages more effectively, create a deeper connection with the audience, and make the message more memorable. However, it is also essential to consider the appropriateness of the visuals and ensure they match the tone and message of the overall campaign.

In conclusion, the message is a critical aspect of any communication plan and should be carefully crafted to ensure it resonates with the target audience. The message should be clear, concise, and easily understood, appropriate for the audience, and consistent across all channels. The tone and style of the message should match the intent and be positive and emotive. Furthermore, key messages should be prioritized, and visuals should be used where appropriate to help convey the message more effectively.

Channels refer to the various methods of communication used to deliver messages to the target audience. It is important for an organization to choose the most effective channels based on the audience’s preferences, needs, and behaviors.

The most common channels include email, social media, websites, newsletters, blogs, and direct mail. Email is a popular and efficient channel for delivering messages to a large audience quickly. Social media is also a powerful tool for reaching a large audience, especially younger generations who spend a significant amount of time online.

Websites serve as a hub for information and can be used to disseminate a variety of messages. Newsletters and blogs can be used to provide detailed and engaging content about the organization’s activities and initiatives. Direct mail can be an effective channel for reaching audiences who may not have access to digital channels.

The Timing subsection in a communication plan is crucial as it ensures that the right message is communicated to the intended audience at the appropriate time. Proper timing is an essential component of an effective communication strategy. The timing of communication is critical as it can have a significant impact on how the message is received and perceived by the audience. In determining the timing for communication, it is essential to consider the audience, the message, and the channels that will be used.

The audience is a critical consideration when determining the timing of communication. Knowing the audience’s schedule, location, and availability is essential as it ensures that the message is delivered when the audience is most receptive. The timing of communication also depends on the audience’s demographics, such as their age, gender, and occupation. For example, if the target audience is working professionals, it is best to communicate during business hours when they are most likely to be available.

The message itself also plays a crucial role in determining the timing of communication. The level of urgency of the message, its relevancy, and its complexity all influence when it should be communicated. Urgent messages should be communicated as soon as possible, while less urgent ones can be communicated later.

The relevance of the message to the audience also affects timing. Messages that are timely and have a high degree of relevance are most effective when communicated promptly. Finally, the complexity of the message should also be considered when determining timing, as complex messages may require more time or additional resources to communicate effectively.

The channels used to communicate the message are also essential in determining the timing of communication. Different channels have different timeframes for communication, and it is essential to understand the delivery timeline for each channel.

Some channels deliver messages instantly, such as social media or instant messaging. Others, such as email or direct mail, may take longer to deliver the message. Therefore, it is essential to consider the appropriate delivery channel in determining the timing of communication.

In conclusion, the Timing subsection in a communication plan is a crucial aspect of an effective communication strategy. It ensures that the message is communicated to the intended audience at the appropriate time, and it depends on several factors such as the audience, the message, and the delivery channels used. Effective timing ensures that the message is well received, and the intended communication objectives are achieved.

Responsibilities

The Responsibilities section of a Communication Plan outlines the specific tasks and obligations of each team member involved in the communication process. This section ensures that everyone understands their role in the plan and is held accountable for their individual contribution to the project’s success. Responsibilities typically include a designated spokesperson to deliver the message, content creation, audience targeting, channel selection, message formatting, and timing of communication.

Each team member’s responsibility should be clearly stated and agreed upon, with a plan for communication and collaboration to ensure successful execution. It is essential to have an open line of communication to establish a shared understanding of the plan’s meaning and objectives to avoid confusion and errors. Strong coordination among team members ensures an accurate and consistent message across all channels.

Steps to Develop a Communication Plan

Identify objectives.

Identifying objectives is a critical step in developing a communication plan. These objectives define the purpose and goals of the plan, which will help guide decision-making throughout the planning process. Objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) to ensure they are effective and achievable.

When setting objectives, it is essential to consider the organization’s mission, goals, and values while also taking into account the target audience’s needs, attitudes, and behaviors. Objectives can include increasing awareness about a product or service, promoting a particular message, developing a positive image, or improving customer satisfaction. Once objectives are identified, they can help determine the key messages, channels, timing, and responsibilities required to achieve them.

Analyze Audience

The Analyze Audience subsection of a Communication Plan is essential to identify the target audience and shape the messaging to achieve the desired objectives. Audience analysis is crucial because it ensures the message resonates and connects with the audience, ultimately leading to effective communication. To analyze the audience, one must understand their demographics, psychographics, values, beliefs, attitudes, and behavior patterns.

Demographics refer to the audience’s age, gender, education, income, and occupation. Psychographics encompass the audience’s personality traits, lifestyles, and interests. Values refer to what the audience finds essential, while beliefs encompass assumptions the audience holds to be true. Attitudes refer to the audience’s feelings or opinions about something, and behavior patterns refer to how the audience reacts to something.

Analyzing these factors ensures the audience receives communications tailored to their interests, preferences, and cultural background. Effective audience analysis also involves answering questions such as What information does the audience need? What motivates the audience? What channels are the audience most likely to use to receive information?

Are there any barriers that could prevent the audience from receiving the message? By answering these questions, one gains valuable insights about the audience’s communication needs and preferences. This analysis enables the communication plan to be more targeted, effective, and impactful, resulting in better engagement, feedback, and success.

Develop Key Messages

In developing a comprehensive communication plan, the crucial phase of identifying the objectives and analyzing the audience has to lead to the next step of developing key messages that align with the objectives and resonate with the audience. Key messages are the central ideas, themes, or concepts that you want to communicate to your audience.

It is essential to generate messages that are clear, concise, consistent, and relevant to the audience’s needs, values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Messages should use simple language, avoid technical jargon, and be tailored to the audience’s literacy level. The messages should highlight the benefits of the proposed action, idea, or product and address any potential concerns or objections that the audience might have.

They should be framed positively and use active verbs to convey action steps in a concrete manner. Key messages should ideally fit on a business card or a one-sentence slogan to make them memorable and easy to share. In developing the key messages, it is critical to involve the stakeholders who will be communicating the messages to ensure that they convey the messages accurately and consistently.

It might be useful to conduct a pilot test of the messages and revise them based on feedback from the target audience. The ultimate goal is to create messages that inspire action and motivate the audience to move towards the purpose of the communication plan.

Select Channels

The Select Channels subsection is a critical aspect of developing an efficient communication plan. Communication is most effective when it is tailored to the appropriate audience and conveyed through the best possible channels. It is essential to consider the audience’s preferences and habits while choosing channels.

Selecting the right channels can help ensure that the messages are delivered and interpreted correctly. Organizations use various channels to communicate, and the best one will depend on the type of message being delivered, the audience, and the desired action. Common communication channels include face-to-face meetings, phone calls, email, newsletters, social media, websites, and advertising.

Face-to-face meetings provide the opportunity for audience engagement and can convey nonverbal cues such as body language, making them ideal for building relationships and gaining feedback. Phone calls can provide a personal touch when face-to-face meetings are not possible.

Email is useful for straightforward messages, such as meeting reminders, but it is not effective for communicating more complex information. Newsletters can be used to deliver information to large groups of people, while social media is ideal for communicating with younger audiences. Websites are an excellent way to provide detailed information and allow audiences to access it at their convenience. Advertising is beneficial for reaching a large audience but can be costly.

When selecting channels, it is also important to consider the organization’s resources and goals. For instance, if the company has limited resources, it may not be feasible to use high-cost advertising channels. Likewise, if social media does not align with the company’s values or goals, then it may not be the best communication channel to use.

In conclusion, selecting the appropriate channels is crucial for the success of the communication plan. Choosing the right channels can help ensure that messages are delivered effectively, leading to improved audience engagement, and ultimately, achieving the communication objectives.

Determine Timing

The timing element is an essential aspect of developing a communication plan. Timing concerns when messages should be conveyed and which events or occasions need to be addressed. Choosing the correct time to deliver messages is just as important as the content of the message itself. The timing of a communication plan must also consider the target audience and their schedules.

A message delivered at the wrong time may not receive the desired response from the audience, and may even result in alienating them. Timing may be sensitive in certain scenarios, such as when announcing a promotion, a merger, or a layoff.

When scheduling messages, it’s critical to consider possible conflicts, potential cultural and religious holidays, and other significant events that may affect the message’s effectiveness or cause people to miss it. For example, If a corporate event is announced the same day as a national holiday, the message may be overlooked, ignored, or generate minimal response. Therefore, the timing of the communication plan must be carefully determined with consideration for the audience, message content, and external factors.

Assign Responsibilities

Assigning responsibilities is a critical component of any effective communication plan. This involves identifying the specific tasks that need to be completed and determining who is responsible for each task. It is important to ensure that each member of the team has a clear understanding of their role and responsibilities to avoid confusion or overlap in tasks.

A clear, comprehensive document outlining roles and responsibilities should be created and communicated to all team members. It is also crucial to continuously monitor and evaluate the progress of each team member to ensure that tasks are being completed on time and to the expected standard.

Assigning responsibilities also involves closely collaborating with team members to understand their strengths and weaknesses and to provide training or support as needed. By clearly defining and assigning responsibilities, team members will feel empowered and motivated to contribute to the communication plan, ultimately resulting in a more successful implementation.

Implement Plan

The implementation stage involves putting into action what has been planned in the previous stages. This is where the communication plan is executed through consistent and proactive communication. It is crucial to have a clear understanding of the objectives, target audience, key messages, channels, timing, and assigned responsibilities before implementing the plan.

One way to ensure the success of the implementation stage is to establish a centralized communication hub to keep all team members informed and up-to-date. The hub must be accessible to everyone involved, and it should contain all the necessary information, including deadlines, content, the target audience, and communication channels.

The implementation stage requires meticulous attention to detail and effective communication among team members. All communication should be consistent, be timely and appropriate for the target audience, and follow the key messages.

To effectively implement the plan, each communication touchpoint must align with the plan’s objectives, and all team members should be aware of their assigned responsibilities’ details. This is a critical stage in the communication plan, and it is essential to monitor feedback regularly and continually review the plan to ensure its effectiveness.

The success of this stage is measured by how effectively the messages are communicated and received by the target audience. Metrics such as website traffic, social media engagement, email open rates, and other relevant data should be analyzed to determine the effectiveness of the communication plan.

Based on these metrics, adjustments can be made to improve the plan’s overall effectiveness. The implementation stage requires continuous monitoring and improvement to ensure the communication plan’s overall success, leading to the desired outcomes.

Evaluate Effectiveness

Evaluating the effectiveness of a communication plan is crucial to refine its strategy, assess its impact, and determine its success. It involves measuring the progress towards achieving the set objectives, analyzing the feedback and response from the targeted audience, and identifying areas that need improvement.

The evaluation process enables the team to make data-driven decisions and adapt the plan to suit the changing needs of the audience and organization. It helps to ensure that the plan aligns with the overarching goals of the company, and the message is delivered cohesively across all communication channels.

To evaluate the effectiveness of a communication plan, the team should first define the metrics that they will use to assess the performance of the plan. These metrics should be based on the goals and objectives identified earlier, so that they are relevant and measurable. Depending on the organization’s priorities, these metrics can include a range of factors such as engagement rate (click-through, open rate), conversion rate, audience reach, and feedback received. By tracking these metrics, the team can determine the success of the plan and adjust it accordingly.

Another crucial aspect of evaluating effectiveness is analyzing the response from the audience. This can be done by collecting feedback from various sources such as surveys, focus groups, social media, and customer service channels. The team should carefully review the feedback received, identifying patterns, and areas that require improvement. By doing so, they can make data-driven decisions and tailor the communication plan accordingly. Additionally, conducting audience research can be beneficial in understanding the needs and preferences of the audience and refining the key messages in the plan.

Regularly monitoring the plan’s progress is also critical to evaluate its effectiveness. This involves setting up checkpoints and milestones throughout the campaign to assess the performance against the pre-defined metrics. By doing so, the team can proactively identify any areas that require attention, adjust the plan, or take corrective action before it’s too late.

In conclusion, evaluating the effectiveness of a communication plan is a critical component of ensuring its success. By defining measurable metrics, analyzing feedback, and monitoring progress, the team can refine the plan and make data-driven decisions that align with the organizational goals. This process also allows the communication team to adapt to changing needs and ensure that the message is delivered effectively to the audience.

Examples of Communication Plans

Internal communication plan.

Effective communication is a crucial element in any organization, and a well-implemented internal communication plan can prove to be immensely beneficial. An Internal Communication Plan is a documented strategy that outlines how information is disseminated and received within an organization.

The aim of this plan is to ensure that employees get the necessary information in a timely manner, that there are open channels of communication, and that employees feel engaged and involved. Such a plan aims to build a culture of transparency, trust, and collaboration within the organization. An effective Internal Communication Plan must identify the key communication objectives, target audience, channels, and frequency.

Essentially, the plan aims to promote employee engagement, ensure smooth flow of information, and facilitate decision-making processes. Some of the key benefits of a well-executed Internal Communication Plan are improved employee satisfaction, increased teamwork and collaboration, enhanced organizational culture, increased productivity and improved morale.

Crisis Communication Plan

The Crisis Communication Plan is an essential component of any organization’s communication strategy. This plan outlines the protocols and procedures that an organization will follow in the event of a crisis or emergency situation. A crisis can take many forms, such as a natural disaster, workplace accident, product recall, or reputational damage.

The purpose of a Crisis Communication Plan is to minimize the impact of the crisis on the organization and its stakeholders by providing timely, accurate, and consistent communication. The plan should address several key elements, including the chain of command, communication channels, messaging, and spokespersons.

The chain of command in a Crisis Communication Plan defines the roles and responsibilities of different members of the organization during a crisis. This includes the crisis management team, public relations staff, and other key personnel. The plan should also specify how communication will flow within the organization and to external stakeholders.

The communication channels that are used will depend on the type of crisis and the target audience. For example, social media may be an effective way to reach customers during a product recall, while traditional media outlets may be more appropriate for communicating with investors or the general public.

The messaging in a Crisis Communication Plan must be consistent, clear, and transparent. The plan should specify the key messages that will be communicated, as well as the tone and language that will be used. It is important to be upfront about the situation and to provide regular updates as new information becomes available. The Crisis Communication Plan should also address potential challenges, such as rumors or misinformation, and provide guidance on how to respond to them in a timely and effective manner.

Finally, a Crisis Communication Plan should identify spokespersons who will be responsible for communicating with the media and other stakeholders. These spokespersons should be trained and prepared to handle difficult questions and to provide consistent messaging throughout the crisis. The plan should also outline the procedures for media interviews, press conferences, and other public appearances. By having a well-designed Crisis Communication Plan in place, organizations can minimize the impact of a crisis on their reputation, their stakeholders, and their bottom line.

Marketing Communication Plan

A Marketing Communication Plan is a comprehensive document that outlines an organization’s approach to promoting its brand, products, or services to target customers. It is a subset of the larger communications plan, and it typically includes strategies for advertising, public relations, sales promotions, direct marketing, and personal selling.

The plan must identify the target market, positioning, and key messages, as well as the marketing mix that will be used to communicate these messages. It should also allocate a budget, specify a timeline, and identify the metrics that will be used to measure the effectiveness of each tactic.

The Marketing Communication Plan must coordinate with other divisions of the organization to ensure that their efforts are complementary and aligned with the overall business goals. A well-presented Marketing Communication Plan will increase brand awareness, customer engagement, and ultimately lead to growth in revenue.

Project Communication Plan

The Project Communication Plan is a key component of any project management process, which outlines how communication will be handled throughout the lifespan of a project. The objective of creating a communication plan is to ensure all stakeholders have the information they need to carry out their roles and responsibilities to keep the project on track.

A good project communication plan helps in fostering clarity, teamwork, and promotes transparency. A plan should include guidelines on the types of communication, frequency, format, responsibility, and escalation process. The plan should also identify the stakeholders involved, their interest, contact information, and their communication needs.

The Project Communication Plan should include the purpose and scope of the communication activities to ensure that stakeholders receive the right information at the right time. These may include regular updates on the progress of the project, the budget status, and change orders. The plan should also identify potential communication challenges such as language barriers, time-zone differences, and other cultural differences that may affect the team’s ability to communicate.

The plan should also detail how information will be shared, including the method of delivery and an agreed-upon format. Creating templates for regular communication, such as status reports, progress reports, and meeting minutes, can help to establish consistency in the communication process.

The Project Communication Plan should also identify who will be responsible for communication activities, which includes both the communication deliverables and the communication process itself. Communication roles and responsibilities should be assigned to ensure that everyone involved understands their participation and when they will contribute to the process.

A communication matrix should be established showing who is responsible for which type of communication, how often, and to whom. This matrix should be available to all stakeholders for easy reference throughout the project.

Regular communication with stakeholders is important in managing project risks. Frequent communication helps to identify and address issues before they have a significant impact on the project. The Project Communication Plan should include contingencies for managing communication, such as the escalation process for issues that require immediate attention or the need for additional communication touchpoints during times of crisis or stress. Crisis management should be addressed in the project communication plan, including a communication strategy for dealing with unexpected events that may arise throughout the project lifecycle.

In conclusion, the Project Communication Plan is a foundational tool for effective project management. The plan should include guidelines on the types of communication, frequency, format, responsibility, and escalation process. When creating a plan, it is essential to identify the stakeholders involved, their communication needs, and to establish clear roles and responsibilities. Regular communication with stakeholders helps to ensure the project stays on track, and potential issues are addressed before they become significant problems.

The section on Summary provides a succinct overview of the Communication Plan. It gives readers a clear understanding of what the Communication Plan is, who it is meant for, and its relevance in today’s business environment. It underscores the need for organizations to have a communication strategy that aligns with their business goals and objectives. The summary highlights the key elements that make up a communication plan, including the definition of the target audience, the message to be communicated, the communication channels to be used, and the evaluation metrics to measure the plan’s effectiveness.

Moreover, the summary emphasizes the importance of having a clear communication plan to ensure that all stakeholders are informed and engaged, thereby improving organizational efficiency and productivity. The Communication Plan is essential for managing internal communication within an organization, communicating with customers, sharing critical business information to suppliers or partners, and managing crises, among others. Therefore, companies should take the time to develop and implement a communication plan that is tailored to their specific needs and goals.

The summary also highlights the need for continuous evaluation and improvement of the communication plan to ensure that it remains effective and relevant. In the current business environment, where technology and trends are continuously changing, organizations must be agile and adaptable in their communication strategies.

The summary concludes by reiterating the importance of having a communication plan that aligns with an organization’s culture and values, as well as its business objectives. By doing so, companies can enhance their reputation, improve employee engagement and productivity, and build lasting relationships with customers and other stakeholders.

Future Considerations

In planning for the future, it is important to understand that communication plans should be reviewed and updated on a regular basis to ensure their effectiveness. The world is constantly changing, and so are communication technologies and methods. As such, companies and organizations need to remain agile and adaptable to remain relevant in their industries. Moreover, it is essential to monitor the success of communication plans and make the necessary adjustments to achieve the desired outcomes.

Future considerations for communication plans should include an evaluation of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, which have made significant strides in enhancing communication channels.

Other factors to consider include shifts in consumer behavior and preferences, regulatory changes, and disruptions to the market. New developments like the Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable technology will also have an impact on communication plans. These technological advances will pave the way for new strategies such as a greater emphasis on personalized communication and the use of virtual and augmented reality to create more immersive experiences.

Another future consideration for communication plans is the need to address the changing demographics of the workforce. Millennials and Generation Z are becoming a larger part of the workforce, and they possess different communication preferences and styles compared to their predecessors. As such, communication plans need to cater to these audiences by incorporating social media platforms and mobile apps that these generations use more frequently.

Lastly, communication plays a crucial role in crisis management. Therefore, companies and organizations should have a crisis communication plan in place to mitigate any potential risks. This plan should include a clear chain of command, predefined communication channels, and a messaging framework that addresses different scenarios. The plan should be reviewed and updated regularly to ensure its effectiveness.

In conclusion, future considerations are essential in communication planning to maintain a competitive edge in the constantly evolving business landscape. Companies and organizations that are proactive and adaptable to change are more likely to succeed in their goals. Future considerations may include emerging technologies, shifting demographics, and crisis management plans that are reviewed and updated continuously to remain effective.

Communication Plan — FAQ

1. what is a communication plan.

A communication plan is a document that outlines the strategies and tactics to effectively deliver information to a target audience. It also establishes the roles and responsibilities of individuals involved in the communication process.

2. Why is a communication plan important?

A communication plan is important because it helps ensure that messages are clear, consistent, and relevant to the target audience. By defining roles and responsibilities, it also ensures that the right message is delivered to the right people at the right time.

3. How do you create a communication plan?

To create a communication plan, start by identifying your target audience and what information they need to know. Then, determine the best channels and tactics to reach them. Next, develop a timeline and assign roles and responsibilities to individuals involved in the communication process. Finally, establish a system for evaluating the success of your plan.

4. What are the key components of a communication plan?

The key components of a communication plan include identifying your target audience, defining your key messages, determining your communication channels and tactics, establishing a timeline, assigning roles and responsibilities, and setting metrics for measuring success.

5. How often should a communication plan be updated?

A communication plan should be updated whenever there are changes to your target audience, key messages, or communication channels. It may also need to be updated if there are changes in the organization’s priorities or if the plan is not meeting its objectives.

6. What are some common challenges in implementing a communication plan?

Some common challenges in implementing a communication plan include lack of resources, resistance to change, and difficulty in measuring the effectiveness of communication strategies. It is important to address these challenges by securing adequate resources, involving stakeholders in the planning process, and establishing clear metrics for measuring success.

Learn how to make passive income online

I've put together a free training on *How We Used The Brand New "Silver Lining Method" To Make $3k-$10k/mo (profit) With Just A Smart Phone In As Little As 8 Weeks …

About the author 

Mike Vestil

Mike Vestil is an author, investor, and speaker known for building a business from zero to $1.5 million in 12 months while traveling the world.

Session expired

Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page.

Marketing91

What is a Communication Plan? Definition and Importance

October 18, 2021 | By Hitesh Bhasin | Filed Under: Marketing

Definition – A communication plan enables an organization or business to design a road map to convey its message to the target audience. Communications planning empowers organizations to send a specific and result-driven message with clarity and measurable results.

Contemporary marketing strategies workaround effective storytelling which ultimately channelizes via a well-made communication plan template. This will enable businesses to have a clear understanding of how they will widen their reach and meet the right audiences with their messages.

So, if you also need to know what plan should include in your communication plan template, then this post will uncover the role of the communication plan in project management, public relations, project action plan, and all sorts of business communications. So, let’s get started –

Table of Contents

What is a Communication Plan?

A communication plan is a policy-driven approach that helps deliver the information appropriately and effectively to respective stakeholders.

Specifically, it is an end-to-end plan to deliver strategic information to the desired audience to boost the business results. Communication plans deal with the organization you are trying to reach, the message to be sent there and the methods or the communication channels to be adopted to reach them effectively.

It should also specify who has the authority to communicate confidential or sensitive information and how that information should be disseminated or transferred.

Following are some of the important 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 what the destination is, but it is not aware of its reach. The role of a communication plan comes here to solve the problem of clarifying the objectives of an agency.

2. Specifying relationships among audiences, channels, messages, activities, and materials

Researching the planning process of communication plans 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 they are looking for has unique features, different demands. To cope with this, planning plays an effective role here by communicating the most effective way to converse with them.

3. Identifying and implementing a variety of communication activities

There are several different methods to spread the message of a firm to an audience. This will help it settle on which activities it shall engage in to not get continuously pulled on different roads.

4. Clarifying stakeholders’, staff members’ and others’ roles in the process

People in an organization should know their contribution towards the organization and what departments they are responsible for. Having a well-defined plan will help in managing their responsibilities and their contribution effectively towards their firm.

5. Including stakeholder input in the communication process

Stakeholders are one of the most important persons of an organization. Having 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 information it needs to improve its plan.

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

Before a firm decides to write down a plan, it shall be aware of where it will be applied to the business. It is vital to conduct an audit of the current communication environment within the firm. It aids in identifying the bottlenecks present in the organization.

To conduct an efficient audit, a firm needs to carefully gather and interpret data and information based on current marketing plan performance and develop a roadmap based on the previous outcomes. Moreover, a firm can also look for hosting focus groups or sending surveys to its targeted audience to find holes in the current system of communications.

2. Set SMART goals for your communications plan

For making a communication plan, setting SMART goals as per the results of your audit will be your next step. After preparing an audit, a firm has to lay down some specific goals based on its earlier outcomes.

An organization should consider that its goals and objectives should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based. In other words, this step deals with identifying and stating the business objectives. For every goal an organization sets, the team needs to give its full contribution to these goals.

It implies that if the team is not aware of what they are aiming for, they will never achieve their goals. To get aware of such goals, there shall be a meeting organized for this purpose where proper underlined statements shall be written to make the objectives clear without any ambiguity.

3. Identify the audience for delivering your communication plan

A good communication plan involves listening to the listener, i.e., focusing on the audience. After forming and identifying the goals, an organization needs to determine and state its target audience. It can be employees of the firm, shareholders, media outlets, etc. Some ways to determine the target audience are:

• Surveying current customers to learn their preferences. A firm could use tools like Google Forms or SurveyMonkey to gather data from their audience. It shall ask demographic-based questions to gather the actual information they are looking for.
• Digging into Google Analytics to learn more about who is currently visiting the website of the firm.
• Comparing the followers of the competitors on social media platforms with our organization and seeing the genre of people following them.

After gathering the data through the above methods, a firm shall design an option for a one-to-two-line description of its audience.

4. Outline and write your communication plan as per your audiences

After identifying the prospective audience, it is the time when an organization shall describe the world about itself. For that, a firm needs to outline and prepare a draft of its communication plan.

The best way is to create a chart and fill in the information related to the messages the firm wants to promote, its target audience and the modes or channels to be adopted. After generating an outline, the following is the structure of a communication plan that a firm shall prepare:

• 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

While writing a communication plan, working with groups or representatives of the stakeholders of the organization helps in improving accuracy. Strategies aids in solving potential risks for goals associated with the plan.

5. Determine the channels for sharing the communication plan

The channels to be adopted by an organization depends upon the message to be delivered and the targeted audience concerning the message.

An organization should have specified distribution channels concerning its goals that are relatable 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 out and select the team members responsible for delivering their goals and messages out 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 make sure that every employee in the firm is aware of what are the things going internally and they get to know the reasons behind it.

7. Estimate a timeline for each step of the communications plan

A firm shall have an estimate of the time that is going to be spent in the performance of each step in the execution of the strategy.

For example, for a minor in an advertisement campaign, the advertising department might estimate the cycle for tackling the issue will take a month which may include meetings with the client, stakeholders, 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 stakeholders and determining the successful phased 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, 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. It aids in getting a report of each department of the firm, finding the loopholes, and acting accordingly for improvement in 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 plan. 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, all should have a proper communication plan.
• Agencies around the world – A communication plan is important for agencies as well as their clients for effective project management.
• Non-profits organizations – A communication plan alleviates the task of social media, PR as well as project management for marketing and project manager.
• 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 in 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 in advance for risks and issues

2. Have an introduction

• Include a background with vision, objectives, goals, timeframes, scope, existing communications stakeholders/staffs, current communication tools, results of past communication surveys
• Incorporate a situational analysis by analyzing strengths, weakness, 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 be audience-specific and result-driven

4. Include stakeholder details

• Incorporate details of your different target audiences like Project board (director, sponsor, 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 project feedback system

• Include feedback measures
• Have a 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

Wrapping Up!

A communication plan plays a crucial role in affecting the client-base and audience of an organization.

By stating clear goals, preparing a specified draft with a proper message and targeted audience helps in developing customer relations, and boosting the clients.

This task is mainly held by the marketing and advertising department of a company which is responsible for spreading the awareness and message of its organization.

How important do you consider a communication plan for successful project completion and business accomplishments? Share your views with us in the comment section below.

Liked this post? Check out the complete series on Marketing

Related posts:

• How to have a Successful Marketing Plan?
• What is Sampling plan and its application in Market research?
• How to Build a Sales Action Plan?
• Objectives of Marketing Plan Explained in Detail
• What Is a Marketing Plan? Types and How to Write One
• Marketing Implementation Plan with Examples and Template
• Marketing Communication: Meaning & Types of Marketing Communication
• Importance of Feedback in Communication Process
• Sales Communication: Different modes, Components and Importance
• What is Mass Communication? Definition & Career Opportunities in 2023

About Hitesh Bhasin

Hitesh Bhasin is the CEO of Marketing91 and has over a decade of experience in the marketing field. He is an accomplished author of thousands of insightful articles, including in-depth analyses of brands and companies. Holding an MBA in Marketing, Hitesh manages several offline ventures, where he applies all the concepts of Marketing that he writes about.

All Knowledge Banks (Hub Pages)

• Marketing Hub
• Management Hub
• Marketing Strategy
• Advertising Hub
• Branding Hub
• Market Research
• Small Business Marketing
• Sales and Selling
• Marketing Careers
• Internet Marketing
• Business Model of Brands
• Marketing Mix of Brands
• Brand Competitors
• Strategy of Brands
• SWOT of Brands
• Customer Management
• Top 10 Lists

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

• About Marketing91
• Marketing91 Team
• Privacy Policy
• Cookie Policy
• Terms of Use
• Editorial Policy

WE WRITE ON

• Digital Marketing
• Human Resources
• Operations Management
• Marketing News
• Marketing mix's
• Competitors

Communication Plan: What is it & How to Create it? (Steps included)

Let’s imagine something for a minute.

We’re living in a world where we don’t have the ability to communicate. That means, we can’t share ideas, knowledge, emotions, and learn.

That just sounds so horrifying, doesn’t it?

For every single one of us, communication is extremely important. It is the glue that holds people together – and the same goes for businesses.

But, what happens when a business is not able to communicate properly?

Believe it or not, companies are losing over  $37 billion  every year because of unplanned communication. Well, that’s not very shocking considering that 60% of companies  don’t even create or use a communication plan.

The thing is, your company doesn’t exist in a void. It entirely depends on what your prospects, customers, and other stakeholders say about you.

You can’t leave their opinion to chance, right? Because that would mean you’re leaving your company’s fate to chance too.

So, whether you’ve secured funding, hit a revenue goal, or hired a new CEO, every communication should start with some good planning.

Why? Because a communication plan is what helps you deliver the right message to the right audience and achieve the best results!

Okay, But What Exactly is a Communication Plan?

Imagine that you’re in a new, unfamiliar city and you have to find your way to your hotel without a GPS or a physical map.

Well, that’s exactly what it is like when you try to deliver a message to your target audience without a communication plan – driving somewhere without a clue about where you’re going.

A communication plan is your roadmap for getting your message delivered to your audience!

It helps your organization send a clear, specific message to the target audience with measurable results. All you’ve to do is put yourself in your audience’s shoes and evaluate:

• What do they already know and what do they still need to know?
• What exactly do they want to hear?
• What’s their preferred way of receiving information?
• What will make them lose interest in your message?

In short, your communication plan is a place to bring together your objectives, audience, key messages, tone of voice, and channel strategy.

But, How Do I Get Started With a Communication Plan?

Developing a communication plan can seem like an overwhelming task, so here are five steps to help get the ball rolling. We’ll try to keep everything simple and actionable enough to start putting the process into practice as soon as you’re done reading it!

Step 1. Define your Objectives

A very common mistake everyone makes while building a communication plan is jumping straight to the tactics. Don’t forget that goals and objectives are the building blocks of every plan.

So, first and foremost, assess your business’s current situation.

Once you’ve established where you currently are, think about the short and long-term goals and objectives for your business. Be very clear about what you want to achieve, when, and why.

Also, keep your goals and projections realistic enough so that you can actually accomplish them. A communication plan is not the right place to gloat, because that’d just hurt you in the end.

For instance, don’t say you want to raise your profit margins by 50% next year if you only increased them by 10% this year.

Read more:  Best Internal Communication Tools for Your Business

Step 2. Identify Your Key Audiences

You certainly don’t want to waste your precious resources on an audience that doesn’t even want your product.

This is exactly why you need to identify who your product will appeal to the most. The answer to this question will reveal who your target audience is and to whom you’ve to deliver the message.

To pinpoint the target audience, find the answer to these questions:

• Who would benefit the most from your product or service?
• What are the key interests of your audience?
• What actions do you want the audience to take?
• Where exactly do you fit into their big picture?
• What characteristics do your current customers share?

Remember, your business might have the greatest, most impactful message on earth, but if you’re not delivering it to the right people, it’s good for nothing.

Step 3. Recognize Media Channels

Now that you’ve identified your target audience, decide which media channel would be the best to get your message delivered to them.

You can start with jotting down all the possible communication channels you could use – be it emails, newsletters, posters, events, podcasts, or billboards.

Just don’t make your audience go out of their way to hear your message. Make sure that you deliver it straight to them.

For instance, if you’ve to announce a piece of grand corporate news, a corporate event is the ultimate place for it. You can use newsletters to announce the news too.

To be honest, why won’t you use newsletters when elink.io makes it super easy to create one? All you’ve to do is bundle weblinks, customize the layout to fit your brand’s theme, and share your newsletter with the world!

Step 4. Establish a Timetable

It’s time to develop a solid schedule to execute your communication plan. Decide when do you want your audience to hear your message and how often.

For example, if you have got a blog, you can create an editorial calendar. Similarly, if you’re sending out social media posts, create a social media calendar.

Simply put, stay organized, focused, and on task.

Tip: Create a segment for the names of the people who’re accountable for each task on the schedule – so they are aware of their responsibility.

Read more:   Productivity Plan: What is it & How to Create a Perfect One?

Step 5. Evaluate the Results

This step is something many people forgo because they’re just “too busy”.

But, won’t you rather spend a few minutes every month to ensure you’re spending your hundreds of hours wisely?

Be it email open rates or social media likes – if you want to understand whether you’ve achieved your objectives or not, delve into the data to see what went right and what didn’t.

A particular channel isn’t working? Cut it. Your audience’s behavior has evolved? Update the plan.

When you evaluate your results from time to time, you can fine-tune all the future communications to better meet your target audience’s needs and fill in any gaps.

By the way, you might have heard the saying:

“If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

Quite similarly, when your business has something significant to share, but you don’t have a solid communication plan, it will not make a sound.

But it’s cumbersome and exhausting to draft a solid communication plan and that’s why there are so many marketers out there who are struggling with setting it up.

That’s a pity – because it is one of the most valuable documents in the marketing department.

Fortunately, we’ve something that will help you, and all those struggling marketers. Ready? Let’s go!

Read more:  9 Customer Acquisition Strategies Your Boss Wishes You Knew!

Bit.ai – The Tool You Need to Create a Robust Communication Plan & Other Documents

After getting familiar with Bit.ai, your perception that creating a communication plan is tough will change forever.

Simply put, Bit takes the guesswork out of the equation and helps you create documents that are just perfect – both in terms of format and aesthetics. It is all action-oriented and easy to use, so you can create the best documents ever!

Now buckle up, because we’re going to explore some mind-blowing features of Bit that’ll help you with your communication plan:

1. Pre-Built, Beautiful & Fully-Responsive Templates – Bit.ai offers 90+ gorgeous document templates and takes care of the design and formatting aspect for you so you can focus on research and content. As we said, creating a communication plan is not so tough when Bit has got your back!

2. Workspaces & Folders: A communication plan isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” thing. You’ve to customize it for every product or service that your business offers. You’ve to customize it every time you’ve to target a different market. The same goes for all other business documents. This is exactly why this feature of Bit is the bomb! It lets you create infinite workspaces around projects, teams, departments, and clients to keep all your work organized.

3. Real-Time Collaboration : This is probably one of the coolest features of Bit. No matter where your team is located, you can keep everyone on the same page. You can co-edit, make inline comments, and much more on Bit!

4. Sharing & Permissions: Yes, the people who are already there in your workspace can see the documents whenever they want. However, there are more ways to share your Bit document – you can create a shareable live link, embed your docs onto any website and even invite guests into your workspace. Guest access is the best if you just want someone to review your documents in a particular workspace, but you don’t want them to see anything else!

5. Interactive Documents :  Take your documents up by a notch by adding any kind of rich media to them to make them come alive. You can add cloud files, presentations, videos, social content, music, cloud files, maps, charts, surveys/polls – basically any rich media you can think of in your Bit document!

With Bit.ai, little creativity, dedication, and planning, you’ll create a fabulous communication plan and other critical business documents in no time!

Wrapping Up

We’re living in the digital age with endless information streams. That means, there are high chances of your business getting lost in the noise.

It’s becoming more and more difficult to communicate with your target market and this is exactly why you need a solid communication plan.

A solid communication plan is very much like solid marketing.

You have got a message (product) that you want to “sell” to your audience (customers). If you want them to “buy” it, it needs to be perfect and something that they were looking for!

So, what are you waiting for? Create your communication plan using Bit.ai, streamline your messaging, and take your business to heights!

Got any questions? We’re always there for you! Just tweet to us @bit_docs and we’ll get back to you.

Further reads:

Self-Care Plan: What is it & How to Create an Effective One?

Marketing Communication Strategy: What is it & How to Create it?

Growth Plan: What is it & How to Create One? (Steps Included)

Target Audience: What is it and How to Find them? (Steps Included)

Effective Workplace Communication For Better Collaboration

Project Management Communication Plan: Definition & Steps to Create!

Market Targeting: Definition, Importance & Strategy!

11 Powerful Time Management Strategies to Save Time!

Related posts

Information security plan: what is it & how to create it, how to write a daily activity report (steps,key elements & benefits), how to embed paperform to your documents, 9 risk management tools & techniques you must try, business continuity plan: what, why & how to create it, 15 impactful knowledge-sharing quotes for your team.

About Bit.ai

Bit.ai is the essential next-gen workplace and document collaboration platform. that helps teams share knowledge by connecting any type of digital content. With this intuitive, cloud-based solution, anyone can work visually and collaborate in real-time while creating internal notes, team projects, knowledge bases, client-facing content, and more.

The smartest online Google Docs and Word alternative, Bit.ai is used in over 100 countries by professionals everywhere, from IT teams creating internal documentation and knowledge bases, to sales and marketing teams sharing client materials and client portals.

👉👉Click Here to Check out Bit.ai.

Recent Posts

Developer experience(dx): importance, metrics, and best practices, top 12 ai assistants of 2024 for maximized potential, maximizing digital agency success: 4 ways to leverage client portals, how to create wikis for employee onboarding & training, what is support documentation: key insights and types, how to create a smart company wiki | a guide by bit.ai.

• HR & Payroll

How to Write an Effective Communications Plan?

Effortless marketing needs proper strategy and good planning. To have a good business, effective communication is the key. Did you ever face a backlash in business or company meetings because of improper interpretation of the message or failure to give key points to the stakeholders?

Communication is the key when you want to have a seamless work process and a better business. For this to happen, you need to have a well-thought communications plan! While impromptu plans can work wonders for some time, it is always better to have a well-designed strategy.  

What are the Communications Plan?

Whether your business is just a year old or a recognized brand in a particular industry, you always need to have a pre-defined plan. A communications plan is the key which helps to deliver your vital messages on time to your stakeholders. It will play the role of a bridge and help you understand the timeline to deliver concerned messages to your audience.

With this plan, you can ensure full scope planning to deliver important business outcomes and ensure business growth. It makes sure that you deliver the information as per the plan. With this, you can also identify and segregate which messages to promote and thus target only those for maximum reach.  It also aids to decide the channels and medium to promote your products and also understanding the audience response to marketing.

This strategy can be used regularly as well as in times of crisis. It can also be a marketing gimmick for the launch of new products and even to kickstart new initiatives for the promotion of old yet famous products.

Why Communications Plan is necessary?

Before we delve deep into what this plan includes, it is important to know why it is necessary. Its major role is to make a business understand the purpose of why a particular product or a new initiative has been launched, and even assist to determine the official messages you want to deliver to your intended audience.

If you have questions regarding the need for this as there are many other options to attract the audience, a communications plan can play the role of an intelligent planner and assist to build your business again if it has been on the downside due to some wrong decisions.

It will also play a meticulous role to bring your business atop and get high popularity to post the phase where advertising affected the business reputation. Improvised strategic planning will maintain nice and healthy relations with your internal stakeholders and even the customers.

Now, if you look at the other side of the coin, if there is no such plan, the business owners would be left devastated in case of union strikes from the lower class of employees or other times like wrong information being conveyed/ misuse of your products in social media by young teenagers just to get a high number of comments and likes. It is for these unprecedented situations, having a dedicated team in sync with the planner for marketing for promotional activities is a must.

The following points shall explain its importance in very precise words -

• Set realistic goals and manage customer expectations
• Transparency in managing client relations
• Proper and systematic planning of projects
• Delivers clear and concise marketing information to know the delivery of cold emails,  newsletters, social media and direct phone to potential and long-term customers

When to develop a Communications Plan

This strategy is a basic idea of how to share information. Effective communication is the key. What is effective communication? It means there are transparently clear and good connections between different levels of employees in your organization. Communication is a two-way key. It shows that both sides have an equal chance to communicate their opinion whether face-to-face or through team communication tools . With this technique, the goal is to reach your immediate head, team colleagues, business partner and even the customers becomes easier.

A communications plan is what a firm wants to achieve in business. If you have a clear idea of where you want to take your business, it will not take it. To achieve this, proper planning is important. When to develop this? Check the following steps to understand the whole process when and how you need to design this communications plan strategy -

Perform a detailed analysis of where you stand in business

What do customers value in your business/ products?

Develop an attractive and eye-catchy tagline

A concise message that promotes your product/ brand.

Choose your intended target audience

Know which prospects can turn into long-term buyers

Select and prioritise your communication channels

Do a cost-benefit analysis before deciding on the communication channels where you want to market your brand

Set defined and measurable objectives

These numeric values can assist to decide how many members you need in the communications plan team, forecasting predictable buyers, calling 10% prospects, selling “X” % by the end of a quarter  or getting’XX’ revenue by the end of the year

Appoint an in-charge person who shall execute your plan

By fixing a team leader or Communications Plan head, you can give the whole responsibility of execution of the steps to meet the company objectives.  

Steps to build a Communications Plan

When you have understood when and how to develop this strategy, it is essential to know the steps in the same -

Situation Analysis

This helps to assess the current capabilities and health of the firm, whether they can researching successfully carry out the project.

To carry out this analysis, you should make use of these methods -

SWOT Analysis

PEST Analysis

Using this, you can examine all types of environments that are present as external factors  

One more analysis technique is the PERCEPTUAL MAP   where you understand how your customers look at your competitor’s brands and products, compared to yours before making a purchase.  

Identify and define S.M.A.R.T goals

Once you have understood where you stand, recognize your SMART goals

Sensible - The goals are clear and concise

Measurable - It must be quantifiable and not vague

Attainable - Can it be achieved?

Relative - Does the goal align with your business plan?

Timely - Make sure you gave a deadline to it

Understand and check your key profile audience

Know your audience profile by -

• Personalties/ values
• Interests/ activities
• Attitude/ opinion
• Age/ location
• Fix your Media channels to finalize the strategy

When you start doing research on your target audience, you are in a better position to perform a thorough analysis and even understand the diverse preferences.

Social media and authorized optimized content becoming a vital part of your marketing strategy, it is necessary to develop different marketing techniques as you cannot suffice with just one channel. Selecting the ideal channel with proper media with the audience you intend to target must be your prime focus when it comes to traditional and/or digital marketing.

With this, you need to manage multiple points like -

Media relations, Influencers, Responses to various people, co-branding and community service, social media channels like FB, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and more etc. This also as quality content for different channels, brand ambassadors, paid advertising and optimized engaging content in short.    

• Have a fixed calendar schedule to track your communications plan working and implementation. This will give you a better idea of how your planning is working.
• Constantly monitor and evaluate the results to know your performance level
• Revise your plan if needed to meet larger goals

How to develop a Communications Plan?

If you want to develop a robust communications plan, you need to follow a proper method as given below -

• Perform an audit of your current communications strategy
• Revise and set S.M.AR.T goals (Sensible, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) on basis of your audit
• Know your audience to identify where you want to deliver the plan
• Write a well-outlined plan by keeping your audience in mind (here you need to think from the audience perspective)
• Determine the communication channels and budget you are willing to spend for promotion to reach the target
• Decide which member of your team will deliver what responsibility
• Fix and estimate a timeline so all steps happen according to the schedule
• Measure the success rate on basis of the results of your plans once you have presented them to the stakeholders and audience
• Determine success percentage and identify areas for improvement for the next step so that you can incorporate them in the next communications plan

Marketing Communications Plan Example

To better understand how it works, and what is needed in the plan, you need to first draft a table to define who is working on what and what role e/se will be playing for the project to meet the business targets. Check the following -

The Communications Plan is a very important strategy in business if you want to achieve target goals and keep your stakeholders happy. It not only keeps your business on track but also helps you understand what more corrected improvisations are required to widen your audience and for product marketing. Deskera is a well-known name in the marketing industry and has several blogs that can guide you about marketing plans. So just read our other blogs and know what more you need to be cautious about while preparing your communications and marketing plan,

• A communications plan is a strategy that helps in delivering vital and timely messages about your business to the stakeholders and keeps them well-informed about the company’s position in the market.
• To make this plan, first, you need to a detailed analysis - SWOT, PEST and consider internal, as well as external factors along with the competitors & even audience behaviour that might affect your business.
• Perform a good audit of your existing plans and then devise the SMART goals.
• Develop a calendar schedule to keep your communications plan on track and ensure you have better insights into your competitors’ performance.
• Keep a track of your audience likes and performance of your marketing plans to learn lessons and decide if you have to revise your plan

Related Articles

All About Goa Form 37

Supply Chain Disruptions: A Bad News for Businesses

Website Marketing 101: Tips and Techniques

Hey! Try Deskera Now!

Everything to Run Your Business

Get Accounting, CRM & Payroll in one integrated package with Deskera All-in-One .

• Breakfast To Business

Why is a Communication Plan Important? Its Definition and Benefits

Are you looking to strengthen your business’ messaging? 

Well, we all want our messages to be interpreted the way we want them, right?

In today’s fast-paced and interconnected world, effective communication is far more important than ever. Whether you’re running a business, overseeing a project, or nurturing relationships, the presence of a well-crafted communication plan is nothing short of indispensable.

Many business owners often wonder why they need a communication plan, and we realize that newly established businesses may not fully appreciate the significance of having one.

But a well-crafted communication plan serves as the north star that ensures messages are clear, consistent, and reach the right audience at the right time. 

And now is also the right time, so sit tight! We will discuss with you why a communication plan is important.

What is a Communication Plan?

Before we delve into the “why,” let’s first understand the “what” of a communication plan. In its simplest form, a communication plan is a structured strategy that outlines how information will be disseminated within an organization or a project. It serves as a roadmap for effective, efficient, and purposeful communication.

A communication plan is like a navigational chart for your business to effectively communicate with your stakeholders. For business communication efforts, a communication plan serves as a strategic blueprint that lays out the who, what, when, where, why, and how you are communicating as an organization.

It defines your goals as a business, identifies your target audience, optimizes your messages, and selects the most suitable channels for your messages. Its value lies in its purpose to prioritize clarity, consistency, and effectiveness in a world where the noise of information can be loud. 

Whether you’re a business promoting a product, a nonprofit seeking to raise awareness, or an individual looking to convey a message, a well-crafted communication plan is your best asset.

A communication management plan is also essential in project management because it ensures that everyone involved in the project knows what needs to be communicated. Additionally, it helps maintain consistency in messaging across various channels, preventing confusion or mixed signals.

A strong communication plan typically includes the following components:

• Clear Objectives: Identifying what you want to achieve through communication is the first step. Are you aiming to inform, persuade, motivate, or simply keep everyone in the loop?
• Target Audience: Defining your audience is crucial. Tailoring your message to suit the needs and preferences of your audience enhances the effectiveness of your communication.
• Key Messages: What are the main points you wish to convey? They should be brief and relevant to your goals.
• Channels: Determine the platforms and methods you’ll use to convey your messages. These could include email, meetings, social media, or newsletters.
• Timeline: Establish a schedule for when and how often you’ll communicate. This ensures regular and consistent updates.
• Responsibilities: Clearly define who is responsible for each aspect of the communication plan, so everyone knows their role.

Now that we’ve got the “what” out of the way, let’s explore the “why.”

Why communication plan is important?

In a time where people are continuously exposed to media, communicating with clarity and consistency is far more important than ever.

It ensures that every message from the brand is clear and in harmony with its mission, reducing the potential for confusion that can derail its public perception.

A communication plan identifies the organization or brand and how it wants to communicate with people inside or outside the organization.

Your brand’s image is more than just a logo or a catchy slogan. It’s the perception that your audience has of your company. A communication plan helps you shape and manage this image. It guides you in defining your brand’s values, personality, and the emotions you want to evoke in your audience. When your message is aligned with your brand image, you’ll resonate with your target market, and that’s where brand loyalty and advocacy are born.

In times of change or crisis, its importance becomes even more pronounced because it provides a structured framework for communication the reasons behind changes, the timeline for implementation, and the expected impact on employees and the organization as a whole. 

And of course, there’s not going to be always a crisis, but a communication plan is much more than just a contingency plan, it’s the heart of the brand’s messaging. Our heart pumps out blood all over our bodies for it to work. A communication plan is no different, it is the beating heart that is at the center of the brand.

How to Create a Communication Plan? The 7 Steps

So, how can you create a communication plan that works for your organization?

• Assessment: Start by assessing your current communication methods and identifying areas that need improvement.
• Set Clear Objectives: Define what you want to achieve with your communication plan. Is it better employee engagement, more effective customer communication, or improved crisis management?
• Identify Key Stakeholders: Determine who the key players are in your organization, both internally and externally. These are the people who will be impacted by your communication plan.
• Choose the Right Channels: Select the communication channels that are most effective for reaching your target audience. This may include emails, intranet, social media, or even face-to-face meetings.
• Create a Schedule: Establish a communication calendar that outlines when and how often you will communicate. Consistency is key.
• Assign Responsibilities: Clearly define who is responsible for each aspect of the communication plan. This ensures that everyone knows their role in the process.
• Monitor and Adapt : Regularly review and adapt your communication plan as needed. The business landscape is always evolving, and your plan should too.

In conclusion, a well-structured communication plan is not a luxury but a necessity for any organization. It enhances clarity, aligns with your business goals, and improves employee engagement. It’s a crucial tool for decision-making and crisis management. Furthermore, it’s the cornerstone of building trust with your customers.

Looking To Boost Your Business With a Good Communication Plan?

A well-crafted communication plan that knows its audience and how it’s going to be tapped, presents said audience with the organization’s unique selling proposition and communicates it with clarity.

If you’re looking to do the same with your business to reach its full potential, our experts can help you craft the communication plan that fits your business well.

Let TeamAsia help you bring your business to the next level. Contact us today !

Latest News

To the World, On embracing our authentic selves

By Bea Lim, Managing Director It’s been a tradition for my Mom, Monette Iturralde-Hamlin and I to chat about the…

Nurturing company well-being in the New Year: Find balance between mental, physical health

By Dolly Dy-Zulueta - Philstar.com According to psychiatrist Dr. Brock Chisholm, who served as the first director-general of the World Health…

The Digital Marketing Trends in the Philippines (2024)

Remember flip phones, flash games, and cd’s? Yeah, those things felt like they were here just yesterday. Time does go…

We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on TeamAsia.com. By continuing to browse our site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Read more on our Privacy Policy here .