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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

What is a communication plan?

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

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

• Weekly checklist
• Spreadsheet
• Automated Trello board

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

Benefits of a communication plan

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

Checklist and reminder

Inspectable artifact, alignment with stakeholders.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to create a communication plan in 6 steps

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

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

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

1. What type of information do you produce?

Start by reviewing what information you produce and process.

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

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

Capture it all.

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

2. Who should receive that information?

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

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

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

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

3. How often should they receive it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Before sending out an update, ask yourself:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6. Who should make it happens?

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

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

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

Communication plan example

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

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

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

Communication plan template

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

When you start, ask yourself:

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

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

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10 communication plan templates—and how to write your own

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

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

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

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

Table of contents:

Communication plan templates 

How to write a communication plan

Communication plan essentials, what is a communication plan.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Communication plan templates

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

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

1. Marketing communication plan

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

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

2. Crisis communication plan

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

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

3. Internal communication plan

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

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

4. Social media communication plan

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

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

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

5. Change management communication plan

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

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

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

6. Non-profit communication plan

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

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

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

7. Product launch communication plan

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

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

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

8. Public relations communication plan

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

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

9. Employee communication plan

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

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

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

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

10. Event communication plan

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

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

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

1. Set communication goals

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

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

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

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

2. Identify the audience

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

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

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

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

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

3. Outline key messages

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

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

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

4. Choose communication channels

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

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

Who's meant to read this? 

How can I reach them? 

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

Which channel would have the best visibility for my audience? 

5. Create a timeline

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

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

6. Allocate resources

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

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

7. Designate responsibilities

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

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

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

8. Create contingency plans

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

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

9. Set metrics for evaluation

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

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

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

10. Perform testing and gather feedback

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Related reading:

The 6-step client onboarding checklist (with template)

7 meeting minutes templates for more productive meetings

One-pager examples and how to create your own

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

20 free proposal templates to ace your pitch

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

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

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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.

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

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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.

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Why a clear communication plan is more important than you think

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

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

What is a communication plan?

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

What should a communication plan include?

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

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

When should we communicate in person vs. asynchronously?

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

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

What shouldn’t be included in a communication plan?

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

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

The benefits of a communication plan

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

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

Less app switching

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

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

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

Increased collaboration

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

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

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

Less duplicative work

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

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

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

How to write a communication plan

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

1. Establish your communication methods

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

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

Email to communicate with any external stakeholders.

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

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

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

2. Align on communication cadence

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

For example, you might decide to schedule:

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

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

Asynchronous project milestone updates in Asana as needed.

3. Add a plan for stakeholder management

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

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

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

4. Share your communication plan and update it as needed

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

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

Example communication plan

Communication plan template

Description of communication.

What type of communication is it?

How often will you be communicating?

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

Who is receiving this communication?

Who is in charge of sending out this communication?

Good communication starts with a communication plan

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

Related resources

How to track utilization rate and drive team profitability

How to accomplish big things with long-term goals

Smooth product launches are simpler than you think

What is stakeholder analysis and why is it important?

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Blog Beginner Guides How to Create an Effective Business Communication Strategy

How to Create an Effective Business Communication Strategy

Written by: Ann Smarty May 05, 2022

[Updated 02/21/2023]

Are you struggling with creating an effective business communication strategy within or outside your company?

Or would you like to improve the way information is shared within your organization?

You are not alone.

The overwhelming majority ( 92% ) of people feel the communication within their company needs to be improved. Additionally, the new report from 2022 claims that following the pandemic, over a third of people admit that communication has become more of a challenge.

Business communication is something most companies are continuously struggling with.

So here’s how to set up an effective business communication strategy for your organization:

What is business communication?

The importance of business communication, what are types of business communication, internal business communication, external business communication, how to improve business communication.

Business communication is a broad concept that describes all methods employees are using to share information with one another inside or outside of a company.

Business communication is crucial on many levels. Effective communication in business helps keep your employees motivated and driven to be able to efficiently cope with any kind of crisis.

Amidst the COVID pandemic, companies have found a well-defined business communication flow to be crucial for promptly adjusting strategic direction and implementing tactical decisions.

As year-long lockdowns have proved, improving internal communication and collaboration should become companies’ priority as it helps expedite decision-making and cope with crises.

Related :  10+ Crisis Communication Plan Templates for Leaders + Managers

Technology-driven company communication has also become the only way to cope with isolation after lots of organizations have switched to remote operating. According to a recent survey from McKinsey & Company, companies have been encouraging their employees to communicate more to make up for in-person encounters.

On a large scale, lack of communication within a business causes silos.

What are silos in organizations?

Organizational silos refer to the isolation of one or more teams within a company. This means that instead of working as a whole, this company consists of multiple almost independent (and often efficient) departments.

But if those departments may be efficient, why is silos a problem?

Silos create confusion and make it harder to ensure everyone is on the same page. The average team in the United States wastes about 7 hours per week due to organizational silos caused by poor collaboration and communication.

Return to Table of Contents

On the highest level, there are two types of communication in the workplace:

• Internal (among the employees)
• External (with customers, partners, niche influencers, other companies, etc.)

Both of these types are equally important for the well-being of a company and can also be further categorized into subtypes:

• Written communication (often via email, but also via IM, Slack and even Trello)

Visual communication

• In-person communication (also referred to as face-to-face communication)
• Virtual communication (through video chats)

Meetings (in-group communication)

Phone communication.

Related :  17 Communication Tools for Seamless Collaboration and Better Marketing

There’s a lot to discuss here, so let’s take a look at each of these business communication types:

Written communication

Written communication is my favorite form of business communication, whether it is with the client or a co-worker.

• Written communication is productive (you have to type words, so you are forced to make all of them count)
• It is easy to keep a record of (most business email clients and providers offer a handy search feature allowing you to bring up old messages)

Apart from email, written communication can be powered by:

• Private blogs ( here’s how to set them up )
• Trello (all of the three methods above are perfect for well-organized communication and keeping everyone on the same page)
• Instant messaging (which is great for quick and urgent exchange)
• Employee Communication Tool

Written communication can cause delays but it is great for removing barriers and giving voice to the shiest employees.

Visual communication refers to the process of applying visual methods (infographics, charts, etc.) to communicate your message.

The beauty of visual business communication is the ability to make complicated concepts and processes easy to understand and remember.

Adding data visualizations to a financial report, for example, makes it a lot easier to scan and understand the information:

CREATE THIS REPORT TEMPLATE

Some common types of visual communications in the workplace include:

• Process diagrams
• Flow charts
• Charts and graphs
• Visual reports
• Presentations

Here’s an example of how mind maps can be used for internal business communication. Mind maps are perfect for collaboration: You can build them while brainstorming in a group meeting or during the call. They provide a visual representation of a task, steps or the flow:

CREATE THIS MIND MAP TEMPLATE

In-person / face-to-face communication

In-person and face-to-face communication is almost a thing of the past now that most meetings have become virtual. This is actually a sad trend, considering how psychological studies  show that face-to-face communication is more satisfying and fosters higher-quality interaction.

That being said, when it is safe, business executives should strive to revive face-to-face communication on a regular basis.

Virtual communication

Virtual communication became a preferred business communication method in 2020 when lots of big and small organizations moved to remote working (or introduced virtual operations for some departments).

Meeting virtually has replaced face-to-face meetings for lots of businesses across the world. Tools like Zoom and alternatives became widely popular. When our company moved to remote working, we started using Dialpad Meetings for two reasons:

• There’s nothing to download and install
• You can register rooms for the whole company to use when they need them. No need to generate a new code every time you want people to join. You just enter your team’s URL and you are done.

How do you improve your virtual business communication? You can read our blog on the 10 tips for effective remote team communication , or save the infographic below:

Virtual meetings have proved to be better for productivity and less costly, while face-to-face meetings are better for developing friendships and deeper knowledge sharing.

With that in mind, when we finally get back to normal, both virtual and face-to-face communication is important for a company’s well-being.

When it comes to internal company meetings, the problem is lots of the times businesses hold meetings just for the sake of having it without considering how ineffective that can be:

Yes, internal meetings are important for maintaining a friendly environment and getting to know one another. But they can also be extremely time-consuming and unproductive.

That being said, a monthly meeting is always great but replace your weekly and daily meetings with virtual communication, if possible.

While being a helpful way to reach anyone quickly, phone communication can easily ruin a company’s productivity. It is too easy to call someone to ask a quick question and 30 minutes later find yourself discussing your weekend plans with your co-worker.

Phone communication is also not something easily avoidable as mobile phones have made phone calls and text messages an integral part of our lives.

It is important to create strict guidelines to minimize phone calls within a company and encourage employees to use other methods of communication, when possible.

When it comes to written business communication outside of a company, it can take two major forms:

• Private (email, chat, etc.)
• Public ( verified social media )

Here’s the golden rule for written communications for just about any company: Your goal is to move public communication into a private environment, especially when it comes to customers.

You never know when your customer may feel annoyed or threatened and go viral with their anger. To keep your reputation more secure, invite your customers to email or call and you should also consider reading books on email marketing .

Your marketing strategy should reflect your written communication policy on many levels, including ad creation , email outreach , PR, SEO and content creation , etc. If you outsource any parts of your marketing, ask questions and make sure your agency knows where you are coming from.

Enhance your customer communication experience by setting up automated reminder messages with tools like Goldie .

Luckily, email is still a preferred method of customer service communication with over 80% of customers choosing an email over any other methods to get in touch with a company. Use an all-in-one communication tool such as any of these Intercom alternatives to reach your customers on their preferred channels.

Visual business communication is widely used in the B2B sales process because visuals are able to illustrate the selling point like no other medium can.

If you’ve ever sat through a sales call or a demo, you may have seen lots of powerful visual communication assets that made you think “I need this!”

This mind map lists the tips for effective B2B communication and negotiation, but you can easily customize it to use for your external visual communication needs:

Related :  9 Sales Infographics to Guide Strategy and Increase Sales

Obviously, visual communication is applied on a broader scope than just B2B sales .

Here’s an example of an infographic you can send to your clients to explain a process:

CREATE THIS INFOGRAPHIC TEMPLATE

Even posting videos and images on social media may be considered a form of external business communication. This includes communicating through video content, which according to statistics , has been growing exponentially recently.

With visual communication being such an important part of your company’s public image, it is important to maintain a consistent look and feel of your visual assets.

It starts with a domain. Your name needs to match your niche, create positive associations and make it easy to remember your brand. It should also be consistent with your other channels (social media channels, your blog, etc.) and align with your logo. Namify is a handy tool to handle of these aspects:

From there you need to keep your visual marketing consistent.

This is where Venngage’s  My Brand Kit  can turn into a lifesaver. It allows you to create, save and share your visual identity within your company for all the teams to create well-branded and consistently looking visual brand assets (like videos, social media graphics, blog images, etc.):

LEARN MORE ABOUT VENNGAGE

When it comes to external business communication, in-person communication often happens when your company representatives visit conferences, industry shows and summits.

It is very important to develop a clear external communication policy for your employees to know what they can and cannot do when representing your company in in-person meetings. Here’s a solid example from Marvell .

Technology has made companies closer to their customers. These days any brand can directly talk to their customers via social media, and even interact with them using video or voice.

External virtual communication include:

• Live video (which can also help you establish a stronger brand presence on social media)
• Clubhouse, in which brands or their representatives can talk to clients or niche influencers
• Webinars , which can be used to educate and engage your audience

Like with any public business communication, it is important to ensure that your representatives are aware of and follow your external communication policy.

Group meetings are not a very popular type of external business communication unless it’s for market research purposes (a focus group, for example).

Phone communication is an essential form of customer support but it is also very time-consuming. More and more companies are seeking ways to minimize phone communication with customers, especially through call center outsourcing . To make your customer service more productive, consider:

• Making other external communication methods (email, chat , push notifications , etc.) more obvious on your site
• Using solutions like UCaaS and Call Centers that make phone communication easier to organize
• Get a Voip number so they can receive calls on their computer

Phone communication is also widely used in B2B when businesses provide voice coaching or consulting. In these business models, businesses are paid based on how many phone conversations they were able to sell.

There are a few strategic and long-term ways to improve just about any business communication strategy, including:

Build a detailed knowledge base

A knowledge base is a well-organized collection of documentation addressing all kinds of issues, questions and resources that can help in both internal and external communication easier.

The knowledge base can help on many levels, including:

• Make new employees’ lives easier by eliminating the need to ask their new managers lots of questions
• Enable customer support team to quickly refer customers to further reading or instructions on any topic
• Eliminate the need of turning to outside resources, and keep everyone within and outside the company on the same page

An effective knowledge base software organizes all kinds of resources from detailed tutorials on how to perform a task to a concise FAQ covering popular questions.

Creating a knowledge base is an ongoing project, as more and more questions will come up as you start working on it.

A good place to start is to look at niche questions that will turn helpful in organizing your knowledge base. Text Optimizer is a quick and easy way to do that:

Create a business dashboard

Another effective way to keep your whole company updated on the key metrics is using a business dashboard. A dashboard aims at aggregating and organizing several data points which are regularly updated. These data points may include:

• Traffic and conversions
• ROI goals and predictions
• Web analytics and ecommerce metrics
• Customer reviews and online sentiment
• Key marketing achievements
• Ad tracking , etc.

Being able to see recent stats and metrics will help each employee part of a whole and give context for transparent business communication.

Cyfe is a good way to put a business dashboard together.

You can also create a custom and self-hosted business dashboard for your company using these dashboard templates .

Create consistent communication policies

I’ve mentioned creating an external communication policy above but it is so important, it deserves a separate section.

Create one single document detailing what people representing your brand can or cannot say in public. This will make your company’s external communication strategy more predictable and safer.

These guidelines should also include your brand’s ambassadors, affiliates, and contributors. Your communication policies should also include how to recruit software developers or PR professionals , your communication needs to remain consistent.

It is a good idea to set up a business assessment survey to regularly check if the whole company is on the same page.

Lots of companies are reluctant to make organizational changes because they are worried that those changes may reduce productivity.

In fact, “the less we talk, the better we work” concept is not completely wrong.

The problem occurs when no team or single person knows what is going on with the company.

To create an effective business communication flow, try several methods before you know which ones work better. Encourage your employees to share knowledge and data with team members as well as to use different communication methods.

Creating a business communication strategy is an ongoing process. Things that seemed to work first may stop working quite quickly. Keep using different methods while working on long-term assets to make communication easier. Good luck!

People also read :

• 10 Tips for Effective Communication With a Remote Team [Templates]
• 10+ Crisis Communication Plan Templates for Leaders + Managers
• 10+ Resources to Manage Nonprofit Communications in a Crisis [Templates]
• 17 Communication Tools for Seamless Collaboration and Better Marketing

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How to create a business analysis communication plan

Lucid Content

Reading time: about 6 min

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

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

That’s where a strong communication plan comes in.

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

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

Why is it important to have a communication plan?

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

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

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

In short, a strong communication plan:

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

What is a business analysis communication plan?

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

Business analysis and requirements communication involve numerous activities including:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best practices for developing communication plans

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

1. Determine your communication goals

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

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

2. Consider your audience 

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

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

Communication methods could include:

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

3. Pay attention to frequency

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

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

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

4. Use visuals to deliver your communication

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

The following templates can help you get started:

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

Current vs. Target Balanced Scorecard

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

Business Model Canvas

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

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

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

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

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

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

About Lucidchart

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

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How to Communicate Your Company’s Strategy Effectively

• David Lancefield

Ditch the lofty purpose statements and lengthy slide decks.

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

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

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

Partner Center

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.

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The Importance of Effective Business Communication

January 12, 2024 - Dom Barnard

In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing business landscape, effective communication is more crucial than ever. It’s the foundation upon which successful organizations are built, enabling them to connect with their employees, customers, partners, and stakeholders alike.

Effective communication goes beyond simply conveying information. It’s about understanding the needs and perspectives of your audience, tailoring your message accordingly, and ensuring that it’s received and understood as intended. It’s about creating a two-way dialogue that fosters collaboration, builds trust, and drives positive outcomes.

Key Elements of Effective Business Communication

• Clarity: Use clear and concise language that is easy to understand. Avoid jargon and technical terms that may confuse your audience.
• Consistency: Maintain a consistent tone and style across all communication channels to reinforce your brand identity and messaging.
• Relevance: Tailor your message to the specific needs and interests of your audience. Consider their level of understanding and background when crafting your communication.
• Timeliness: Deliver your message in a timely manner to ensure it remains relevant and impactful.
• Feedback: Encourage feedback from your audience to assess the effectiveness of your communication and make necessary adjustments.

Strategies for Effective Business Communication

Develop a communication strategy.

“A vision without a strategy remains an illusion.” – Lee Bolman.

Most companies have a Business Plan – alongside many other types of documents laying out both goals and the tactics to achieve them. Including ways to measure progress against each plan’s aims.

How many companies have a Communications Plan though? With similar goals, strategies and ways to evaluate outcomes?

We are not talking about a Marketing Plan – but information management across a much wider arc.

One study that suggests as many as  60% of organisations don’t have internal communications plans !

Your business communications strategy must look at what information is transmitted but also who you are talking to, and how. Including all target audiences, and the directional flows of information exchange.

Forget two-way communications, to be successful you need to focus on – and plan – four ways that business information must go:

The last one is not just about marketing and sales. What other target audiences do you have (such as your supply chain) and how can you be strategic and focused in your communications with them?

In making a clear and consistent plan for transmitting information across all four of those directions, perhaps the most commonly neglected is across. How well are you facilitating cross-team communication, and showing staff how they fit within the wider organisation and its aims?

It can be incredibly empowering. For example, giving your stock room team a chance to chat with your salespeople can help both to set more realistic goals and working systems.

Creating a timetable of business communications can automate some of the work involved. However, you need to keep it personal, as we explain later.

Invest in Communication Training

One of the best ways to ensure that your employees have the communication skills they need is to invest in training.

Communication training gives employees the skills they need to:

• Be clear and concise in their writing and speaking
• Adapt their communication style to different audiences
• Build relationships with colleagues, customers, and partners
• Resolve conflict effectively
• Handle difficult conversations with grace and professionalism

There are many different types of communication training available, so you can choose the ones that are best for your organization’s needs.

Some popular types of communication training include:

• Online courses
• Role-playing
• Simulations

In the realm of communication training, a shift towards immersive learning experiences is revolutionizing the way organizations empower their employees with effective communication skills. Unlike traditional lecture-based or e-learning modules, immersive learning places individuals directly in simulated real-world scenarios, fostering hands-on experience and accelerating skill development.

At the heart of this transformation lie Virtual Reality (VR) and Generative AI, technologies that unlock boundless opportunities for immersive communication training. VR enables participants to step into virtual environments, engaging in role-playing scenarios, delivering presentations, and navigating challenging conversations. They encounter realistic nonverbal cues, body language, and emotional responses, fostering a sense of presence and enhancing the learning experience.

Generative AI, on the other hand, powers intelligent dialogue simulations, providing employees with dynamic practice partners. These AI-driven chatbots or virtual characters adapt to individual communication styles, offering immediate feedback, correcting mistakes, and suggesting alternative approaches.

The combination of VR and Generative AI creates a powerful synergy, transforming communication training into an engaging and personalized journey. Employees gain confidence by practicing in safe and controlled environments, receiving actionable feedback, and refining their communication skills in real-time.

Use Technology Efficiently

In today’s technologically driven world, organizations can harness the power of technology to enhance their communication strategies, fostering seamless collaboration, engaging stakeholders, and achieving their strategic communication goals. 

By leveraging a wide range of communication platforms, from messaging apps to video conferencing tools, companies can streamline internal communication, keeping employees informed, connected, and empowered. 

Embracing technology facilitates feedback collection, allowing organizations to gather insights from employees and customers, paving the way for continuous improvement. Additionally, remote work communication can be effectively supported through technology, ensuring seamless collaboration and engagement among distributed teams. 

Technology also plays a crucial role in enhancing customer service, providing prompt and efficient assistance through live chat features, chatbot support, and knowledge base portals. 

Utilizing technology for routine communication tasks, such as email automation and drip campaigns, frees up time for more personalized and strategic interactions.

Using different channels purposefully

Just because there are so many modern ways to communicate, doesn’t mean you should use them all, all the time.

To establish meaningful and measurable corporate communications, it’s helpful to have processes in place. When are you going to use telephone calls, meetings and app messaging options? This would generally be for when a personalised messaging is vital, or you need to transmit urgent information.

When does that need to be reinforced with a more detailed set of information – such as a follow-up email?

Clearly, when you need to transmit significant amounts of detail or a set of steps to follow,  written communications  such as emails and reports are vital.

Never underestimate the importance of face-to-face meetings too, as they can be the best way to use body language and warmth in your business communications. It can be a great way to stimulate a more fluid interaction between people too.

To reinforce your multi-way business communications, you especially need to focus on collaborative processes and activities. How well is information shared across different teams and individuals, and among project/department members?

What opportunities exist for regularly evaluating how smoothly this information is flowing and how well it is being utilised?

Measuring the outcomes of business communications

You need to be clear on your goals within your communications strategy, so you have something to measure your success against. It is shocking how many organisations believe they operate comprehensive and effective communications across all their target audiences, without ever actually evaluating that.

By this, we don’t mean read receipts for emails or ticks on documents within your intranet system. How much of what you are saying as a company is understood and gets the response you were aiming for?

This can be an uncomfortable process sometimes. Asking a room of people ‘What did you get from that presentation – tell me what you think and feel’ can sound like a therapy session! Finding out your monthly staff newsletter is ignored (or the butt of workplace jokes) is deflating.

However, at least you can correct the course of your communications to get back on track! Taking time to establish levels of learning and emotional response is a core part of effective business communications.

Overcoming communications barriers

Evaluating the success of corporate communications goes hand in hand with taking the steps needed to dismantle roadblocks and fill in the gaps.

That needs to be achieved in a non-judgmental way if you offer a no blame or shame corporate culture of course. Lack of understanding should be seen as a communications shortfall, not a reflection of someone’s intelligence or commitment.

Communication deficits could be system issues interrupting information management and flow.

Communication deficits

• Departmental silos
• Remote staff ‘out of the loop’
• Poor digital information storage – and wasted time searching for it
• Lack of line management clarity
• Inadequate opportunities for feedback
• Information overload (more on this later)

Barriers to effective communication

• Hierarchy with ingrained attitudes and unwillingness to change (or even listen)
• Managers sacrificing communication tasks in favour of firefighting
• Unwillingness to admit to lack of understanding, for fear of reprisals
• Key staff with poor confidence or communications skills

Read more about  Barriers to Effective Communication in the Workplace .

It could be that the systems and wording you are using in your business communications are leaving some staff struggling to comprehend the messaging. Identifying these deficits is as important as working out which of your brand statements and marketing communications works best.

If someone is not fully understanding what you say, shouting the same thing is not going to get a different response! You need to look for new ways to express your business messaging or give your audience opportunities to ask questions that will help them to unlock your messaging.

Not everyone learns at the same pace – and some people need constant – empathetic – reminders to help them put information into practical, everyday use.

Extra effort for remote teams and onboarding communications

The need to constantly evaluate and ‘refresh’ your business communications is especially true of remote or hybrid teams. Checking in with individuals should be accompanied by ample opportunities to address their individual issues and queries in an empathetic, positive manner.

Remote working can be isolating , and make it harder for teams to feel cohesive and goal-orientated. So, your organisation needs to take meaningful steps to overcome that. Including offering remote workers some opportunities for social exchanges and spontaneous team-building opportunities.

Also, one of the most common information shortfalls is when someone new joins a team. Onboarding new recruits or assimilating new personnel into projects is when you need to be especially  purposeful in your communications .

By not only providing a comprehensive amount of information, but also offering abundant opportunities for questions. This should include friendly, constructive ‘litmus tests’ to evaluate understanding.

Too much communication!

One of the main things that can go wrong with business communications is information overload. This loops back to the start of the article and your information management strategy.

Fundamentally, you need to work out who needs to know what. It could mean varying the messaging giving progressively less detail or background, according to the target audience.

This is a balancing act really. To empower and engage your workforce, they need to feel like they are being trusted with business information and that their feedback counts. That should never mean bombarding them with emails – and documents to read on your intranet – or oversharing sensitive information.

Too much information is counterproductive. Employees start to ignore your messaging, and you actually get less effective business communications due to spoken or written word fatigue.

Positive outcomes and business communications

If this all sounds a lot to orchestrate when running a busy business, it’s worth considering some of the benefits of getting your business communications right!

• Having a business communications plan ensures your messaging is consistent and reaches all target audiences well
• Engaging, motivating and supporting your workforce gives them job satisfaction; which in turn improves productivity
• A workforce that feels enlightened and listened to is more likely to ‘go the extra mile’. Including coping with change or challenge more readily
• Your staff turnover may decrease
• Having business intelligence from upwards communications makes it more likely you find problems, efficiencies and innovations
• Internal collaboration and knowledge sharing become more fluid and intuitive
• Your marketing and sales functions become more successful
• Supply chain relationships become more reliable and fruitful

Finally, investing in creating and then measuring business communication goals enables you to find improvements. Including ways to build new communication skills in managers, and leaders.

Communication Technology Business Plans

Administrative service business plan.

Everywhere Assistant is a new start-up virtual assistant business, offering administrative, accounting, marketing, and graphic design services to clients.

Cell Phones Retailer Business Plan

Garbles Cellular’s mission is to offer its customers the highest quality cell phone products and services.

Computer Laser Accessories Business Plan

Brilliant Points develops cutting edge laser/optical controls for computers used in large audience business presentations.

Computer Repair Business Plan

PC Repair will provide computer and technical consulting to local small businesses as well as home PC users.

Integrated Communications Business Plan

Aero Technologies, Ltd., is a start-up company that offers high-tech communications systems to businesses in Botswana.

Satellite Communications Business Plan

Blue Sky Satellite Communications is an ongoing comunications solutions and satellite service provider in Africa.

Telecom Wireless Business Plan

Cellular Providers is taking advantage of an opportunity to become a highly distinguished and recognized industry leader in the cellular communications industry.

Telecommunications Business Plan

TeleSpace, Inc. develops and markets programmable personal communications and unified messaging services for individuals and businesses.

Telecommunications Products Business Plan

OSS Telecom Technology is an established steel conglomerate which is now branching out into the telecommunications sector.

Telephone Sales Business Plan

University Telephones will offer State University students landline phones, cell phones, and cell phone plans.

Tracking Device Maker Business Plan

RQM Technologies (RQM) is a start-up company which will develop and distribute miniaturized Personal Locator Devices.

Wi-Fi Kiosks Business Plan

Stroll Net, a start-up company, will install Wi-Fi compatible, Internet access kiosks in public venues, offering customers casual walk-up anytime access to World Wide Web applications.

Wireless DataComm Business Plan

Pie in the Sky Wi-Fi specializes in the setup, delivery, marketing and maintenance of secure wireless communications (Wi-Fi) for individuals, businesses, and entire communities.

Communication technology, also known as information technology, involves any and all equipment, software, or devices that process and communicate information. It’s an ever-evolving industry, with opportunities for new businesses to enter the market with different, advanced, or alternative communications solutions. However, it can be a difficult industry to find success without a solid business plan to guide you.

Start your telecom provider, cell phone or computer retailer, or other communications company out on the right track with a sample business plan.

The quickest way to turn a business idea into a business plan

Fill-in-the-blanks and automatic financials make it easy.

No thanks, I prefer writing 40-page documents.

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I'm a CEO who ran my company from a cruise ship for a month. It requires a lot of discipline, but I'd do it again.

• Tony Fernandes, CEO of UEGroup, managed his company from a cruise ship for 21 days.
• Fernandes experienced challenges with slow internet and communication but found workable solutions.
• Despite the hurdles, he finds value in being offline at times and plans to continue cruising.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tony Fernandes, a 60-year-old founder and CEO of UEGroup based in San Francisco, about his experience working remotely on a cruise ship. It's been edited for length and clarity.

My wife and I are in the post-kid, post-pet phase of our lives. Our kids have gone off to college and we had a beloved dog and house rabbits that have passed away. After they passed, that really opened up a window for us to travel — and we did — but extended travel is new for us.

In November, I embarked on a trip where I spent several weeks leading my company from a cruise ship with my wife. We ultimately circumnavigated the globe on two different cruises and with air travel. Leaving California, we went through Europe, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan.

It's been a cool experience. But I found that while working on the ship , you do need some discipline — especially on a 21-day cruise.

You have to create a time for work and a time for play

We didn't realize it, but when we upgraded our internet, it upgraded our drinks package. So, it turned out we could get bottles of Moët & Chandon Champagne for free.

We had a couple of lunches and dinners where we enjoyed Champagne , but we also developed a rhythm where we had work time and playtime. It wasn't rigid — but there were times when my wife, who does finance at UEGroup, and I knew we had to get things done.

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Working can set you apart from people who are on vacation. That doesn't mean you can't work in your bathing suit or have a beer before you start your work, but it puts you on a slightly different footing than some of the other people on the cruise.

Expect very slow internet service

One thing I didn't realize prior to the trip was that the cruise ship had only one satellite connection shared by thousands of people. The internet was oppressively slow at times.

For our next long trip, I'm looking into getting a data satellite phone so I can put an antenna on my patio facing the right direction for the satellite. I've still got to figure it out, but there were times when it was really important for us to communicate, and we couldn't.

We're now very mistrustful of statements the cruise lines make about the quality of their internet. For example, we upgraded our Internet, but it turned out the cruise line's definition of upgrading was that we could have more than one device, not that there was any better speed or reliability. You've got to read the fine print about how they define an upgrade.

I would also recommend asking what kind of download and upload speeds to expect.

Create a backup plan for meetings and other communication challenges

Internet access can be unpredictable even with research and planning ahead, so we had backup people for important meetings back at the office. If we weren't able to show up, there was someone prepared with the slide deck. I can't say it didn't create awkward moments at times — and it is one of the downsides — but you can plan for it the best you can.

When my wife was dealing with a bank and needed to get a two-factor authentication code without working SMS, there wasn't much she could do. So, that was a challenge as well.

At some points, I was forced to go ashore and buy SIM cards to leverage local cell service, but this requires research. Depending on the country there might only be one cellphone service that works there, or you might be able to get SIM card brands that work for a larger area.

Being offline can end up being a good thing

I find it hard to be offline, but because the connectivity was so bad sometimes, it just forced it to happen. We were in the middle of nowhere, and it wasn't going to change. In a way, being offline was good because I could just tune out.

My wife and I plan to cruise more in the future and even recently bought a home in Portugal near a cruise port that we're going to commute to using cruises as much as possible.

When we did the math, taking a cruise from California to Portugal was less than two business-class air travel tickets. Plus, you get meals, entertainment, and no jet lag — it seems like the way to go.

If you live or work on a cruise ship and would like to share your story, please email [email protected] .

Watch: Microsoft's chief brand officer, Kathleen Hall, says the company's employees are its best product testers

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