business plan communication strategy

How to Write an Effective Communication Plan [+ Template]

Published: June 05, 2024

Guess what’s common among the top organizations like Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon? An effective communication plan.

Be it the content strategy, a product launch, a campaign announcement, or a customer escalation, a robust communication strategy holds every part of your organization firmly.

A survey by The State of Business Communication revealed that 72% of business leaders credit effective communication for their team’s productivity.

Without an organized communication plan, even the strongest strategies can fall apart, breaking your business. Writing an effective communication plan isn’t a tedious process if you have pre-made internal communication plan templates in place.

In this post, you’ll learn how to create an effective communication plan that prepares you and your company for any situation — and I’ll provide some templates to help you in the process.

Table of Contents

What is a communication plan?

How to write a communication plan, communication plan templates.

A communication 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). communication plans can be used in times of crises, but they are also used when pitching new initiatives or launching new products.

A descriptive business communication plan answers the where, why, and how of your campaigns. From product launch to advertising, running social media promotions, or addressing a crisis, a communication strategy details the messages to deliver, to which audiences, and through which channel.

For instance, if I were to create a communication plan for a data breach crisis in an IT company, I’d need to create an immediate crisis plan to communicate with the crisis team. The plan will outline the goals, stakeholders’ comments, plan of action, communication medium, and due date.

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It’s also important to name the person or a team responsible for the specific issues and include the customer problems within.

In my opinion, it’s impractical to use one type of communication template for various communication types. A social media communication plan, for example, will have the key components as campaign objectives, communication channel, frequency, audience type, and date of posts.

For the same organization, a product launch template will have a different layout — consisting of product launch type, deliverables for clients, leads, stakeholders, and social media. This also requires a public relation, so you’ll need a tab for covering the media news.

I’d also consider different formats for different communication plans. While a social media or a product launch communication plan looks more organized in the table format, a strategic communication plan is understandable in a horizontal text format.

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.

• Use pre-built communication plan templates.
• Conduct an audit of your current communication materials.
• Set SMART goals for your communication plan based on the results from your audit.
• Identify the audience to whom you plan to deliver your communication 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. Use pre-built communication plan templates.

If I had to write a communication plan for a social media campaign, a crisis management message, or a public relations campaign, I would consider using different layouts for each.

For each of these communication plans, it is essential to stay consistent with the structure and layout. There are a multitude of communication plan apps and tools to write effective communication and automate the plans — but that comes with a catch.

The tools can’t be a suitable pick for large teams with a multitude of objectives and goals. Also, the technicalities within these tools aren’t suitable for every team member or manager at various levels.

Instead, the pre-built templates can be a good starting point for writing an effective communication plan. These templates can be downloaded in various formats — Excel, Word, PDF, or any editable format.

From time tracking to goal planning, from conducting regular meetings to complying with regulations, the business templates can be a great time-saver for large project teams.

These business templates by HubSpot , for example, offer free downloadable templates for various communication plan types — action plans, annual reports, business proposals, business cases, etc.

2. Conduct an audit of your current communication materials.

Renowned U.S. retailer John Wannamaker once said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted and the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

If you’re sailing on the same boat, you might need a thorough communication audit. A communication audit analyzes the current communication material and provides relevant data and insights on future plans.

For example, I’d need to perform an audit on brand messaging, intended effects, and product progress before starting a product launch communication plan.

The audit will help me identify the major gaps in the marketing materials and a topic that is discussed but aligns well with the new product. Hence, the communication audit upfront will let me know what to include in the communication plan.

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.

It is also imperative to host focus groups or send surveys to the audiences to find gaps in the current communication materials.

Of course, you’ll want to have the goal of your communication plan in mind when conducting an audit.

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 communication plan.

However, if you’re missing content on email marketing best practices, that’s important information you can use to tailor your communication plan appropriately.

The following template considers the five Ms for a successful communication audit. The top leadership and the head of the project can leverage elements to understand the current communication scenario.

This example from Smartsheet is a nine-step roadmap that includes space for a mission statement, executive summary, situation analysis, key messages, and more.

The key components of this three-page communication template are:

• Executive summary.
• Target audience.
• List of stakeholders.
• Communication medium.
• Competitive analysis like SMART goals.
• Budget plans.
• Situation analysis, including the PESTLE and SWOT analysis.

Documenting details like PESTLE analysis and SWOT analysis will give your internal stakeholders a clear picture.

What I like: I like this template because of its comprehensive communication elements such as key messages, tools, and tactics for communication, budget, and a milestone chart. This chart lists all the tasks, the owner, and due date, which brings transparency to the communication.

6 . Crisis Communication Plan Template

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.

A crisis communication plan lays out the actions that you need to take before an unlikely event. These actions include scrutiny and legal issues, compliance with regulations, and the necessary escape.

The template also includes the representative who should be a spokesperson for this crisis with additional resources such as press releases or announcements on social media or email.

The template stands out for its simplicity and accessibility in the Excel format, making it customizable. This Prezly crisis template has tabs that segment different phases of crisis: pre-crisis, live crisis, and post-crisis.

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How To Effectively Communicate Your Strategic Plan To Employees

You’ve developed your objectives and identified the elements of your strategic plan.

When implementing a Balanced Scorecard or any type of strategic plan, there’s one thing many organizations tend to forget: No matter how good your strategy is, it won’t work if your employees don’t know how to align with it, or worse, if they simply don’t know about it. Your internal communication strategy can therefore truly make or break your efforts.

With communication being such a prominent driver of strategic success, you may find it helpful to develop a communication plan to ensure information is being disseminated effectively at all levels.

In this article, we’ll explain the goals and main elements of a strong strategic communication plan, and discuss how you can overcome some of the main challenges you’re likely to face as you work to get everyone on the same page.

What Is a Strategic Communication Plan?

A strategic communication plan is a written plan outlining communication to your team on your organization's objectives. This plan is deliberate with messages and tactics used to help engage employees with your strategy and fuel performance success for your organization.

In his book Balanced Scorecard: Step-By-Step for Government and Nonprofit Agencies, Paul Niven outlines common objectives and key elements for developing an internal communication strategy.

Common Objectives

Before creating a plan, Niven recommends putting some thought into your rationale for doing so. What is the overriding objective of your communication strategy? Is it to:

• Build awareness of the Balanced Scorecard, or strategic plan, at all levels of the organization?
• Provide education on key Balanced Scorecard concepts to all audiences?
• Generate the engagement and commitment of key stakeholders in the project?
• Encourage participation in the process?
• Generate enthusiasm for the Balanced Scorecard and strategic plan?
• Ensure that team results are disseminated rapidly and effectively?

As an example, Niven provides Nova Scotia Power’s communication objective:

“To present the concepts of the Balanced Scorecard to the key constituents involved in both sponsoring and providing input to the implementation, and to provide all involved with regular updates regarding the team’s progress during the implementation.”

This objective clearly states who communication should be directed to and what the content should say, both of which will serve as guideposts for all future strategy-related communications.

Key Elements For Your Strategic Plan

When formulating a communication plan, Niven recommends the “W5” approach to determine the key elements of your plan: who, why, what, when, and where.

‍ Who refers to both the target audience and the communicator. Depending on the scope of your implementation, you should define the appropriate groups to be involved in the process. These groups make up your target audience. After the target audience has been specified, a communicator should be assigned to each group with the task of effectively disseminating the message.

‍ The why and what in this equation can be understood as the purpose or message. The communication plan’s purpose is to convey the original objective behind implementing the plan. This could take the form of a common objective listed above, such as “generate the engagement and commitment of key stakeholders in the project.” What are we doing and why? We are implementing the communication plan to generate engagement and commitment from key stakeholders.

‍ When should you communicate the message? The needs of your target audience will determine the necessary frequency of communication. If you are unsure about the amount of communication needed, it is always better to err on the side of too much. In his article “Leading Change,” John Kotter says, “without credible communication, and a lot of it, employees’ hearts and minds are never captured.”

‍ Where and how are you supposed to communicate? Effective communication often takes a large amount of effort and, more often than not, the message needs to be repeated several times. In order for employees to fully understand the strategy and the ways in which they contribute to success, Dr. Robert Kaplan suggests communicating the plans “seven times in seven ways.” This might mean making use of brochures, speeches, newsletters, videos, company website or intranet, workshops, etc. Any channel that has the ability to reach the target audience could be used; it could even take the form of internal blog posts at your organization.

Communication is a two-way street, so don’t forget to ask for feedback from others and to provide it as well. Remember, communicate effectively and communicate often.

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5 obstacles to strategic alignment –and how a communication plan can overcome them.

Have you ever been at work and overheard (or been directly asked), “Why are we doing this project?” or “Why did we stop focusing on this activity?” These seem like innocent questions, but as a strategy manager or executive leader, you might start to worry. The answers are in your strategic plan, and whether it was just rolled out last week or is in your plan from three years ago, your team should be using it as a resource for these kinds of questions—not operating in the dark.

If this situation sounds familiar, it’s time to take a step back and look at whether everyone understands your strategic plan. Below are five things that could be standing in the way of getting your teams to understand and adopt your strategy, as well as ideas on how to overcome them.

Obstacle 1: No Interaction With The Business Strategy

If you polled everyone in your company, how many people could name the key themes or priorities in your strategic plan without going to the intranet? If the answer is just a few, you may not be doing enough to make employees aware of it.

It’s common for teams to learn about a strategic plan via an orientation session or executive memo, which likely happens only once a year or quarter. Most employees don’t interact with the strategy or have any knowledge of it beyond this communication, making it easy to forget.

Try the following to increase team interaction with the strategy:

• Print your five strategic plan themes on business cards. Ask people to carry it with them—this is called a “pocket strategy.”
• Dedicate internal communications to themes and initiatives. For example, post your five themes in the break room, share success stories in meetings, and shower attention on individuals and projects that represent key areas of the strategic plan.
• Draw a strategy map like the one shown below and post it on the intranet and office walls (perhaps in the shape of a house or other recognizable, catchy graphic). Software like ClearPoint can help you consistently publish your results on your intranet.

Obstacle 2: No Connection To The Business Strategy

Employees may be interacting with strategic initiatives every day, but that doesn't mean they understand how their role connects to the strategy itself. If team members struggle to make an association between their daily work and the five-year direction of the organization, they won’t understand or remember much of the strategic plan.

To help connect employees to the strategy:

• Using the business cards from your pocket strategy above, ask teams and departments to circle the themes they contribute to most and write how they contribute. Share these cards in internal meetings.
• Have your executive leaders highlight the contributions of one team or department per month, giving shoutouts to work that is directly supporting the strategy.
• Draw clear linkages between work plans, budget, and strategy. This will connect all of your department activities to the strategic plan. (This isn’t easy, but here’s an article that can help.) ClearPoint has alignment reports to help visualize the connections.

Obstacle 3: Weak Links Between Current Activities And Future Strategy

Strategies are typically visions five years into the future of an organization. Should you wait until the end of those five years to reevaluate your strategy? Obviously not, but some organizations end up in this boat purely by lack of foresight. If you’re not consistently linking what your organization does currently with your long-term vision of the future, it will weaken the relevance of your strategic plan.

Try the following to help link current activities with future strategies:

• Create and discuss Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and targets. Start with a five-year target, then work backward to create KPIs for each year (including the current one), sharing metrics and results along the way.
• Explain how projects link to your strategy. For example, when you are investing in modernizing your infrastructure, explain how recent innovations connect to the strategy.
• Meet regularly and share progress results in real time. ClearPoint has workflow automations to ensure making updates is easy and painless.

Obstacle 4: Lack of motivation to get involved with business strategy.

Sometimes just talking about a strategy isn’t enough—you need to sell the idea of it to get buy-in. Your executives might be pumped after long and lengthy strategy discussions, but anyone who wasn’t involved in the higher-level thinking might require some motivation to get on board. You’ll need to find ways to engage everyone and get them excited about making the plan work.

The following tactics can help motivate your employees to execute strategy:

• Discuss and implement metric-focused incentives. For example, a group that hits KPI targets might be rewarded with bonus pay or an office celebration.
• Drive ownership by assigning individuals to update and report on various elements or components of your plan.
• With ClearPoint, you can have visibility directly into your strategy with our Teams integration, and you make updates without leaving Teams.

Obstacle 5: Lack of opportunity to provide feedback on the strategy.

Strategic plans are devised by leadership teams, but employees are the ones who carry out the daily work. To get and maintain buy-in from them—and perhaps gain some valuable perspective your leaders haven’t thought of—give everyone opportunities to react, ask questions, and contribute feedback.

• Keep them in the loop with frequent performance updates. At ClearPoint, for example, everyone stays up to date on strategy progress via weekly emails.
• Ask for feedback during team meetings. Your employees are best-positioned to know why things are going the way they are.

Communicating Your Strategy To Your Biggest Skeptics

In a previous post, we identified the four types of strategy skeptics you’re bound to run into and how to help them get on board with your plan. But what do you say to those individuals if they need that extra “nudge”?

1. Complex Chris

Chris thrives on making processes far more complex than they actually need to be. When Chris creates a complex report or process, he enjoys the feeling of accomplishment and likes being depended upon.

‍ “What should I say to help Chris simplify his processes?”

‍ You may consider sending out a pre-read of your reports so no one in management is confused or frustrated with complicated information during a meeting. On top of that, you’ll need to remind Chris that the number-one goal of strategy reporting is to provide clear, relevant information necessary to the management team so they can make decisions.

Express to him that the information he provides should be relevant, reliable, and clear. For example, explain to him that charts shouldn’t take more than 5-10 seconds to decipher—and that data tables shouldn’t have an overwhelming number of columns or rows. You also may want to give Chris a simple standard he needs to adhere to based on what he’s in charge of. That alone could prevent unnecessary complexity.

2. Doubting Deb

Deb doesn’t ever feel comfortable with the data being presented and brings her doubts up regularly—making it difficult for everyone in the department to stay on the right track.

‍ “What should I say to help Deb trust the data?”

‍ Presenting information as consistently as possible may help Deb benchmark results month-to-month and feel more confident overall. If Deb still isn’t confident in your data or results despite this, it’s time to turn the tables and begin asking her some questions prior to your next report. Pull Deb aside and ask her to walk through some of the metrics she’s skeptical about.

Explain to her that you want to be sure your data is valid and bring up any of her solid ideas from previous meetings. You may also want to implement a few rules on when someone can voice their doubts regarding the data validity. For example, tell Deb that it’s fine to bring up concerns before the meeting, but not during.

Once you’ve explained where your data comes from, Deb will either be satisfied and agree with the validity or you’ll get insight into her real concerns about data validity. For example, Deb may tell you that she’s skeptical because your data sources aren’t open for everyone in the organization to view. In that case, you may want to consider ways to be more transparent with your data. (Note that if you use good reporting software, you can add your formulas and data sources online next to the charts.)

3. Forgetful Fred

Fred doesn’t ever follow through on his offers to assist with an initiative, which makes it very difficult for everyone else to do their job successfully.

‍ “What should I say to help Fred complete his tasks on time?”

‍ Fred needs to be held accountable for the task he was assigned. The next time Fred misses a deadline or “forgets” he was assigned to a particular project or initiative, take the time to explain why accountability is such a critical part of a successful strategy implementation. If this issue persists, you may want to consider implementing software that will assign out ownership of measures and projects. This may help Fred complete his work in a more timely fashion.

4. Siloed Sarah

Teamwork isn’t something that comes easily to Sarah, and she doesn’t see the point in working with other departments.

‍ “What should I say to help Sarah work well with others?”

‍ Creating cross-functional teams can help Sarah step outside of her comfort zone. Give her some real-life examples of how working on a cross-functional team improved a process or helped an organization or department come up with a new idea.

For example, if you’re a municipality, tell her a story of how someone in parks and recreation worked with someone in the police department to develop a process for communicating which parks need maintenance for issues that could cause safety hazards. Or, if you’re a software-as-a-service organization, you probably have a story about how someone from the development team helped automate the solution to a problem your sales team was working through.

Note: If you use ClearPoint , you could make Sarah a “collaborator” on multiple projects so that she can see her connection to other work that relates to the strategy.

Communicating Your Strategy: 5 Important Lessons

Included in the May–June 2007 Balanced Scorecard Report is an article written by business writer Lauren Keller Johnson called “Common Sense in Strategy Communication: Four Lessons from Canon USA.” (This article was obtained from the Harvard Business Review store.)

In her article, Johnson discusses four lessons that can be learned from the way Canon USA communicated its strategic plan throughout the company—a strategy that won them a place in the Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame. These lessons are highly applicable to any organization, so we’ve summarized them below (and added one more of our own!) so you can avoid some of the initial bumps in creating your own strategic communications plan.

Lesson #1: “Don’t rely on written communication alone”

Present the strategic plan in many different ways.

‍ Your employees all absorb information differently. So, for example, if you only use posters to convey your communication strategy and have some employees who aren’t visual learners, those employees won’t be affected. Or, if you only send an email explaining the strategy in a long, drawn-out way, employees who routinely ignore long emails won’t be affected. Case in point—be sure you present your strategic plan in many different ways. You should use a mix of video, audio, visual, and written strategy communication to employees so everyone can learn about the plan in the way that is best for them.

‍ Be creative with how you present your plan

‍ For example, Canon USA created “Strategy in Action: Canon Americas’ Strategy Playbook.” This playbook featured a color-coded version of the corporate strategy map and was designed by a graphic artist who had worked for USA Today. Consider doing something similar in your organization for a unique spin on your communication strategy.

Lesson #2: “Make your message clear and relevant”

Define your strategic terms.

‍ For example, if “customer” is one of the key terms in your strategy, consider defining it outright. In other words, don’t assume your employees know exactly who your customers are and why you’re targeting them.

‍ Use crystal-clear language

‍ Using industry-specific acronyms may seem “smarter” or “easier”—but it is actually just the opposite. For example, the Canon USA strategy map doesn’t talk about “maximizing ROA.” Instead, it encourages employees to “find ways of lowering the cost of doing business,” “work together,” and “make Canon number one in all businesses.” Additionally, try to cut out any useless, jargon-laden phrases like “leveraging talent” or “optimizing strategy.”

Lesson #3: “Keep communication flowing in both directions”

Develop venues for bottom-up communication.

‍ Do your employees know you want them to provide you with feedback? If you don’t have any defined venues for this bottom-up strategic planning communication, they probably don’t. Or, at the very least, they don’t know how to go about providing you with that feedback.

Consider the best avenue for constructive feedback based on your organizational structure and put it into place as soon as possible.

Lesson #4: “Tap into the workforce’s vision”

Be open to suggestions from the workforce.

‍ It’s one thing to have a strategic plan—and another thing entirely to find out how that plan is affecting your employees. If the leadership team is able to put themselves in the shoes of lower-level employees and see the strategy at work from their perspective, the leadership will be more willing to consider new and updated solutions to problems.

‍ Be flexible

‍ After you set your strategic plan, you need to be willing to make adjustments when necessary. Be sure to stay in tune with what is and isn’t working properly, and realize that you may need to step back and alter your strategic plan based on the feedback you’re getting.

Last but not least is a lesson that stems from our own experience, which is:

Lesson #5: “Make your progress visible”

Meet regularly.

‍ Provide a continuous stream of information to keep people interested and engaged. It isn’t enough to touch on strategy only once every six months, or even once a quarter. Instead, bring it to the forefront frequently. Encourage departmental teams to meet once a week to review their KPIs and discuss departmental strategy in connection with the organization’s overall plan. As an organization, try to meet monthly.

‍ Keep it simple

‍ The more frequently you communicate results the simpler your communications should be—you can’t expect people to spend hours analyzing Excel spreadsheets every week. (Nor do you want to be stuck in a loop creating them!) Make use of a streamlining strategy software tool like ClearPoint.

Not only will it enable you to share visually attractive dashboards that show the most important KPI statuses at a glance, but you’ll also leave the hard work of generating reports to the software, which does that automatically and distributes reports on a predetermined schedule.

Simplify Your Strategy Communication Plan With Clearpoint Strategy Software

Bringing a strategic plan to fruition is a complicated endeavor; our mission is to simplify the process so you can get the job done. Not only do we provide an easy-to-use platform to communicate your plans and progress, but we also simplify the tasks associated with strategy reporting.

Using ClearPoint, you can:

• Create strategy maps for your company and departments, and share them with employees.
• Communicate progress by creating different KPI dashboards for various audiences.
• Use visual status indicators to show performance at a glance.
• Generate reports automatically on a predetermined schedule.
• Automatically distribute reports to the intended audiences on a schedule.

See ClearPoint Strategy in action! Click here to watch a quick DEMO on the software

All those capabilities allow you to make strategy information visible and transparent for everyone in your organization—the stuff of strong communication. If you make it easy for your employees to both access the strategic plan information and provide you with constructive feedback, you’re going to see far more strategic success.

Interested in taking a tour of our software? Contact us and let us know what time works best for you. We can’t wait to show you around!

Master Strategic Communication with ClearPoint Strategy Software!

Implementing a Balanced Scorecard or any strategic plan is only effective if your employees understand and align with it. At ClearPoint Strategy , we provide the tools to help you develop a strong communication plan that ensures your strategy is known and embraced at all levels of your organization.

Ready to enhance your strategic communication? Book a demo with ClearPoint Strategy today and discover how our software can streamline your communication efforts.

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Strategy communication faq:, what is a strategic plan.

A strategic plan is your organization's long-team goals and highlights how you want to grow in specific categories. The strategic plan lists objectives and goals for each area your company would like to grow, and lists initiatives the organization will take to meet their goals.

How do you use visuals to make your communication more engaging?

Design a strategy map, or design a visual showcasing your main objectives to improve engagement with strategy. Research indicates that communicating with visuals helps increase retention of information!

What can leaders do to communicate their commitment to the strategy?

Leaders can show their buy-in to the strategy by continuously bringing up the strategy in discussions.

Who is the target audience when communicating strategy?

Communicate your strategy to employees, stakeholders, and potential investors to highlight the direction you hope to see the company grow. Depending on the target audience, how you communicate your strategy will change.

Can you publicly communicate your strategy?

Yes, many large organizations publicly communicate their strategy and use their strategy to attract more buyes.

What are the benefits of sharing your strategy?

By sharing your strategy, you build trust within your team and allow them to feel connected to company goals. This will make it easier to meet your goals and make your vision and reality!

How do you create a strategic communication plan?

To create a strategic communication plan:

- Define Objectives: Clearly outline the goals you want to achieve with your communication efforts. - Identify Target Audiences: Determine who your key audiences are and what they need to know. - Develop Key Messages: Craft clear and consistent messages tailored to each audience. - Choose Communication Channels: Select the most effective channels for reaching your target audiences (e.g., email, social media, meetings). - Establish a Timeline: Create a detailed timeline for when and how each communication activity will take place. - Assign Responsibilities: Designate who will be responsible for each aspect of the communication plan. - Monitor and Evaluate: Continuously track the effectiveness of your communications and make adjustments as needed.

What are the five components of a strategic communication plan?

The five components of a strategic communication plan are:

- Objectives: Specific, measurable goals that the communication plan aims to achieve. - Target Audiences: The groups or individuals that the communications are directed towards. - Key Messages: Core messages that convey the essential information and persuade the target audiences. - Communication Channels: The mediums through which the messages will be delivered (e.g., email, social media, press releases). - Timeline and Responsibilities: A detailed schedule of communication activities and the assignment of tasks to specific team members.

How does strategic plan implementation work?

Strategic plan implementation works by:

- Setting Clear Goals: Defining specific objectives and outcomes to achieve. - Developing Action Plans: Creating detailed plans that outline the steps necessary to achieve the strategic goals. - Allocating Resources: Ensuring the necessary resources (e.g., budget, personnel, technology) are available and allocated appropriately. - Monitoring Progress: Regularly tracking progress towards goals using key performance indicators (KPIs) and other metrics. - Adjusting as Needed: Making adjustments to strategies and action plans based on performance data and changing circumstances. - Communicating Progress: Keeping stakeholders informed about progress and any changes to the plan.

Why is a strategic plan important?

A strategic plan is important because it:

- Provides Direction: Offers a clear vision and direction for the organization. - Aligns Resources: Ensures that resources are allocated effectively to achieve strategic goals. - Improves Decision-Making: Guides decision-making by providing a framework for evaluating options. - Enhances Performance: Helps set measurable goals and track progress, leading to improved performance. - Engages Stakeholders: Engages employees and other stakeholders by clearly communicating the organization's goals and how they can contribute.

How do you create a strategic plan roadmap?

To create a strategic plan roadmap:

- Define Vision and Goals: Clearly articulate the organization’s vision and long-term goals. - Identify Key Initiatives: Determine the key initiatives and projects that will drive the achievement of the goals. - Set Milestones: Break down the initiatives into specific, time-bound milestones. - Allocate Resources: Assign the necessary resources (e.g., budget, personnel, technology) to each initiative. - Develop a Timeline: Create a timeline that outlines when each milestone and initiative will be completed. - Monitor and Adjust: Continuously monitor progress and make adjustments to the roadmap as needed to stay on track.

Daniel Giglio

Dan works for the customer success team, supporting all activities related to helping ClearPoint customers achieve their goals.

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Communication Strategy Framework And Why It Matters In Business

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

Table of Contents

Understanding a communication strategy framework

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

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

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

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

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

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

Key components of a communication strategy framework

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

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

Benefits of developing a communication strategy framework

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

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

Key takeaways

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

Key Highlights

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

Applied Communication Strategies

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Communication Strategies: Explained with Types & Examples

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

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

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

How to design a communication strategy

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

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

Barnlund’s transactional model of communication with Example

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

Examples of communication strategy

Here are some examples of communication strategies:

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

Internal Communication Strategy & Plan| Examples| Best practices

Types of communication strategies

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

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

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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.

How to Write a Strategic Communication Plan Template

• May 1, 2022

Content Manager at SocialBee

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

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

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

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

What Is a Communications Plan?

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

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

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

The Benefits of a Communication Plan

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

Here are the advantages of a communications strategy plan:

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

1. It Improves Client and Stakeholder Management

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

2. It Defines the Communication Process

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

Writing a clear communication plan will help you identify:

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

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

3. It Creates a Positive Brand Image

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

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

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

How to Write a Communications Plan

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

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

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

1. Audit Your Current Communications Strategy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Set Communication Goals

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

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

When in doubt, respect the SMART goals structure:

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

Here is an example of a SMART communication goal:

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

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

3. Define Your Target Audience

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

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

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

Get information about your audience from a single dashboard.

Start your 14-day free SocialBee trial now!

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

Here is what a buyer persona should contain:

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

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

4. Develop Your USP and Mission Statement

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

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

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

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

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

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

Image source

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

5. Find the Best Communication Channels for Your Marketing Efforts

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

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

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

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

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

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

A. Content Marketing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Don’t miss out on a 14-day free SocialBee trial !

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B. search engine optimization.

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

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

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

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

C. Email Marketing

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

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

D. Influencer Marketing

Amplify your messaging strategy with influencer marketing .

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

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

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

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

E. Affiliate Marketing

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

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

6. Assign Roles to Your Team Members

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

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

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

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

7. Identify Your Key Stakeholders

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

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

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

8. Write Down Key Dates for Your Communication Strategies

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

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

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

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

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

9. Craft Key Messages for Your Audience

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10. Outline Your Communication Methods and Campaigns

Your action plan is the meat of your communication strategy.

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

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

A. Align Your Communication Plan With Your Marketing Calendar 

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

B. Create Communication Campaigns 

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

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

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

C. Plan Activities to Achieve Your Communication Goals 

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

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

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

11. Put Your Communication Plan in Action

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

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

12. Monitor and Adjust Your Communication Strategy 

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

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

Communication Plan Examples

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

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

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

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

• Media or vehicle
• Assigned team member
• Feedback mechanism

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

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

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

Make the Most Out of Your Communication Plans

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

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

Article written by

Content writer at SocialBee

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Why a clear communication plan is more important than you think

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

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

What is a communication plan?

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

What should a communication plan include?

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

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

When should we communicate in person vs. asynchronously?

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

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

What shouldn’t be included in a communication plan?

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

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

The benefits of a communication plan

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

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

Less app switching

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

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

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

Increased collaboration

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

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

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

Less duplicative work

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

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

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

How to write a communication plan

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

1. Establish your communication methods

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

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

Email to communicate with any external stakeholders.

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

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

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

2. Align on communication cadence

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

For example, you might decide to schedule:

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

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

Asynchronous project milestone updates in Asana as needed.

3. Add a plan for stakeholder management

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

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

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

4. Share your communication plan and update it as needed

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

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

Example communication plan

Communication plan template

Description of communication.

What type of communication is it?

How often will you be communicating?

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

Who is receiving this communication?

Who is in charge of sending out this communication?

Good communication starts with a communication plan

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

Related resources

Data-driven decision making: A step-by-step guide

How Asana uses work management for employee onboarding

4 ways to establish roles and responsibilities for team success

Cost control: How to monitor project spending to increase profitability

Building A Communication Strategy: The Ultimate Guide

Learn about how to define your communication and business objectives and how an effective communication strategy can turn your company into a successful, even beloved brand.

A company lacking communication skills can end up like a lonely kid in a sandbox with no one to play with.

Communication holds people together – the same goes for people and brands. Communication is forever and always a vital part of the product.

If customers like the way you communicate with them, and it makes them feel loved and taken care of, it will probably translate into more sales and more revenue for you.

We live in the digital age, where the information streams are endless, and it’s easy for brands to get lost in the noise. That’s why many businesses agree that communicating with consumers is becoming more challenging than ever before.

There are so many media and communication channels, – so how do you find the right way to catch your audience’s attention?

That's where a communication strategy comes in.

Building a successful communications strategy requires careful consideration of internal and external factors to get your creative message across.

This guide provides a framework for developing a comprehensive communication strategy.

What Is A Business Or Product Communication Strategy?🤔

The advantages of having a communication strategy😍, 10 important aspects of any communication strategy💯, developing a communications strategy plan, step by step🙌, communication strategy: the template📝, what’s next👀.

Important disclosure: we're proud affiliates of some tools mentioned in this guide. If you click an affiliate link and subsequently make a purchase, we will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you (you pay nothing extra). For more information, read our affiliate disclosure .

When creating an effective communication strategy for your business, you must consider whether you are communicating with your customers or employees. Because those are two different types of communication and therefore require two different strategies.

External communication

Any communication that happens outside your business. This is communication with your customers or clients. 

Internal communication

Any communication that happens inside your business and between employees or stakeholders. This is peer-to-peer communication at its finest.

All communication, whether it be external or internal, should be:

So what is a communication strategy ?

In simple terms, a communication strategy is a detailed communication plan for communicating with your target audience ( external or internal ).

It outlines who you're communicating with, why you're communicating with them, what you're communicating, and how best to communicate with them for the best level of understanding.

When it comes to marketing communications - an effective advertising and marketing communication strategy is a guide that helps transform a company into a brand in a way that makes your brand message and value clear. It’s a light beam that shows you the way and the approach to your audience.

It helps you learn how to provide people with additional value in the form of high-quality content and how to communicate with them in a way that will make them love your product. ( Or not hate it, ha! )

There are three different types of marketing communication strategies. Visual, verbal, and non-verbal strategies.

Your visual strategy is your website and any pictures used. Your verbal strategy is anything written or spoken. In contrast, your non-verbal strategy includes anything such as body language and facial expressions ( this is more important than you'd think ).

I know, it does sound a bit complicated, so why can’t we just play it by ear? Why do we need a company communication strategy? Are there any promising benefits?

The general answer is that if you want to run a successful business, you must plan your course in advance . Sure, you need to be flexible and ready to change, if necessary, but to work efficiently, you have to set your goals and define your purpose.

Any effective strategy is a canvas for decision-making and a stepping stone to reducing your communication efforts and creating effective customer relations.

You don't want to have to go back to the drawing board every time.

Having a communication strategy helps overcome the biggest communication challenges.

A communication strategy will help you define your audience(s) and consistently articulate your message so that staff and stakeholders can be on the same page about what your product is all about, and there is less chance of miscommunication.

External consistency in your communications is just as important. It allows customers or clients to feel as though they can trust your company.

This unification will also lead to smarter decisions and save time and money. If you understand your audience, you will direct your efforts more precisely. With the alignment of staff, board, and other stakeholders, it will be easier to get your creative message across.

Having a communications strategy means that there is increased clarity between the employees of your company and also between your customers and your business.

Effective marketing is no easy feat. With a communication strategy in your arsenal, you'll be able to guide your marketing content. Your communication strategy can outline the goals of marketing messages, target audiences, and any important details that need to be considered before launching a marketing campaign.

One alternative benefit – and an oh-so-important one – getting yourself a solid communication strategy is to measure success . When putting together your strategy, include benchmarks and an evaluation process. Later on, you can see whether your business achieved the goals you set or if you need to make a mid-course correction.

Be prepared to experiment!

Before I walk you through how to create your own communication strategy plan, there are a couple of essential aspects I'd like to highlight.

• Target audience
• A brief description
• Background context
• Objectives and outcomes
• Unique selling proposition
• Communication channels
• Media types
• Important and relevant messages
• Key communication tactics
• Measurement

1. Target Audience

This may seem obvious, but you must include information on your potential customer base . You must make sure that you clearly define who it is you're targeting.

An excellent way to do this is to create buyer personas , fictional characters that possess the ideal traits of your customer.

All this will help you determine the type of person who may be interested in buying your products or services.

2. A Brief Description

Not everyone will have the time to read through your entire communications strategy. This brief description should summarize your product, the key takeaways from the strategy, and the goal of the communications strategy.

Another vital aspect to describe is your brand.

Your brand and company are two different things. Your brand refers to how your target audience perceives your company . And it is just as, if not more important, than your company itself.

This will give those in a rush a brief idea of what's going on and set those who do have the time to read the entire thing up for success.

3. Background Context

Here I don't necessarily mean the background context of your business ( although if that helps clarify your communications, please go ahead and include it ).

Here I am talking about the background context of your audience, any key events that may have taken place, and any expectations they may have because of this.

You need to put your communications strategy into context. Communication doesn't just occur by itsel f. Several factors will affect it. You need to recognize this and account for it in your strategy.

4. Objectives And Outcomes

Without first stipulating your objectives, it will be unclear as to why you're even creating this communication strategy in the first place. These objectives should be achievable with the resources you have at hand.

They can be big objectives or small objectives . It just depends on your business's scope and your strategy's scope.

Your objectives are how you plan to achieve your outcomes.

Your outcomes are the purpose of your communication strategy. Are you looking to get potential customers or existing customers to take a specific action? Or are you just looking to inform your employees of something?

5. Unique Selling Proposition

Your unique selling proposition (USP) sets up the rest of your communication strategy. You need to know your value offer so that everybody is on the same page about why a product like yours is important.

Having a USP also helps you to determine your mission statement .

Your mission statement is your company's overall purpose . Why is there a need for a company like yours in the first place?

Having these two things in your communication strategy ensures clarity and consistency.

6. Communication Channels

There is no point in having a communication strategy if you don't have effective communication channels for you to use to get your creative messages across. So you need to consider the types of communication channels available to you.

For your internal communications plan:

Some communication channels include virtual or in-person meetings, instant messaging apps, emails, company-wide newsletters, a notice board, or just simple oral communication through informal discussions between employees and stakeholders.

For external communications :

Some communication channels include your website, blogs, podcasts, social media marketing, email marketing, SMS marketing via mobile phones, print media, or even in-store promotions ( if that suits your product or service ).

You don't need to write an entire descriptive passage about each communication channel. A simple list will suffice.

7. Media Types

This relates to the point above, as the media you use depends on the types of communication channels you're using. Through your communication channels, you can either use personal media that's intimate or impersonal media that's removed from the situation.

The main types of media include

• Earned media
• Shared media
• Print media
• Digital media

When it comes to media, you also need to think of the messenger that will communicate that media. Is it someone from your company? Is it an industry influencer? Or is it your own customers?

The messenger must have status , a certain level of expertise, and a positive relationship with your target audience to best communicate.

8. Important And Relevant Messages

Having a list of important messages your communications strategy hopes to get across is important.

It is important to know exactly what you want your target audience to understand after you've finished communicating with them. Although communication never really ends, does it ?

Outlining your important messages means that you know which direction you're heading in, it helps you to identify when messages may be outdated, helps show you how to change your messages to be tailored to your audience so that they are more engaging, and helps you come up with new ways to communicate said creative message.

9. Key Communication Tactics

How are you actually going to deliver the actual message ?

Your communication tactics are your implementation plan for communication activities. You need to think about what the actions are, why the actions are important, when the actions will occur, how the action needs to take place, and how often the actions will occur.

10. Measurement

There is no point in continuing with your communications strategy if it isn't effective. You need to be measuring the effectiveness of your campaign. Ask yourself, have you achieved the desired outcome? How long did it take to achieve the outcomes? Is there a better way to do this?

Document your entire process and use a template for your strategy so that you can go back and review it at any point. This makes it easier to make refinements and any changes that are necessary.

How do you know what to change? Talk to your employees and ask what went well and what didn't. You can also reach out to your customers and ask for feedback.

Developing a communications strategy plan can be complicated , especially if you've never done it before.

Suppose it’s the first time you’re developing a communication strategy for a business. In that case, you should get some sort of communication strategy to-do list to make sure you don’t forget anything.

• Define your business objectives
• Define your communications objectives
• Analyze your current situation
• Research your competitors
• Conduct target audience research and segmentation
• Define consumer insights
• Determine channels of communication
• Define positioning and key messages for different target audiences and channels

That may seem like a lot to go through and to think about, but don't panic. We are here to help you through this process. Here’s how to create a communication strategy plan in detail:

Define Your Business Objectives

First of all, start with assessing your business’ current situation . After you’ve established where you’re at, think about your business's short- and long-term goals.

Usually, business objectives include:

• Profitability (making sure that revenue is always ahead of the costs of doing business)
• Productivity (maintaining equipment, training staff, etc.)
• Good customer service
• Employee retention
• Protection of core values
• Growth and change management

For example , you own a company that helps sell music, both digital and physical, via the web and an app. You offer an exquisite selection of music that sells well.

You make sure your app functions properly and that all technology, including payments and music streaming, is up to date and functions properly. You can afford to pay your employees a decent wage, which leads to good employee retention.

You help your employees learn by signing them up for workshops, seminars, and other professional events in IT, music promotion, monetizing music from streaming services, etc. You build a good team that grows.

Analyze Your Current Situation

Any communication strategy should begin with an introduction. This should contain information on your business and outline its activities and products, main focus and functions, and where it’s based.

Specific tools will help you analyze your current situation and continue developing a communication strategy for your business’s future .

SWOT analysis is all about listing your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Consider what these mean for your business, if there are any weaknesses, how they can be turned into opportunities, and how threats can be avoided or eliminated.

PEST analysis is a tool that considers Political, Economic, Social, and Technological factors that may affect your company's work. These can be either positive or negative, and you should list the reasons why they will affect your startup’s operation.

PEST analysis should help explore new thinking, not just conform to what you have now.

Sometimes, you may see other abbreviations – PESTEL (the E and the L stand for Environmental and Legal) or STEEPLE (with the addition of Ethical) or STEEP (including Economic and Environmental instead of Legal), but basically, it’s all about the same processes.

Research Your Competitors

Whenever you start a new venture, you will obviously check out what your competitors in this field are doing. It’s good to see what’s in the market you’re entering – so on the one hand, you know your options, but on the other, you don’t repeat what has already been done.

The idea is to create something unique that will fill an empty niche.

The same goes for communication strategies. You need to see how your competitors build a communication strategy to understand the market better and create your own unique positioning.

First of all, you will see where your competition directs their communication. Then you will see how they do it and monitor their behavior. Using this knowledge, you’ll be able to anticipate their moves, which will help you always stay one step ahead.

Conduct Target Audience Research And Segmentation

Having explored the field and what your competitors are up to, it’s now time to learn about your i ntended audience . You don’t want to spend your precious limited startup resources on an overly broad audience that doesn’t want, need, can afford, or appreciate the product you invested so much time and money in.

If you’re at a loss and can’t describe your future customers on the spot, go back to the time when you planned your business. You must have thought about who your product or service is going to appeal to , or who you want it to appeal to the most.

This is the answer that reveals who your target audience (TA) is, the people to whom you’re going to direct your communication and advertising.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown:

• Make a list of populations or individuals you want to sell your product to. The list can be pretty long and cover a wide population range. For the music app, it can be as wide as “male and female adults 18-99 yo with access to high-speed Internet”.
• Rank your audience to see who is the most important target at the moment. Although music is a common interest among all age groups, younger people tend to be more acquainted with technology and prefer apps and streaming over CDs, for example. Accordingly, you will want to communicate your digital services to them first.
• Do audience segmentation to make your advertising even more targeted. This means breaking down your audience according to certain criteria or on the needs of a certain group so that you can deliver your ads at the right time and place. For example, you can promote different releases depending on the geography of their popularity or relevance, like Independence Day playlists or Christmas discounts.

It used to be quite straightforward. The demographic-based principle used to be the largest picture of a consumer: is the person male or female? How old are they? Where are they based? Etc.

These metrics don’t help you these days – people use different smartphones, laptops, tablets, wearable fitness bands, etc., not to mention countless apps, browsers, emails, and more.

Consumer behavior and working patterns change , and lifestyles and people’s values evolve and transform – which is why the next logical step in the evolvement of this principle is creating user personas.

Define Consumer Insights

To get a hold of all of these characteristics and be able to use them for your communication and marketing strategies, you’ll have to conduct consumer insight research .

As soon as you get inside the head of your customers , you will find out why they made this purchase, why online and not from a store, why on a weekday and not on a weekend, etc., and make a prognosis about their behavior in the future.

All this is actually what customer development is based on – it’s the perfect way to develop a product specifically for your audience.

You have to go out there and get your data.

But remember that there’s no single tool to help you get consumer insights – you can’t get them from a focus group or a survey. You need to go through a combination of activities to gather relevant information and analyze what you get.

Determine Channels Of Communication

At this point, you already know your intended audience and the basics of its behavior.

Now, make a list of media outlets and channels that can help you reach them.

Before creating the creative messages and the content, you need to know the format of your communication with your customers. You need to find out what communication channels your target audience already uses.

For example , if you’re creating a persona, what social media do they use? Where do they read the news? Does this persona read newsletters? Proper UX research will help you understand where and how which is no less important.

By the way, if you’re defining communication channels for your audience, don’t forget an option called omnichannel communication . Right now, it’s considered one of the most progressive.

And, considering the effects of different channels on the recipient, plan a timeline and key dates to know to whom and when you will communicate.

Define Positioning And Key Messages For Different Target Audiences And Channels

A company’s positioning and core messages help people understand why a company is useful, what values it has, what it believes in, and how it stands apart from its competitors. It’s like you’re meeting a new person and need to decide whether you like them or not, based on what this person does and their views on life.

Messaging can come in the form of a tagline, ad slogan, headline, or sales pitch.

Whatever it is, the creative message has to be consistent across the brand’s marketing channels , whatever segment of your TA you’re addressing, and suit the channel.

Remember to keep the message relevant and appropriate to the group you’re speaking to.

To get your creative message across successfully, try to follow this formula:

This is probably a lot to take in at once – but trust me, this is all very important to planning your business and your future. So let’s try to put all we’ve learned into a graphic.

• Overall Business Objectives - Establish where you are and where you want to go.
• Communication Objectives - Define your communication goals and how they align with your business objectives.
• Current Situation - Analyze inner factors that can affect your business, like your company’s strengths and weaknesses, and external factors like politics, the economy, etc.
• Research your competitors - Know your competition to get an edge over them.
• Target Audience - Establish who your target audience is to know what communication style to choose and how to sell them your product or service. Use customer insights.
• Communication Channels - Go through the list of your target audiences and think of the most appropriate communication channels to reach each audience. Make a timeline according to your planned key activities in the near future.

Part of your communication strategy is the content strategy . This is all about the management of any media you produce or own, be it written, visual, or downloadable.

You decide who you’re creating it for and what problem it will solve for the audience. Then you can brainstorm content ideas. Keep in mind that your content is what shows your values to the entire world and, among other things, gives your audience additional value.

You also decide how your content will be unique , what format it’s best transmitted in, and through what channels. After you’ve done all of this, you schedule and manage the content creation and publication.

The communication strategy was all about how to reach your audience, grab their attention, and create decent content, not just content for the sake of it.

The content strategy is part of a bigger toolset that helps you do this.

Right now, it may be hard to believe, but everything I’ve described here is critical to understanding where your business is and how to communicate with your audience. It will help you understand your business and your future better.

As I said earlier, communication is the bond between all of us . It is what helps us through good days and bad days.

Communication between people and brands has its ups and downs , just like communication between people. And if a person doesn’t like what you’re saying, it may be hard to convince them that your product or service is worth their attention.

But if you start applying respectful and caring communication strategies in business development , you’ll be guaranteed loyal customers and a better chance of success.

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15 Communication Plan Templates for Professional Use (2024)

Written by: Orana Velarde

Communication plans can help you deliver information timely and effectively to stakeholders in various situations — from a PR crisis to a new product launch. They are excellent tools to share with your team and prepare them to communicate properly in any given situation.

If you're intimidated by the idea of creating a communication plan from scratch, it's okay. You can simply use a pre-designed communication plan template to speed up the process.

We've put together a list of 15 professional communication plan examples for various use cases.

The best part?

You can edit these communication plan templates online and download them or share them with your team.

Here's a short selection of easy-to-edit Communication plan templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more below:

Just choose the category from the list below that best describes your needs and start designing a successful communication strategy.

15 Communication Plan Templates for Professionals

Template #1: strategic communication plan, template #2: crisis communication plan, template #3: it communication plan, template #4: project management communication plan, template #5: internal communication plan, template #6: event communication plan, template #7: simple communication plan, template #8: change management communication plan, template #9: stakeholder communication plan, template #10: donor communication plan, template #11: school communication plan, template #12: emergency communication plan, template #13: marketing communication plan, template #14: product launch communication plan, template #15: diversity and inclusion communication plan, frequently asked questions (faqs).

Before you start scrolling, here’s a video on how to create attractive documents with Visme to get your creative juices flowing.

Strategic communication plans are essential documents that corporations, organizations and companies use to maintain stable and constant communication with their audiences. Below is an example of a communication plan template you can use to streamline communication.

This sleek strategic communication plan uses contrasting desaturation with bright colors to bring attention to the content. The placeholder sections in the table of contents include:

• Executive Summary
• Situational Analysis
• Demographics

Adding your content is easy as all you have to do is copy and paste into the template and adjust as needed. If you want to add pages with a type of graph or more text content, just duplicate a page. Use the same colors as the rest of the design to have a balanced look and feel.

And if you’re short on time, you can use the Visme AI document generator to generate your communication plans or any other document in a matter of seconds. Just type in your prompt, provide a bit more context, select your preferred design and watch the tool produce your first draft in seconds.

Check out how the AI document generator tool works.

Every startup, company or enterprise is bound to have a moment of crisis to deal with. It could be an unhappy customer or a global pandemic. For that reason, you need a crisis communication plan to specify actionable practices in any crisis.

Create your own Communication Plan with this easy-to-edit template! Edit and Download

With crisis communication plan templates like this one, all involved parties have access to the necessary information. Our designers have put together a collection of pages and sections to get you started, including:

• Crisis Communication Policy
• Crisis Command Center Team
• CCC Activation Hierarchy
• Media Liaison

To personalize your brand’s communication plan, simply change the colors and fonts using your Brand Kit . If you need more pages for more key messaging sections, it’s easy to duplicate the pre-designed pages and add your content.

You’ll need to adjust the layout a bit, so the pages don’t look the same. Change the image background for another and customize the text boxes and icons to match your content.

Here’s another great example of a communication plan. Share your project ideas and future goals effectively with our easy-to-use IT communication plan template. It's designed to help you choose the right communication channels and strategies for your IT projects.

The communication template has a bold dark and red design theme that sets a powerful visual tone. With eye-catching visuals and straightforward layouts, this template makes it simple to present your project proposals, timelines, and resource allocation.

Collaborating with your team becomes a seamless experience, ensuring that your message is conveyed accurately and efficiently to all stakeholders.

Upgrade your project communication with this attention-grabbing dark and red-themed IT communication plan template, and make a lasting impression while conveying your ideas and goals with impact.

Is your team working on a project together and you need to keep everything in check and on track? Are you looking for a way to let everyone know what needs to be done and when?

This project management communication plan sample is just what you need as the basis of your action plan.

Be clear and direct about what needs to be done, by whom and when. Putting it all in this project management communication framework template is going to create transparency within your team.

Your job as a project manager is to make sure everything is taken care of correctly and on time. When you use project communication plan templates like this one, your success rates go up.

Use the table of contents in this project management plan to outline all necessary information and key messaging. Explain how and when deliverables are to be expected and who are the key stakeholders in the process.

Link to collaboration channels and give instructions on how to use them best. Give instructions on how to name files and where everything is stored in the cloud.Use the Visme workflow tool to assign and manage each task, set deadlines and review and approve projects—all within your workspace.

Working on a project together takes careful planning. A project manager needs to ensure that everyone knows what’s expected of them and who to contact about different things.

If you’re a project manager or are in charge of an internal project for your company, this internal communications strategy template is just what you need to keep the team on track.

Our professionally designed internal communication plan is easy to use and customize with your content. The sections are separated as follows:

• Stakeholders
• Implementation
• Team Involved

If you plan to share your communication plan as a digital PDF, add links to the respective pages. This way, the reader can navigate to their desired content from the table of contents .

Use the timeline feature in the implementation section to visually schedule the tasks for the project. If you need to make the timeline longer, simply duplicate the page. Customize the colors and fonts for your brand using your Brand Kit.

Simplify the process of planning, organizing, and executing your events with our outstanding event communication plan template.

This complete communication strategy template comes equipped with step-by-step instructions, enabling you to seamlessly coordinate crucial event particulars, create detailed timelines, and ensure your guests are well-informed, all within a single platform.

Featuring captivating visuals, contemporary fonts, and customizable color schemes, this template not only enhances the functionality of your event communication plan. The rich blend of serene blues, pristine whites, and vibrant pinks also adds an aesthetic touch that will leave a lasting impression.

Add flipbook effects so readers can interact with the document as if they are reading a book. Make event planning a breeze while keeping everything visually appealing with this versatile template.

Communications planning doesn’t always need to be complicated. A simple communication plan will do the job for any small project. All you need for effective communication is the key messaging and the relevant links to the preferred communication channels.

This corporate communication plan template is simple and keeps things to only two pages. It effectively uses icons , progress bars and a table format to visualize possible situations of crisis and the appropriate response to each situation.

You can remove the cover page and download your communication plan as a single-page infographic . Or you can add more pages to turn it into a more comprehensive document.

If you’ve ever had to change something inside a company, you know how difficult it can be to it seamlessly. Change can be about a piece of software, a physical working location, a process or system.

A change management communication plan will help everyone involved in the transition by making sure they’re all on the same page.

This change management communication plan designed by our Visme designers uses placeholder content for a change in CRM. The sections apply to any type of change and are:

• Summary: What is changing and why?
• Stakeholders: Who is involved in the change and how?
• Phases: How will the change take place with the help of a timeline?

This is the perfect communication plan template to help your team change something seamlessly without affecting other aspects of your work.

When working on your plan, use Visme’s shortcut tool to easily find anything you want in the editor. Simply type forward slash (/) on your keyboard and search bar will appear. Type in a keyword to easily find design assets, tools and features in the Visme editor.

Having many stakeholders aiming for the same goal requires good organization and planning. Make sure everyone’s on board with this stakeholder communication plan example.

This professionally designed template offers all the pages you need to organize the information for your stakeholders. Share everything they need to know about your company, the goals, objectives, changes, projections and more.

Plus, share all relevant information like the dates for team meetings, a project roadmap , and the manager’s phone number.

If you need more pages than the template provides, simply duplicate and add your content in text boxes. Also, maintain a visual balance in the general look-and-feel of the page.

To keep the communication plan easy to read and understand, link to longer content with popups or external hyperlinks. Make sure to share the finished communication plan as a digital PDF file.

A well-planned donor communication strategy is essential to the success of any fundraising campaign. With our user-friendly template, you can impress your donors and streamline your fundraising efforts. This comprehensive tool includes easy-to-follow sections for outlining your donor engagement strategy, establishing effective communication channels and tracking the progress of your campaigns.

Our template features engaging graphics and icons, sleek fonts, and customizable colors that not only make it visually appealing but also allow you to tailor it to your organization's unique branding.

Every part of this template is customizable. With Visme’s intuitive editor, you can change colors, fonts and more to fit your branding. Elevate your fundraising endeavors and make a lasting impression on your valued supporters with this visually captivating and user-friendly template.

Ensuring that all communication levels are clear and concise within a school setting can be difficult without a communication plan. That's because precise instructions and direction are often essential for teachers, staff, parents and managerial positions.

Our school communication plan sample was created especially for you by our Visme designers. The three main sections cover communication strategies at three different levels:

• Academic Communication
• Staff Communication
• School-Wide Communication

Customize the tables with your school colors and input your specific information into the cells. Make your communication plan interactive by adding links to the correct communication channels for direct messaging and virtual or in-person meetings, and then share it online.

An effective emergency communication plan is vital for ensuring the safety and well-being of your team members. When a disaster strikes, a well-structured and thorough plan can ensure swift, coordinated responses and minimize risks.

Prepare your organization for emergency situations by sharing proven methods and solutions with this invaluable template. This stunning and user-friendly template simplifies the process, allowing you to outline essential procedures, contact information, and crucial resources. It provides indispensable guidance to your personnel in times of crisis, ensuring they are well-prepared and can respond effectively when needed most.

What makes this template shine are the striking images, visuals and design elements. In Visme’s library, you’ll find tons of visuals and design assets to communicate your ideas. Feel free to swap the template color theme to match your branding.

Need help writing or proofreading content for your plan? Visme’s AI writer is your handy assistant. All you need to do is write an accurate prompt that reflects your need and watch the magic happen.

Marketing and social media campaigns are successful when everyone involved knows what their part is in the process and what their tasks are. Setting every team member up with the information they need to reach a common goal is the primary purpose of this marketing communication plan.

This marketing communication plan example has a colorful, modern feel. Circles form a big part of the visual layout, making the content easier to digest and more interesting to look at.

In this marketing communication plan template, there are four sections for your key messaging:

• Goal and Objectives
• SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis page is a practical guide to see where your project has weaknesses and what strengths will pull it through. On the last page, you’ll find a timeline to help keep every team member on track of their tasks and in what timeframe.

Easily customize the template to match your brand by using your Brand Kit. Share the template with team members to get feedback and collaborate on the final design. Track how many people have viewed or taken action on your plan using our analytics feature .

When launching a new product, it’s good practice to work as a team. The best way to make sure all the pre-launch tasks are taken care of is to create a product launch communication plan.

In the six pages of this attractive product launch communication plan, you can lay out all the steps for your product’s pre and post-launch activities.

Use the timeline page to explain in detail what needs to happen. Specify which communication teams take care of what tasks, like the press release and influencer outreach emails.

Use hyperlinks to more in-depth content for specific teams and don’t forget to share the links to relevant communication platforms.

Use the sections set up for you in the template or create your own. Your key messaging will probably be similar to this but it’s easy to personalize or add more.

• Launch Phases
• Pre-Launch Activities
• Post-Launch Follow Up

Make sure to include the steps for recording post-launch metrics as these are just as important as the ones done pre-launch. Plus, measurable insights can help with other product launch projects in the future.

Achieving diversity and inclusion in the workplace requires a clear and comprehensive communication plan. A plan will serve as a strategic framework to promote diversity and inclusion initiatives across your organization.

This remarkable, fully customizable template is your compass for systematically advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion within your organization. The template has a clean and creative design layout with high-quality images and graphics that add visual excitement.

The eye-catching images are carefully selected to support your narrative and enhance the overall aesthetic of your plan. With its captivating design, you can effortlessly engage your entire workforce, presenting your vision, initiatives, and progress with impact and clarity.

There are multiple options for sharing your plan with stakeholders. You can share it online with a link or embed it on your website or landing page. Alternatively, you can download it in multiple formats.

Design Your Own Communication Plan Online

Creating a communication plan is easy when you have practical and inspiring templates to guide you. To get started with designing your communication plan, simply choose the template that best fits your vision and input your content.

If you're new to Visme, use one of the free templates and adjust the content accordingly. That said, you’d be surprised at what you can do with a premium Visme subscription .

With a premium subscription, not only will you get access to premium templates and graphic assets, you'll also be able to create any type of visual — from documents and presentations to infographics, charts, surveys, social media graphics and more.

You'll also be able to download your designs in multiple formats, from image to PDF to HTML5, work in collaboration with your team, create a Brand Kit and much more.

Ready to get started? Sign up for a free Visme account today and create a great-looking, comprehensive communication plan to share with your team.

Are you still weighing your options about creating a communication plan? Hopefully, the templates on this list inspired you to take a look and give them a try.

But you might still need a little help deciding if this is a suitable document for what you need. That’s why we’ve put together the most common questions asked about communications plans.

Q1. What is a communication plan?

A communication plan is a strategic document that shares coordinated, consistent and directed messaging for achieving a specific goal, such as managing a PR crisis or successfully launching a new product.

A communication plan can be printed, sent via email as a PDF or shared as a live online link. A well-structured and effective communication plan is the single most crucial factor of project management in any industry and for every use case.

Q2. What is the purpose of a communication plan?

The primary purpose of a communication plan is to deliver consistent information about a shared goal. It keeps everyone on the team on the same page about what needs to be done, how and when.

A communication plan solves many problems that teams usually face when there’s no clear direction for everyone involved. With a clear communication plan, everything is explained in detail and easy to follow.

All communication needs are laid out in detailed sections covering topics from goals and objectives to timelines and schedules . A communication plan brings together all the communication channels into one single document. From there, team members can spread out through relevant links and supplementary documents.

Q3. What’s included in a communication plan?

Every communication plan example is different, just how every project is different. But what remains the same across the majority of communication plans is the relevant and strategic information.

A standard communication plan includes sections like:

• Short and long-term goals for the project.
• A set of key messages to be explained in detail, separated into sections.
• Strategies for communication, both in-house and outbound.
• Details about the people involved in the project.
• A schedule and timeline for specific events, deadlines and reporting.
• Further communication methods.
• Specific instructions about your company’s communication process.
• Strategies for measuring success.

Apart from the list above, a communication plan must also include details pertinent to the specific project. If there are folders or systems that people need to access for the project’s success, list them and explain how to use them.

Q4. What is the first step in communication planning?

The first step in communication planning is to define the goals you and your team want to achieve. Outline both short and long-term goals so it’s easier to plan the project as pieces of a whole.

Following the goals, set the objectives. Explain how you plan to achieve these with the help of timelines, schedules, and tables. Include a list of involved stakeholders and links to further means of collaboration.

Q5. What are the key messages of a communication plan?

A communication plan’s specific key messages will depend on what you want to achieve and who your target audience is. Your key messages are the most essential communication points for any particular project.

For example, let’s say you’re creating a communication plan for a product launch. The key messages would cover;

• The goals and objectives of the product launch.
• The reason and story about why this product was created and what problem it solves for people.
• A timeline of pre-launch activities including who will be contacted for outreach and what information will be shared with them.
• What messaging and visual strategies to use for social media and advertising.

An excellent way to make sure all key messaging is clear is to add each one as an item in the Table of Contents.

Q6. What’s the best tool to create a communication plan online?

If you want to create a communication plan that makes an impact, use Visme! Our professionally designed communication plan templates will look amazing with your content and be super easy to customize.

With a Visme communication plan, you can include data visualizations using data from a Microsoft Excel sheet. In fact, if you’ve been creating project communication plans in an Excel spreadsheet, it’s time to upgrade your communication efforts!

Knock your team out of their seats with your impactful communication plan!

Head over to Visme's professional document creator and look through the template library, or click on any of the communication plan template buttons in the list above.

Q7. How to Write a Communications Plan

• Audit Your Existing Communication Plan: Before you put pen to paper, do a situational analysis of communications in your company. The goal is to identify gaps, problem areas and opportunities for improvement.
• Set SMART Goals: Based on the audit results, highlight SMART goals you want to achieve with your communications plan. An example of a SMART communication goal would be to improve client response time to complaints from six hours to three hours within the next 2 months.
• Identify Your Target Audience: Are you working with media outlets, customers, partners, investors, employees, customers or the government? Understand who your intended audience is. Consider their demographics, interests, needs, and communication preferences. This will help you tailor your messages and select appropriate channels.
• Communication methods, both in-house and outbound.
• Team members responsible for delivering communication
• Escalation plan
• Communication channels
• Choose appropriate and effective channels: Consider using a combination of channels such as email, meetings, presentations, the intranet, newsletters, social media, or face-to-face interactions. Adapt your channels based on the nature of the message and the preferences of your audience.
• Assign responsibilities: Determine who will be responsible for executing different aspects of the communication plan. Assign roles and responsibilities to team members or stakeholders involved in the process. Clearly define each person's tasks and deliverables.
• Set a timeline for execution. It's important to have a rough estimate of the time required for each step in implementing your strategy. For example, if your plan involves sharing information from top-level management to employees, it's wise to consider the duration it will take to go through the chain of command.
• Regularly review and assess your communication plan's performance : Evaluate the effectiveness of your messages, channels, and activities. Identify areas for improvement and make adjustments accordingly.

Q8. What are the Top Communication Planning Tips?

When it comes to communication planning, here are some tips to ensure effective and successful communication:

• Define clear objectives and identify the target audience: Whether it's providing information, generating buy-in, or addressing concerns, having clear objectives will guide your communication strategy. Understanding who your target audience is will help you tailor your communications to their needs, interests, and preferences.
• Be consistent and transparent: Maintain consistency in your messaging across different channels and ensure transparency throughout the change process. Share relevant information, progress updates, and any challenges or risks involved. This helps build trust and credibility with your audience.
• Engage leaders and influencers: Leverage the support of influential leaders and stakeholders within the organization. Engage them early on and involve them in the planning process to help drive change and promote a culture of open communication.
• Establish a feedback loop: Create channels for employees to share their thoughts, concerns, and suggestions. Actively listen and respond to feedback to build trust and engagement.
• Evaluate and Adapt: Gather feedback, track engagement, and assess whether your communication objectives are being met. Use the insights gained to adapt and refine your communication plan as needed.

Q9. How to Use Communication Plan Templates

To effectively use communication plan templates, follow these steps:

Choose a suitable template: Select a communication plan template that aligns with your specific needs and goals. Visme has a comprehensive library of templates that provide a comprehensive structure and include sections relevant to your project or initiative.

Gather relevant information: Collect the necessary information to complete each section of the template.

This may include objectives, target audience details, key messages, communication channels, timelines, budgets, and evaluation methods. Refer to existing documentation, conduct research, and consult with stakeholders as needed to gather accurate and relevant information.

Customize the template: Tailor the template to fit your specific requirements.

• With Visme's intuitive editor, you can easily modify section headings, add or remove sections as needed, and adapt the content to align with your project or organization.
• Customize the visual elements of the template to match your branding or style guidelines by adding your logo, adjusting colors, and modifying fonts.
• Access a rich library of images, videos and design assets to make your plan visually appealing.
• Automatically generate and incorporate captivating images, art, and graphics into your plan using Visme’s AI image generator .

Share and collaborate: Share the completed communication plan with relevant team members and stakeholders using Visme's collaboration features . Encourage them to provide feedback, input, and suggestions for improvement.

Implement and monitor : Implement the communication plan and monitor the progress and effectiveness of your communication efforts. Make adjustments as needed based on feedback, data, and changing circumstances.

Create a effective communication plans in minutes with Visme

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About the Author

Orana is a multi-faceted creative. She is a content writer, artist, and designer. She travels the world with her family and is currently in Istanbul. Find out more about her work at oranavelarde.com

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Essentials for your 2024 strategic communication plan.

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Ronjini Joshua is the CEO and Founder of The Silver Telegram , Host of The PR Playbook Podcast and founder of The Social Equity Council.

The communications landscape is constantly changing, and with content that was once journalist and earned, becoming sponsored in a world driven both by digital applause and online ad dollars makes it that much more challenging. This shift has impacted the practice of public relations to become more of a strategic effort than ever before. As I mentioned in my previous article , "Marketing Versus PR: What’s Really The Difference?" public relations centers more strategically around brand reputation and messaging. And we’ll continue that conversation here on how brands can look to create cohesive strategic plans for the coming year, led by PR. Last year, I was vocal about trying new mediums and formats. This year, I believe a new strategic approach between earned, paid and themed content will be critical. A few critical elements will come into play when you are strategically planning for this year.

Clearly Defining Your Brand Positioning

I’ve recently seen brands begin to loosen their focus on their positioning and try to be vague so they don’t lose any potential audiences. It seems like brands want to be everything to everyone. Longevity doesn’t work that way. When it comes to PR and media relations, you have to establish a brand position so that you can stand out in the key areas where you present innovation. The best PR comes out of making a statement and leading your industry. While I encourage strong positioning, it is typically good practice to keep personal religious and political beliefs out of the media unless it's part of your brand or mission. It may cause conflict and confusion as it relates to your product or service and value proposition.

Integrating Earned And Paid Media Campaigns

The landscape of media is shifting toward a more monetized model. With the shifts of social media, e-commerce and digital media, traditional media is also changing along with the voice of the media. The biggest shift in the traditional public relations approach over the past decade has been the shift to content development and placed content. This requires a more integrated approach between earned media and paid media opportunities to properly address target audiences. A good strategy will not rule out any of these potentials as long as it meets the needs of your campaign objectives. Setting aside a budget for paid media is essential. With podcasts emerging and becoming more of a staple for interviews, sometimes producers request production fees to be covered or sponsorship. It may be worth it if you properly analyze their audiences. Keep an open mind for these opportunities.

Thematic Content Calendars

Creating themes in your communication strategy can prove to be an efficient and effective way to streamline content across your teams. This way, instead of reinventing the wheel, you can just slightly shift the tone of the messaging based on who you are delivering it to. In the most ideal program, you should develop monthly or quarterly content themes, where the team pitches media, interviews and creates content like white papers, case studies, blogs and articles all around a unified theme.

Best High-Yield Savings Accounts Of September 2023

Best 5% interest savings accounts of september 2023, integrating your sales and marketing teams with business development teams.

An integrated approach concept that I have been pushing for a while is to see the public relations manager as the purveyor of strategic positioning across all of your brand reputation, marketing, business development and sales teams. This way, your brand can not only align messaging so that the sales funnel is more successful, but you can pull ideas from different angles. As a PR professional, I always love to hear what the sales team is going through and what is working from them because the sales team is closest to solving the challenges of the clients, which is usually where the story lies when it comes to PR. Do not hesitate to do a monthly team meeting to see what is and isn’t resonating as far as messaging is concerned.

Consistency

One of the things clients ask us is, “How long will it take.” Brand reputation doesn’t grow overnight, and it certainly does not get established and sustain itself. Creating a strategic communications plan with consistency is key. Consistency doesn’t have to mean pushing out press releases every other week. For example, my company recently developed a program that focused not on forced monthly PR programs but a more strategic and sustainable long-term plan that swaps our variable communication tactics based on what will serve them in that period.

It seems that brand reputation has become a grossly undervalued asset until there’s a spotlight put on it because your brand can’t sell or isn’t recognized among competitors. Then, companies try to rush to PR agencies to get a quick media boost and get upset when it doesn’t happen in one to three months. Brand reputation does not build overnight, or by itself, so consistency is the key to building the reputation in the right direction. If you weave in PR strategies across the board and create a communication plan that can establish and build your brand reputation over time, then you can be well-positioned to get an even bigger media boost when you actually have big news. Keep this in mind, and you can be primed to communicate more effectively and strategically across all your teams whether you hire a PR agency or not.

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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.

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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 :

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• 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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Four Steps to Building a Strategic Communications Capability

• Georgia Everse

Do you have the confidence that every message and experience that customers have with your organization rings true and leaves a positive impression? Developing an integrated communications capability within your organization will give you just that. It will also enhance your reputation and the value of your brand. It’s essential to your business. But it’s […]

Do you have the confidence that every message and experience that customers have with your organization rings true and leaves a positive impression? Developing an integrated communications capability within your organization will give you just that. It will also enhance your reputation and the value of your brand. It’s essential to your business. But it’s not a simple task. The effort requires a combination of four things:

• Georgia Everse is a communications and marketing executive with 30 years of experience and a proven track record of finding innovative solutions to complex business problems. She specializes in helping C-level executives find and articulate their vision and successfully use strategic communication to achieve their growth goals. Georgia is a visiting professor for the Ferris State University MBA program, in Design and Innovation Management. She is currently a partner with Genesis Inc., a brand, strategy and communications consultancy.

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Our Top 7 Tips and Tactics for a Successful Internal Communication Strategy

Helen Marukh

 on  Jul 10, 2024

in  Internal Communications

A winning internal communication plan needs to be supported by proven strategies. Discover our top internal comms strategies for keeping your team in the loop and driving innovation. 

Effective internal communication is crucial for any organization aiming to keep its employees informed, engaged, and aligned with company goals. This is why it’s important to undertake new internal communication initiatives with thoughtfulness and specific goals in mind. 

In this post, we’ll share our top 7 tips and tactics for strategic internal communication. Whether you’re looking to improve team dynamics, streamline information flow, or simply create a more positive work environment, we’ll help you develop internal communication strategies that meet your organization’s unique needs.

7 steps to a clear internal communications plan

Launch your first strategy or perfect your current one., what is an internal communication strategy .

“Internal communication strategy” and “ internal communication plan ” are sometimes used interchangeably. However, we use an internal communication strategy to refer to specific comms initiatives that comprise an overarching internal communication plan. 

In other words, the plan outlines your high-level approach and objectives, while the strategies are the action items that support your overall plan.

What Are the Key Elements of an Effective Internal Communication Strategy? 

Before creating a winning employee communication strategy, we recommend doing a full audit of your current internal communications to identify your strengths and weaknesses. 

Once you hone in on a specific area of improvement, come up with a targeted approach to execute your internal comms strategy. A detailed corporate comms strategy will lay out all of the following elements:

• Make sure that you understand the scope of the issue your internal communication strategy will address and what success would look like. Clearly defining the problem and desired outcomes will guide your strategy and keep your efforts focused.
• Identify which employees you’re targeting with your new strategic internal communication. Remember that different departments, teams, and individuals may have varying communication needs and preferences.
• The medium is the message. The type of communication you’re sending will determine the appropriate channels and tools, so choose platforms that align with your goals and ensure efficient message delivery.
• Determine how often you will need to communicate with your audience to have the desired effect. 
• Establish clear timelines for your initiatives, and set measurable benchmarks and key performance indicators (KPIs) to track progress and success.
• After implementing a new corporate comms strategy, don’t just assume it’s working as intended. Measure the results and be ready to make adjustments based on feedback and tracking data.

7 Effective Internal Comms Strategies For Keeping Employees Informed and Engaged

Your internal communication plan consists of a series of strategies or initiatives that work together to create a cohesive and effective communication environment. Here are seven strategies you should consider adopting in your internal comms:

1. Bring in dedicated internal comms tools

Look for tools specifically designed for internal corporate communication. Internal communication tools are designed to address business communication needs in a way external tools simply don’t.

Consider, for example, an internal employee newsletter. While you could use Mailchimp for your internal newsletter , it has major drawbacks for corporate communications:

• Newsletters are stored on and sent through less secure external servers.
• External marketing tools are legally required to include an unsubscribe button on emails, meaning employees can opt out of receiving your internal newsletter or other communications.

When you use an internal comms tool like ContactMonkey, emails don’t have an unsubscribe button and are sent through your internal servers for increased internal communications security .

And because it’s an internal comms-focused tool, ContactMonkey even integrates with your Azure Active Directory or Human Resources Information System (HRIS) to make sending more manageable with dynamic, synced distribution lists.

Catch busy eyes with these emails

Prove higher clicks and opens with newsletters that shine., 2. get employees to do some of the work for you.

Employees sharing their successes and experiences with their team members is always more fun and exciting than top-down communications from leadership, so encourage employee-generated content! 

Getting employees to share their own content creates a richer, more interconnected culture within your organization and gives employees a sense of ownership and pride in the company’s narrative. And as a bonus, you get to share the workload of coming up with interesting, engaging content! 

There are many different of employee content you can request. Consider: 

• Ask employees to share photos and anecdotes from company events, volunteer activities, or team-building exercises . 
• If employees are traveling for a conference or other work experience, ask them to write or record a travelogue that you can share. 
• Feature employee profiles or “day in the life” articles to give employees a deeper understanding of different roles within the company.

Whatever you do, try to incorporate this content into your regular communication cadence. Also, don’t forget to encourage departments to take turns contributing content to ensure you represent a diverse range of voices and experiences.

3. Send employee newsletters to keep employees informed

Employee newsletters are an excellent way to provide transparent updates and maintain a consistent flow of communication within your org. 

As you craft a newsletter, include a variety of content to appeal to different interests and communication styles. You might:

• Highlight company achievements and employee successes with a photo collage
• Include a calendar of upcoming events and key initiatives
• Embed a video from the CEO providing updates on ongoing projects

To keep employees interested, use engaging visuals and take advantage of different media in your newsletters. Incorporate images, infographics, and videos to make the content appealing and easier to digest. Consider including employee spotlights, team features, or fun facts to add a personal touch to the newsletter.

By sending regular newsletters, you keep employees informed and create a sense of community and shared purpose. It’s a simple yet effective way to strengthen internal communication and ensure that everyone is on the same page.

4. Take a multichannel, multimedia approach

To ensure effective communication, adopt a multifaceted internal comms approach that considers employees’ diverse learning styles and communication preferences. This means not only using multiple communication channels but also incorporating various types of media to engage employees in ways that resonate with them.

A multichannel approach increases the likelihood that employees will see and engage with your communications. While some messages are suitable for a single channel, others are more effective when shared across multiple channels. 

To make multichannel communication more streamlined, we recommend finding internal communication tools that can integrate multiple channels.

For example, while ContactMonkey is primarily an email platform, it also allows you to push the employee newsletters you create directly to Microsoft Teams. You can also take advantage of ContactMonkey’s employee SMS for communications that are more time-sensitive or that are being sent to deskless employees.   As for the multimedia elements, ContactMonkey’s drag-and-drop email builder lets you create responsive HTML emails that can include images, GIFs , videos, and more, enhancing the overall effectiveness of your internal communications strategy.

Reach everyone, anywhere

5. ask for feedback (and actually listen).

Collecting feedback from employees teaches you what’s working and what’s not and demonstrates to your team that you value their opinions. That’s why a regular cadence of employee surveys is an internal communication tactic that we recommend to every organization. 

For a comprehensive view of your organization’s employee experience, try conducting long-form surveys once or twice a year. The rest of the time, regularly conducted pulse surveys offer quick insights into employee sentiment and any immediate concerns that you need to address.

What does this cycle look like? It might go a little like this:

• You embed an employee engagement pulse survey in your monthly newsletter asking, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with the current internal communication within the company?”
• The average score comes back a 5, indicating dissatisfaction, and you notice employees mentioning feeling out of the loop.
• You analyze the feedback more closely to pinpoint specific issues, such as disorganized emails or a difficult-to-navigate intranet. 
• To address these issues, you design a more visually appealing newsletter and revamp your intranet. 
• Once these changes are made, communicate them clearly to employees, including scheduled training to walk them through the new intranet. 
• You then follow up with another survey after a month or two to assess the impact of these changes.

This approach not only addresses the specific issue but also demonstrates that leaders value employee feedback, fostering a more engaged and satisfied workforce!

7 ways to get genuine employee feedback in surveys

Will your people tell the truth here’s how to build trust., 6. hold trainings, lead by example, and don’t forget your onboarding.

Instituting new internal communication best practices, processes, or tools in your organization is easy in theory. But we all know that the adoption of a new tool or process is usually pretty uneven. Yet, for a new process to succeed, everyone needs to get on board. 

When introducing a new tool or process: 

• Give your employees plenty of warning and remind them before, during, and after the changeover.
• Hold training sessions and record them for employees to refer to. These sessions can be hands-on, using real-world examples to show how new methods will make their work easier and more efficient.
• Don’t overlook onboarding. Have a comprehensive employee onboarding program that includes training on your company’s platforms and an overview of your communication culture as a whole.
• Lead by example. Have leaders and managers set the standard to get people used to interacting under the new guidelines, be consistent, and don’t switch between new and old tools. 

By rolling out changes gradually, incorporating them into onboarding, and having leaders set the example, you create an environment where new communication processes can flourish. This approach ensures that everyone is on board and committed to effective internal communication.

7. Promote your brand internally

Employees become advocates when they’re invested in your company brand. However, turning your employees into brand ambassadors requires thoughtful internal promotion. 

Every employee in your organization, from entry-level to executive, should understand your organization’s core mission, vision, and values. Therefore, weave these foundational elements into onboarding programs, regular training sessions, and company-wide communications. 

You can use engaging formats like videos and interactive workshops to give your employees a personal connection to the brand. Encourage employees to share positive stories and experiences related to the brand through internal social media platforms, newsletters, or the intranet. Highlight these stories in team meetings and corporate communications to reinforce brand values.

You can also distribute branded merchandise, such as apparel and accessories, to create a sense of belonging, as well as incorporate the brand into the physical workspace with branded signage and design elements. 

See ContactMonkey in action

Jumpstart your comms with these internal communication tactics.

A successful internal communication strategy requires thoughtful planning, clear goals, and ongoing adjustments based on feedback and data.

By implementing some or all of these internal communication tactics, you can ensure that your workforce is more informed, more engaged, and works as a cohesive unit. Remember, effective internal communication is not a one-time effort but an ongoing process that evolves with your organization’s needs. 

Keep refining your approach, and you’ll see the positive impact on your company culture and performance.

Curious how ContactMonkey can fit into your communications plan? Book a free demo to see how our comms platform can help transform how you speak with employees.

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Internal Communications Plan: 7-Step Strategy and Template

We hear all the time that internal communication functions are stretched thin.

“There are too many priorities. Everything’s important. We have so many messages to get out to employees. So many vehicles but we’re not sure which work and which don’t. We don’t have the time to get it all done or enough people or enough budget…”

Sound familiar?

Having a strategic internal communications plan in place for your function is a critical step to getting your time organized, prioritizing, planning, resourcing, and operating at its optimum.

This may sound basic, but all too often we find that internal communications functions don’t have clear plans in place.

And having a clear plan in place is critical to:

• Focus internal communications where the business needs them the most
• Empower internal communication leaders and teams to be more proactive consultants to the business with a focus on delivering value and impact
• Get internal communications teams out of the reactive fire-fighting that causes strain and fatigue
• Advocate for employees and their information needs  
• Calibrate a range of business and communication messages and needs so they are connected, relevant, and digestible for your audiences
• Leverage existing and new channels to reach employees where they are
• Measure and demonstrate progress against business and organizational outcomes that matter

What is a Strategic Internal Communications Plan?

A strategic internal communication plan is a tool for leaders to help drive employee behaviors and actions that create desired business outcomes. It should directly support an organization’s key business outcomes. An internal communication plan should be updated every year to support the business strategy, rather than on an ad hoc basis or as an afterthought. When a plan is truly strategic, it is also given the same priority and resources as an external plan that works effectively together to achieve business outcomes for an organization.

Internal Communication Planning Best Practices

A strong internal communication plan is never just a list of tactics. Instead, the tactics should be part of the overall plan and reflect what you’re going to do to achieve your measurable business objectives.

There are many ways to achieve a smart internal communications strategy. Our best advice is to pick a format that works for you and always have a plan in place.

Adjustments are fine and expected, but the fundamental goals and vision for communication need to be woven into the plan and used for guidance to make smart decisions around priorities and areas of focus.

As you dive into your internal communications planning, consider these key components of any strong internal communications strategy:

• A clear explanation of the current business environment and any challenges your business faces
• What you want to accomplish (your business goals and communication goals)
• Who you need to talk with (your audience)
• What you want to say (your core messages)
• How you will communicate (your internal communication strategies, tactics, and channels )
• When you will communicate (your calendar), and
• How you will measure your progress

What a Smart Internal Communication Strategy Achieves

When done well, strategic communication plans can help you achieve strong results for your business. Based on the scores of organizations we've helped to develop and implement strategic plans, we’ve seen significant results:

• Turn a strategy into action and embed new behaviors into an organization, such as reducing safety incidents and engaging employees in diversity and inclusion initiatives
• Help employees with a change
• Address important industry issues
• Inform employees on sensitive topics
• Align and activate organizations around a new strategy
• Improving culture to elevate the employee experience and performance goals

Any time you have a lot to say and do, think about having a communication plan to orchestrate how best to engage teams and drive the narrative with your audiences and outcomes in mind.

How to Create an Internal Communication Plan in 7 Steps

Your communications plan doesn’t need to be long – a few pages is fine or even a one-pager works. Use these seven steps as a framework when you develop your plan.

Step 1: Summarize the Situation

Provide a situation overview and what’s prompting the need for communications. Map the current situation, consider business needs, and talk to key stakeholders to help with this process.

For example, is there a shift in organizational priorities because of the marketplace or industry? Low employee engagement scores? New products or services? Are you starting a new employee initiative and you need to keep them informed and engaged in the process?

This section includes research and analysis, and addresses the variables at play and what’s currently being done to address the issue.

This is also the section that describes the business and communication context and why a communication plan is necessary.

Step 2: Determine Your Desired Outcome

We spend a good amount of time talking with the leaders we work with about “desired outcomes” – the first step in planning any kind of communication. When we ask, “What’s the outcome you seek?” we often hear people say, “We want to produce an email message, or we’re thinking about a newsletter or video.” This isn’t what we mean by outcomes because those are just tactics. They alone cannot solve the business challenge outlined in Step 1 .

To get to the real outcome, instead start by answering this question: What do you want to achieve for the business? Once you answer that, you can decide what communication strategies and tactics are best suited to achieve that business outcome.

Here’s the two-step process we suggest to identify your critical outcomes:

• Business and Organizational Outcomes (the business need) – When you define the business need, don’t start with what you need to do, but why you need to do it. Indicate – as best you can – a direct connection between the organization’s objectives or bottom line. Be sure to list specific and measurable desired organizational outcomes in this section. Think: What will be different in the business when we’ve achieved our plans?  
• Communication Outcomes / Objectives – Think about the business outcome you want to achieve through communication and what role communications can play to help achieve the business need. For example, is it to increase engagement , so you can benefit from things that come from higher engagement – like less absenteeism or better safety outcomes or higher quality performance? Is it to increase order fill or to create a behavior change among employees?

Use SMART Objectives

• S pecific – What are we going to do for whom?
• M easurable – Is it quantifiable and can we measure it?
• A ttainable / A chievable – Can we get it done within the time frame and with the resources we have?
• R elevant – Will this objective have an effect on the desired goal or strategy?
• T ime-bound – When will this be accomplished?

Follow this SMART Template to Guide You

To develop SMART objectives, use the SMART Objectives Template and two-page guide by clicking the image below. It covers what SMART objectives are, provides an example, and concludes with the template you see here:

You don’t need to limit yourself to one desired outcome but you should try to cap it at three.

Note: All too often communication plans only focus on communication goals. Remember to take your plan to the next level by linking the communication goals to specific business or organizational goals.

Step 3: Define Your Audience

To help you think through how best to communicate with different groups of employees, it’s important to define who they are. Who are the most relevant groups you need to influence and drive to action?

List different audience groups (sometimes referred to as job families) and their mindsets (where they’re coming from on the topic that you’re communicating), and consider what you want them to know, feel, and do as a result of your communication with them. That will help you focus, find the common ground for your messages, as well as adapt your messages for different audience segments based on their unique information needs.

Audience job families or segments may be a specific business unit, senior executives, geographies, functional roles (such as frontline employees, sales teams, and customer-facing teams), shareholders, employee affiliate groups, or people leaders. Job families also vary by industry – so in healthcare, there are segments such as physicians, nurses, volunteers, environmental services, and the like. Other organizations may have call center or customer service employees or plant/site employees.

Consider using a template like this to outline relevant audience segments and what you want them each to know, feel, and do as a result of your communications. It’s a great way to stay focused on the key audiences and outcomes you want to achieve and to identify what your key messages should be for each.

Note: Don’t confuse the audience(s) with stakeholders. Stakeholders are the people and organizations that have an influence on the desired outcome. Audiences are the receivers of messages.

Step 4: Develop Your Messages

Based on your audiences, next outline the most important messages (or points) you need to communicate to your audiences. Keep it to about three messages (that’s usually all that people can retain!). Then consider supporting points to reinforce those key messages. These are the facts, data, anecdotes, and stories that support and bring your points to life.

5 Ws and an H

Want to ensure you don’t forget a critical detail in your messaging? Think 5 Ws and an H to cover all the key points on your audiences’ minds and the all-important context, so you can make it relevant for them.

• Why – Why is it the right decision? Why now? Why is it important?
• What – What’s the decision? What does it mean for us? What should I know? What’s in it for me?
• Where – Where is this decision coming from? Where/what locations will it affect? Where can I get more information?
• When – When is this happening?
• How – How was the decision made? How will it be implemented? How will communications flow internally and externally? How does it impact me?
• Who – Who made the decision? Who’s in charge? Who does it impact?

In communicating your message, the order is important. Adult learners want to know the “why” first and then the “what.” The rest can follow logically.

Here are some additional tips to make your messages stick:

• Keep them simple: People remember things based on simple ideas
• Be unexpected: When you take people by surprise they tend to remember it later – such as a compelling stat or story framed in a stand-out way
• Communicate clearly: Human actions and sensory information, images, and proverbs help people understand an idea
• Be credible: Use facts, figures, and examples, and believable sources
• Inspire and create an emotional connection: People remember things that tap into their emotions – whether it’s something funny that makes them laugh or causes them to reflect
• Tell stories: Narrative can influence feelings and sometimes behavior

No matter how you develop your messages, use a template to keep yourself organized, consistent, and concise. For example, we use our award-winning messagemap methodology to get all the most important messages organized and prioritized on one page. The messagemap is used to develop all the communication tactics (in Step 5) so that messages are consistent and strategic.

Step 5: Decide What Your Strategy Is and What Channels and Tactics You’ll Use

How you deliver your messages is as important as what you say. During this step, you can identify your internal communications strategies – in other words, how you’ll approach communicating your key messages with your audiences. This is the step where you outline specifically which channels and tactics are most effective at reaching each audience, so they understand and connect with the key messages.

Very often communicators are asked to jump right into producing materials and delivering tactics first. This shortcuts the strategic steps to the planning process and risks the tactics not being as effective – so you won’t save any time in the long run. You’ll likely just have more cleanup to do later.

Note: It helps to strategize potential tactics and channels as a communications team. Organize a working session with plenty of post-it notes, flip charts, and pens/markers to generate ideas and stick them on the wall. Vote on the top 6-8 tactics for each objective, repeat, and consolidate. Hold on to this and use it for communication planning during the year for other programs and priorities, too.

The channels you choose will depend on what you want to achieve from your communications and the audience you need to reach. The right channels for raising awareness would probably be the wrong ones for gaining ownership and commitment. Similarly, the needs of desk-based employees will be very different to sales teams or factory workers who aren’t on computers during the day.

A well-coordinated use of multiple voices and channels will be needed for maximum impact. 

It’s also important to draw on any employee communication data and insights that already exist in your organization. Look to engagement and communication effectiveness surveys, channel audits and feedback, and employee listening sessions to help you make data-driven decision making around which channels and tactics to use.

Keep in mind these communication best practices:

• Face-to-face (or voice-to-voice) communication is best for making a personal connection and overcoming resistance to change. If you’ve got a sensitive or complex message, this is usually your best bet.
• Meetings are best for communicating more complicated ideas or when you want input from team members.
• Paper (such as handouts at a meeting or a flier on a bulletin board) is best when details are important, or dates need to be referenced.
• Electronic (such as email or an intranet page) works well for those who have frequent access to computers; consider also visual display boards for break rooms, elevators, lobbies, and central meeting locations.
• Video is best to use when you want to appeal to visual and audio senses and to tell a story. More and more companies are using short, grassroots-type videos to get messages across. Consider captions for multiple languages and/or open work environments where noise is a concern.
• Internal social media can help to build a culture of collaboration and rapport among dispersed team members.
• Think about frequency. For example, huddles with your team could happen daily, while town hall meetings might be best quarterly.

Actionable Communication Strategies Make Your Tactics More Impactful

The tactics are how you plan to make the internal communication strategies happen. Make each tactic relate back to at least one strategy (if not multiple). Include key deliverables and how you will monitor execution.

Then plot key activities into a calendar, so you can see how the communications will unfold throughout the year.

In this section, also add in any considerations that might negatively or positively impact the success of the implementation to inform your tactics and timing. For example, employees have noted in engagement surveys that they prefer small-group meetings to receive information from their managers.

Step 6: Populate Your Communications Calendar

It’s helpful to have a full view of the communications channels and tactics you are using to implement your plan (and timing to go along with it). This becomes your project tracker, so you can look at the year ahead and note which communications will be happening and when. That will help ensure you have a consistent cadence of communications that is timed around – and in support of – key business and organizational milestones. The key is enough communications to keep what’s important on people’s radars, but not too much that it becomes noise and people tune out.

Use a template like this to map your action plan (adding as many rows as you need):

Step 7: Measure Your Progress

List how you will measure success. This should connect directly back to your outcomes or SMART Objectives (see Step 2). It’s how you’ll know if your internal communication strategies are working or not and informs future planning.

For example, will it be through improved survey scores? Feedback forms from specific communications events? Increased share value or product sales? Increases in employee sign-ups? Better retention rates?

You can use a combination of measurement techniques, but the main thing is to make sure you measure .

Remember – what gets measured, gets done.

Bonus: 8 Internal Communication Best Practices for Remote Employees

One of the most important things we’ve learned from so many people working remotely is the importance of communicating predictably. As you develop your communication plan, keep these tips in mind for better communication, particularly when a good portion of your workforce is remote:

• Be planful and strategic about keeping in touch with your team, especially during times of change when they may be worried and/or need more connection and encouragement.
• Set regular meeting times and encourage dialogue during meetings. Be sure team members understand that out of sight doesn’t mean out of mind.
• Explain the best ways that employees can reach you if they need to. This helps them know their input and questions are welcome and gives them a sense of when to expect feedback.
• Respond quickly. An afternoon can seem like an eternity to someone who is waiting for your input. Even a quick email or text is helpful to acknowledge receipt of a message and say when you can respond.
• Share what you know, what you don’t know, and what you’re figuring out. Especially during times of change , employees need to hear from you more often, even when you don’t have everything figured out. Resist the temptation to wait for more answers, more clarification, and more details. Instead, recognize that you probably know a lot more than you think.
• Appreciate frequently. The little things mean a lot to employees who have few interactions with their manager or colleagues. Show appreciation for good work and recognize employees who deliver what you need. “Thank you” and “I appreciate you” go a long way (and don’t cost a thing).
• Schedule more personal touchpoints. Especially when there are fewer in-person touchpoints, you need to plan for more regular personal communication with employees.
• Make sure supervisors know their role to lead through communication and set them up for success. Reinforce the role of the supervisor and their communication expectations. Set them up for success with training and tools , so they have the right communication cadence in place and can deliver messages with confidence and impact.

Final Thoughts

An internal communications plan is necessary for many reasons and the necessity has only grown with the changing workplace dynamics and employee demands. Some of the benefits include:

• Provides a clear roadmap for consistently communicating with employees, so they feel informed about goals for your organization, or a specific initiative, so they can take action and help achieve those goals;
• Defines what internal communications strategies are important to focus on, how and when they’ll be implemented, and how they’ll be measured to demonstrate value and impact to the business;
• Keeps the internal communications team focused and guides their efforts, so they’re spending their time on the right things that are most important to the business in a most efficient and effective way; 
• Enables important conversations and engagement with business leaders and partners about internal communication strategies that can best deliver on key business needs and opportunities; and
• Helps communications team plan and deliver value. Communication teams are stretched thin and planning helps you focus team efforts on what the business needs (and values) most and secure the time, talent, and resources needed to get the job done.

Think of a great internal communications plan as your roadmap for how to take your communications forward, so you can move employees to action, drive value for your organization, and demonstrate strategic impact.

Are you ready to create your own Communication Plan? Download this free Communication Plan Template, which aligns with the content in this post, to guide you.

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Other posts you might be interested in, how to measure the impact of internal communication, measuring internal communications: metrics, kpis and examples, how to structure an internal communications team the right way, subscribe to the leadercommunicator blog.

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Sri Lanka becomes the second country in the South-East Asia Region to initiate the capacity building for Health Emergency Operations Centres

From 25 to 28 June 2024, Sri Lanka initiated the capacity building package rollout for Health Emergency Operations Centres (HEOC) in line with the International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005 requirements to develop, strengthen and maintain their capacities to respond promptly and effectively to public health risks and emergencies in a collaborative effort with Disaster Preparedness and Response Division of Ministry of Health, WHO and Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany. The overall objective of the capacity building efforts is to strengthen the capacities of the national and subnational Health Emergency Operations Centres (HEOCs) to effectively and efficiently prepare for and respond to health emergencies in Sri Lanka.

A capacity building needs assessment was conducted prior to the detailed planning process for project activities.  The assessment, which included national and subnational experts and participants, identified the current status of the national and subnational HEOCs and set priorities for the country-specific adaptation of the business continuity plan.

Based on the results of the capacity building needs assessment a 3-day capacity building workshop was held for 37 national and sub national participants with an additional day for  skill building for master training.  The sub-objectives of country-specific capacity building workshops included an analysis of areas which need strengthening to structure roadmaps at sub-national level for further improvement, and the development of guiding documents such as the HEOC handbook for national and sub-national levels which are needed to efficiently operate HEOCs.  

The Joint External Evaluation of the IHR core capacities conducted in 2023 identified the need to extend the subnational HEOC coverage, capacity and auditing to all districts in a phased manner based on risk.  

To achieve the mandates of the IHR (2005) and to address health consequences of emergencies, Member States (MS) in the South-East Asia Region of WHO have been improving their HEOCs and/or established dedicated HEOCs within their Ministries of Health to strengthen communication and coordination during public health response. While the initial focus has been placed on information and communication technology (ICT) and the physical HEOC infrastructure, the effective activation and operation of a HEOC equally depends on adequate plans, procedures and protocols. These need to be known, exercised and adapted on a regular basis.

The National Health Emergency Operations Centre (NHEOC) in Sri Lanka was established in 2004 in the aftermath of the tsunami and the physical NHEOC at the premises of the Ministry of Health was established in 2008. Since then, eight subnational Health Emergency Operations centres were established in the most vulnerable districts.  

The National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) Strategic Plan  2024-2028 and the two-year operational plan  identified the need for strengthening of NHEOC and sub-national HEOCs through a capacity building needs assessment, and country-specific modules developed for training, while the standard operative procedure for HEOC developed in 2019 needs to be updated and  the procedures needing to be practiced through simulation exercises.

The Robert Koch Institute has a long-standing experience in the planning, setting up and operation of a HEOC at the national level, as well as in providing HEOC-related training and simulation exercises at both national and international level. In 2021,  Project on Training for Health Emergency Operations Centres II (ProTECt II) started the piloting phase of a HEOC capacity building package (CBP).

The CBP aimed to a) refresh knowledge on international HEOC standards and b) assess the existing setup of the national and subnational HEOC and develop roadmaps for the sub national-level.

The scope of training for HEOC based on the assessment included HEOC principles and core components, risk assessment and operations readiness, incident management system, incident action plan, HEOC roles and functions learning experience from RKI, regional and Sri Lanka experience, HEOC modes of operation  (watch, alert, response), surge response capacities, HEOC activation and deactivation, monitoring and evaluation, after action reviews and a tabletop simulation exercise.  

The priorities that  need to be further enhanced following the initial training was identified by the participants. These include expanding the training for the districts not included in the current training, cascading training for technical staff from the districts that core staff were trained,  finalizing the HEOC handbook for national and subnational level, following up on the sub-national roadmaps developed and a functional simulation exercise to be conducted within six months to assess the overall effect of all the capacity building activities. This list of priorities will guide the future activities to strengthen HEOC capacities within the ProTECt project in 2025.

A Health Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC) is a hub for the coordination of information and resources to support incident management activities, and integrates traditional public health services into an emergency management model. It supports health sector at national and sub national level and is a component of existing national disaster management authorities or entities. The HEOC plays a critical role in preparedness and response activities to health emergencies. In 2015, WHO published the “Framework for a Public Health Emergency Operations Centre”  which outlines the key concepts and essential requirements for developing and managing a HEOC.