Purpose
The purpose of a Communications Plan is to focus and guide all written (print and online) and spoken corporate communication toward a strategic, coordinated package. As a result, the communication plan will eliminate ad hoc communication pieces that do not take into consideration the long-term implications. A good communication plan should be reviewed and updated annually. It will serve to set communication priorities and the agenda for the year.
What Is a Communication Plan?
A communication plan is a written document that
- identifies your objectives
- pinpoints the target audiences
- lists the tools and budget and deadlines
- describes how you will accomplish your objectives
- describes how the effectiveness of the communication plan will be measured
Eight Steps to Developing a Communication Plan
Step One: Evaluate
The first step is to evaluate current communication efforts that may be produced by staff, the board, association members and/or volunteers. What communication pieces are being written at present? Who is the target audience? What is the purpose for each piece? How well do these documents meet their objectives?
Step Two: Define Objectives
After broad consultation with staff, volunteers and stakeholders, define your organization’s overall communication objectives. What is the main message you wish to articulate? What do you hope to accomplish with the communication pieces you produce? These objectives will support the mission statement and brand. You may wish to consider SMART. Are your objectives Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-focused? In some cases, customized communication plans may need to be created for individual departments or programs within your organization because they may communicate unique messages with distinct objectives to separate target audiences. Even so, customized communication plans must support and coordinate with the organization’s overall message and brand.
Step Three: Define the Target Audiences
List all the audiences with which your organization communicates. These may include:
- the public
- members
- consumers
- partner associations
- government ministries
- the media
- donors
- volunteers
- staff
- the board
- alumni
- others
Step Four: Consider Objections and Criticisms
Now that you’ve evaluated previous communications initiatives, defined your objectives and identified your target audiences, consider the potential objections and criticisms your communication plan may elicit. First, is the plan proposing major changes? Who will be affected by these changes in communication? Are the changes you propose controversial? Have stakeholders been briefed in advance about your proposed changes? Who needs to be brought onside before the launch of your communication plan? How can detractors be managed? With these questions in mind, you may wish to adjust your message slightly or you may wish to allow the changes you propose to weed out out-of-date and entrenched ideas.
Step Five: Identify Tools
Based on budget, deadlines, objectives, and human and technical resources, identify which communication tools are available. These may include newsletters, brochures, websites, blogs, flyers, annual reports, magazines, e-newsletters, communiqués, fundraising letters, speeches, social media, presentations, media packages, press releases, interviews, and so on. Decide which communication tools best articulate your message and engage your target audiences.
Step Six: Establish a Budget
The communication budget may be adjusted annually based on increased (or decreased) costs of production. Production costs could include rental of venues and equipment, graphic design, technical support, contract workers, printing costs, paper, postage and so on. You may need to source out estimates from vendors in advance. Include as much detail in the proposed budget as possible.
Step Seven: Establish an Annual Calendar of Deadlines
Create a strategic, annual calendar of communication deadlines that encompasses all communication pieces distributed by all corporate communicators. A coordinated communication calendar should prevent communicators from duplicating messages or working at cross purposes. The timetable should consider frequency of communication with the target audiences. Too frequent unexpected communication is harassment and too infrequent communication will cause the target audience to lose interest. Usually consistent communication with target audiences is most effective. The target audience learns to expect to be communicated with at regular intervals. Occasionally a one-time only surprise communiqué is extraordinarily effective but only rarely.
Step Eight: Evaluate Effectiveness
Build into your plan a method for measuring results. Depending on your objectives, the results may be measured in sales, number of recruits or volunteers, amount donated, amount of media coverage, number of website hits and so on. Every communication piece costs money to produce either in man hours or materials costs. Return on investment may be measured by comparing costs to produce against achieved objectives. The effectiveness of your communication plan may be reported annually in the annual report, however, consider looking at metrics on a project-by-project basis. If a communication initiative failed the first time you launched it, why would you want to do it again? Obviously something has to change immediately before more time or money is lost.
Taking the time to develop a strategic communication plan will improve corporate communications in several ways:
- it polishes and supports the corporate image and brand
- it establishes the organization’s communication priorities
- it eliminates patchwork communication initiatives
- it creates a process and system whereby communication projects may be produced
- it eliminates confusion for staff and improves morale
- it anticipates budgeting needs
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