Guess what’s common among the top organizations like Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon? An effective communication plan.
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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.
Now that we’ve gone over how a communication plan can be helpful, let’s learn how to write one that will be effective.
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.
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.
After your audit, you’ll want to lay out a few goals based on the data from the results. What do you want to achieve with this plan?
When in doubt, remember that your goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based. A recent poll by one of my colleagues at HubSpot revealed that over 52% of participants believe SMART goals help them achieve their goals more often than if they didn’t use a SMART framework.
SMART goals enable the teams to plan the communication strategy with a desired outcome. This framework guides the team to achieve the time-bound goals through specific actions.
For instance, if a small agency is writing a communication plan for its client, it might write a goal along these lines: “We plan to increase employment applications for our client by 25% over the course of one quarter.”
Alternatively, perhaps your HR team needs to write a communication plan to pitch designing a new growth matrix for individual contributors who don’t want to become managers.
If that’s the case, your HR team will need to identify specific goals they hope to achieve as a result of their plan, even if the results are less quantifiable — for instance, their goal might be to “increase employee retention rates by 10% over the next year” or even “increase employee satisfaction, as indicated by their next NPS scores.”
They’ll need to pitch these goals to stakeholders to get leadership on board.
A communication plan without a target audience is like a journey without a direction. You can’t create an effective communication strategy until you have an audience (externally or internally).
If I had to create a crisis communication plan, I would consider stakeholders as the primary audience. But which one(s) are you writing for?
Your internal stakeholders include employees, investors, and customers, while the external ones can be local government officials or media outlets.
If you’re writing for media outlets, a press release detailing your goals is a good idea for that audience. There should be a process for who will speak to the media outlets, an outline of what they will say, and an action plan put in place moving forward.
Or, if your audience is your employees, you might want to create an up-to-date internal document for employees to refer to, as well as the contact information for the internal DRI if they have follow-up questions.
When you’re ready to outline and write your plan, it’s likely easiest if you start with a table or chart to identify the messages you need to promote, to whom you’re targeting those messages, and on which channel(s).
I’d recommend keeping a balance between the organization’s goals and resonance with the audience.
Once you’ve created a general outline, here’s how you’ll want to structure your communication plan (feel free to copy these sections into a Table of Contents for your own plan):
(If you need help writing a communication plan, download our free, ready-to-use communication plan templates.)
When writing your communication plan, work with groups or representatives from your stakeholders to improve accuracy. Strategies should solve for goals or potential risks.
For instance, if you work for an agency aiming to promote a client’s product, a risk might be spending money on paid ads without a guaranteed ROI. To solve that risk, the agency should detail different steps to ensure the ads are effective before going public.
The channels you choose to communicate with your audience depend on your message and to whom you want to deliver that message.
For instance, if you’re creating a communication plan for internal employees, you might send out your communication plan in a company-wide email, use a team communication app, or in-person team meetings to deliver your message.
Alternatively, if you’re communicating with customers, you might determine it’s best to communicate via an email newsletter or a press release.
Of course, the channel(s) you choose will depend on your goals, but it’s important as you’re writing your communication plan that you keep your distribution methods in mind.
In my experience, using the same communication channel for similar goals or stakeholders keeps the communication consistent, and the team members can focus on other things apart from setting up these communication channels.
Manage, plan for, and communicate during your corporate crises with these crisis management plan templates.
