How to Create an Effective Communication Plan (With Examples)

What is a Communication Plan?

A communication plan is an integrated approach that combines different departments in an organization while simultaneously focusing on documentation, research, strategy, outreach and communication mode and method. The plan is utilized in communication to any type of audience, including stakeholders, businesses, top authorities of a company or organization, and the general public for marketing or crises. The communication plan is deciding different aspects of communication while clarifying the objective of communication and the exact message that needs to be communicated. 

How To Create A Communications Plan?

Designing a communication plan is an eight-step process that goes as follows: 

Step 1: Purpose Identification

Purpose identification encompasses recognition of the accurate need for communication. A collaborative approach is beneficial for gaining more ideas, and saving time is beneficial. A survey within the company or focus group is the right choice. The purpose analysis helps plan further according to the company's current shortcomings or lacking objectives. 

The purpose can be: 

• To announce an event
• To celebrate 
• For funds 
• To educate, inform or aware the public 
• To spread the existence or arise
• For product launch
• Clarification about problems or the company's crisis

Step 2: Audience Identification

The interpretation of a company's message will vary depending on the generational ideology. Targeting them accurately and customizing delivering the message holds chances of accomplishing the desire. The companies need to categorize the target audience, such as stakeholders, investors, local government officials, employees, and media outlets and accordingly devise the plan. 

Besides, the general public is vast and requires different categorizations. The grouping can be done based on the following characteristics: 

• Health: The target audience is associated with a specific medical condition, or is it about generalized prevention of health problems
• Geography: The company should know if it is aiming locally, at the state level, nationally or internationally. It should also consider the cultural associations with geographic features or generally the geographically associated area to develop innovative solutions for connection with the audience. 
• Demographics: It informs the age group, gender, income and background of the public, which further aids in decision-making concerning communication
• Employment: Learning about the statistics and type of employment or whether the target group is even employed or not changes the complete communication plan
• Behavior: The companies should be aware of the audience's actions, whether performing activities in privacy, hiding from others or acting in public. They must also be mindful of their actions if they are associated with violence or non-violence. 
• Attitudes: The company should be aware changing the mindset requires an entirely different and well-thought-out approach. It is a lengthy procedure. However, if targeting to upgrade the basic level of understanding, the approach will be different. 
• Communicator: Who influences the audience the company is aiming for? The company should consider whether the masses will listen directly to the company representative or a third person, such as a doctor, politician, actor or clergy. 

Step 3: Communicating Message 

There are four things to consider when deciding the message.

• Content: A specific message can have more than one ad. The previous categorization of the general public will be of significance here. An ad informing the adults will depict different perspectives, while when motivating the teenagers, it will have to illustrate another story.
• Mood: The portrayed emotions influence the decisions of the public. Some ads will work best when exhibiting comedy, while others will fail. The companies must also consider if they are required to incorporate emotion in the message or not. 
• Language: Firstly, the language choice will majorly depend on the geography of the target audience. The local language will be preferred over regional companies or communication, while English will be of prime importance when targeting globally. Additionally, the language's complexity and formal form have different effects than the simple and informal parts. A generalized communication, like that of daily routine, and within behavioral limits has a positive impact. 
• Communication Channel: After considering what, working on how also requires time investment. Utilizing the previous steps, such as demographics, geography, employment and multiple other aspects, the preferred mode of communication should be chosen. Here is a vast list of channels available at current times: 
• TV, theater, music, art, word of mouth 
• Events, presentations
• Internet
• Letters to Editor 
• Press releases and conferences

Step 4: Resources

Balancing the budget is of utmost importance. After deciding the possibilities and requirements:

• Check what fits your budget.
• Analyze or predict the outcomes and find the estimates on profit or loss.
• Include the time and human resources in the endeavor, too, rather than only calculating the monetary investment. 

Step 5: Crisis Planning

Some things can go wrong while driving communication. Depending on the mode, the errors will vary. For instance, video ads might end up depicting a difference from what was exhibited. Misprinting a crucial word will damage the reputation and actual target of communication. The proper analysis of the possible problems helps to curb them. Another critical aspect of crisis planning in developing a communication plan is assigning responsibility for different tasks.

Step 6: Communication Strategy

The companies communicating their message will also have to ensure the agreement of the individuals, organizations or designated people, who are the appropriate choice for communication. If they are okay with what the company wants to convey and if they adhere to the same principles. For instance, advertising on news channels will require understanding the content of the news they display and whether they agree with the message. Additionally, will the audience rely on or does it believe that communication channel? If the message contradicts that communication mode's policies or usual content, the ad is more likely to show a null effect. 

Step 7: Action Plan Generation

By reaching step 7, the company must have the complete plan ready. All that is left is to act. Connect with the right target for content creation display and make it reach the audience. Planning what could go wrong is also done, so it's the responsible person's task to work on this aspect as well. 

Step 8: Evaluate

When the communication is ready, it is the time to evaluate it. All the individuals whose ideas have been contributed to this communication message must approve. They will know better if the content portrays what was to be communicated. They can provide suggestions on further improvement and modifications if required. 

Why Are Communication Plans Important?

The communication plans serve the following significance for the organization:

• Eases targeting the communication such that it reaches the desired audience.
• Identifying the target audience helps to plan the communication message to suit the targets.
• Increases the efficiency of communication while making it more effective and lasting
• It is a long-term idea that suits different situations with little modifications.
• Communication planning is also efficient in tracking the previous plans and developing the strategy for the future.
• Communication plans save time by organizing the actions, efforts and ideas along with actual communication.
• The time invested in developing communication plans helps the companies get a clear idea of the market and competitors, thus curating something novel, strategic and logical.
• Companies can decide and plan the type of communication required at different phases of marketing, thus categorizing or sorting the communications as per the need.

Communication Plan Examples

To give a brief idea of examples of communication plans, let us consider two examples. Here, one example will deal with the internal project communication plan, and another will deal with the product launch communication plan. 

Example 1: Objective: To ensure effective communication among the project team members working on software development. 

Target audience: Team members of different designations, such as developers, testers and project managers. 

Example 2: Objective: To successfully launch a new mobile app for a specific age group

Target audience: Old and new app users

Conclusion

Communication planning is an important part of the organization’s will to reach its objectives. It is also a fundamental component in project management. Playing a role during communication with stakeholders, aligning the communication with company objectives, defining the scope and actively participating in risk management, task coordination and change management, a project manager has a lot to do with communication planning. 

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is an example of a communication plan?

Communication plans can be internal or external to the company. The internal communication plan can be about the status updates from the team. It can have a weekly frequency, a meeting platform or chat as the channel. The audience can be the project lead or the involved stakeholders with ownership of the project owner. 

2. What is the importance of planned communication?

Planning communication is important to maintain alignment with the organization’s goals, allocate resources efficiently, strategise the communication and measure the effects of the plan and the communication. 

3. What are the different types of planned communication?

The planned communication can be internal, external, crisis, marketing or changing communication. 

4. What are the 5 steps in communication planning?

The key shortened 5 steps in communication planning are identifying the communication objective and target audience, developing the message, choosing the communication channel, resource allocation and creating a timeline for the communication.