Download these Free Communication Plan Templates to understand and prepare your own Communication Plan quickly.
In any organization, there are many things that the executives want to share with their employees, partners, clients, and customers. This can be something obvious; getting a new client or starting a new project or it can be something unusual like a change in the partnership, defining new objectives for the company, or creating a new product to compete with the market. Whatever the news is, it’s always important to deliver the message effectively. Being part of a successful organization, you can’t just throw important news on your employees or clients out of the blue but you need to carefully define a timeline to deliver as well as how you will deliver a specific message. This process is done with a communication plan. A communication plan not only includes what message should be delivered but also includes how it will be delivered, who will receive it, and what outcome should be calculated to measure its effectiveness at the end.
Essential Elements of an Effective Communication Plan:
- Objectives and goals
- Target audience
- Execution
- Challenges
- Executive summary
- Client evaluation
- Competitor’s evaluation
- Costs and resources
Free Communication Plan Templates:
Here are previews and download links for these Free Communication Plan Templates using MS Word,
Guidelines to create an effective Communication Plan:
- Analyze current communication effectiveness:
To create a new communication plan, there is the need for the old communication to be ineffective. It is also possible that there is no communication plan implemented in your organization at all. If that’s the case, you definitely need a communication plan but first, you need to see how the current plan is working, what its drawbacks are, and what features it lacks. This is important because, with a new plan, you want to eliminate the mistakes or errors from the old one. This step to evaluate the current plan is also essential to see if the plan is accurate and effective so you don’t waste time and resources on creating a new one. - Explain goals and objectives:
One of the most important elements of an effective communication plan is to understand the message first. Your company is moving to a better operational strategy or you are implementing a new software program in your company or the partnership is changing or there is a new project that’s going to take all available resources, there can be anything that the executives want to convey to the employees of the company. This part should also include the expected results after implementing the communication plan. Overall, an effective communication plan’s objectives should be smart; specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time focused. - Understand your audience:
It is possible that the communication plan is created for the company employees only or it can be intended for clients and customers or just for the directors and executives. What this means is that a clear understanding of your target audience is the key to creating an effective communication plan. The way you communicate a message to your CEO is different from the way you deliver news to mid-level employees customers or media channels. - Choose a delivery channel:
Depending on the size of the organization, the importance of the message, and available resources, there can be different channels available for delivering the communication plan. You can create the plan and send it via email to all employees and partners or you can print the plan on paper and deliver it to the employees. You can also make an official announcement in local newspapers or television channels as well. - Define a timeline:
This part is important for many reasons but one of the key reasons is to get the expected outcome after the communication plan is implemented or delivered. While you are creating the plan, you should also define a timeline that presents the time frame for creating the communication plan, doing proper research, reaching out to the audience to check the drawbacks of the previous plan, delivering the message, and most importantly, evaluating the effective of the plan.
Kamran Khan is a seasoned blogger with a deep-seated passion for office document processes and the art of productivity. With a wealth of experience spanning over a decade, Kamran has become a trusted name in the blogging community, known for his insightful articles and practical solutions that help individuals and businesses streamline their daily operations.
