About Communication Plans
Find a company that has no communication plan, and you'll see one that is about to go out of business. In this competitive world, a company has to know the message it intends to send and to what audience, its cost and desired effect in order to survive. But a communication plan must go even further if a company wants to thrive.
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History
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A communication plan should include information about what has transpired in the past. As the adage suggests, "History tends to repeat itself", so if a company either wants to avoid mistakes of the past, or build on its successes, it must take history into account.
Audiences
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A company should identify the key audiences it intends to influence. For example, a defense contractor not only needs to influence the military services that are its customers, but it must influence members of the US Congress who have control of the budget. Fundamentally, the only way a company can control soaring media costs is to identify as narrow an audience as possible, then decide the most efficient and effective ways to reach them.
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Objectives & Tracking
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A company should decide what it hopes to achieve, and that information should appear in the communication plan. In addition, those objectives should be expressed in such a way as to be measurable. Not only will that tell the company if it has been successful, it enables it to make mid-course corrections if it feels it is on the wrong track. This communication plan should include mention of the quantitative or qualitative research it intends to do in tracking results.
Strategy & Tactics
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A communication plan should include how the company intends to accomplish its goals and what tools it will use to get there. It is best that a company also have a marketing plan in place before attempting to write a communication plan because it, too, should include strategy and tactics that can also be included in the communication plan.
Message
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While many communication plans preceed the creation of a company's messages, those containing them allow the company to commit to them in the short term, and alter them later if they are not resonating with its audiences.
Budget
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No communication plan is complete without a budget. Again, this information may be included in the company's marketing plan, but it must also appear in this plan so that those responsible for promoting the company can be financially accountable.
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