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Step 1
State the purpose for your communication plan in the first section of the plan. Specify to whom in your business the plan will be given and the time frame the plan covers (such as the next six months or a particular set of dates).
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Step 2
Insert your business's vision and mission statements in the next section of the plan. This provides context so that your plan can be evaluated in terms of your business' strategy.
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Step 3
Write a situation analysis section for the plan. This will cover historical data about communication methods that have worked or failed in the past and state any business issues that are influencing decisions made in the current plan.
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Step 4
State the goals for your communication plan. Depending on the nature of your business, goals might be stated as revenue targets, product or service sales targets or metrics on potential customers' awareness of or opinion about your business and its products.
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Step 5
State the key messages or themes for your communication plan. Depending on the goal for your plan, the messages may be brand, corporate or product messages.
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Step 6
Define the tactical steps you will take to communicate the key messages to your target audience. This will include definitions of each audience group and subgroup, the method to be used to contact each group and the schedule for the contacts.
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Step 7
State the criteria by which you will evaluate the success of the communication plan. As with the plan's goals, the way you frame the criteria will depend on the nature of your business.
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Step 8
Add information about the budget needed to support the communication plan. This section, typically the final section of a communication plan, should reference costs for the activities stated in the tactical-steps section of the plan.
