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What Is a Communications Plan and How to Create your Own

Marketing has always revolved around storytelling. Meanwhile, that storytelling is created by first coming up with a solid communications plan. That means developing a transparent understanding of the way in which the brand or the company will be reaching the target audiences with the right messages.

Thus, developing a communications plan means focusing the story in question on a particular message, which is most going to connect with the target audience. This type of plan is also able to influence the efficiency as well as the simplicity of a brand’s communication methods.

What is a Communications Plan?

In the simplest terms, a communications plan is a detailed plan (from beginning to end) for delivering any strategic message to a target audience as a way to drive a positive business result. This is done by answering a few simple questions, such as who is the brand or company targeting, what is the message that needs to be delivered, and finally, what manner of communication will be used to reach that target audience.

When it comes to creating a communications plan, this is the way to organize a brand’s actions that are then going to lead to a fulfilling result. Whether that result is to drive sales or to raise an audience’s awareness around a brand’s new product or even a product launch – all of these goals need a communications plan.

How to Create a Communications Plan

In order for a company or a brand to create any type of communications plan, they need to consider the basic questions that we briefly discussed:

  1.     What’s the purpose of communication?
  2.     Who is the target of communication?
  3.     What’s the message that’s going to be communicated?
  4.     How is the message going to be communicated?
  5.     How will the message be distributed?

By answering these questions, the company is actually considering what to do in order to communicate with the target audience successfully. Once that is done, the rest of the communications plan involves only two more steps, and these are:

  •     Implementing the action plan – designing the message and then distributing it to the target audience.
  •     Evaluating the communications efforts, along with adjusting the communications plan accordingly.

Finally, after all of the steps are followed through, all the brand or company needs to do is continuously repeat the steps from start to finish – because communication is an ongoing activity.

While the purpose of communication, the message, the target audience, and even the channels may change as time goes on, the relationship that the company has with the audience, as well as the media, needs to remain strong.

That’s why using and revising a set communications plan, according to the evaluations and the results, is key to a successful communications plan.

A communications plan is necessary for any brand or company that wants to have accurate communication with an audience. It’s a way to refine a brand’s image, and it should be started as soon as the brand begins planning any sort of activities or objectives.