Why communications plan

There are many different ways to think about your audience and the best ways to contact them. You can group people according to several characteristics:. Another aspect of the audience to consider is whether you should direct your communication to those whose behavior, knowledge, or condition you hope to affect, or whether your communication needs to be indirect. Sometimes, to influence a population, you have to aim your message at those to whom they listen — clergy, community leaders, politicians, etc.

For instance, in the s, advocates wanted to stop Nestle from selling baby formula and paying doctors and nurses to recommend it to parents in the developing world. Ultimately, the company agreed to change its practices. In the course of a national adult literacy campaign in the s, educators learned that TV ads that profiled proud, excited, successful adult learners attracted new learners to literacy programs.

Ads that described the difficulties of adults with poor reading, writing, and math skills attracted potential volunteers. Both ads were designed to make the same points — the importance of basic skills and the need for literacy efforts — but they spoke to different groups. You should craft your message with your audience in mind; planning the content of your message is necessary to make it effective.

The mood of your message will do a good deal to determine how people react to it. It may take some experience to learn how to strike the right balance.

Keeping your tone positive will usually reach more people than evoking negative feelings such as fear or anger. There are two aspects to language here. One is the actual language — English, Spanish, Korean, Arabic — that your intended audience speaks. The other is the style of language you use — formal or informal, simple or complex, referring to popular figures and ideas or obscure ones. The second language issue is more complicated.

You should use plain, straightforward language that expresses what you want to say simply and clearly. What does your intended audience read, listen to, watch, or engage in? Several interactive theater groups in New England, by stopping the action and inviting questions and comments, draw audiences into performances dramatizing real incidents in the lives of the actors, all of whom are staff members and learners in adult literacy programs.

They have helped change attitudes about adult learners and bring information about adult literacy and learning into the community. What do you have the money to do? Do you have the people to make it possible? Who will lose what, and who will gain what by your use of financial and human resources?

You may also be able to share materials, air time, and other goods and services with individuals, businesses, other organizations, and institutions. Any number of things can happen in the course of a communication effort. Someone can forget to e-mail a press release or forget to include a phone number or e-mail address. A crucial word on your posters or in your brochure can be misspelled, or a reporter might get important information wrong. Worse, you might have to deal with a real disaster involving the organization that has the potential to discredit everything you do.

Crisis plans should include who takes responsibility for what — dealing with the media, correcting errors, deciding when something has to be redone rather than fixed, etc. It should cover as many situations, and as many aspects of each situation, as possible.

You have to make personal contacts, give the media and others reasons to want to help you, and follow through to sustain those relationships to keep communication channels open.

The individuals that can help you spread your message can vary from formal community leaders — elected officials, CEOs of prominent local businesses, clergy, etc. Institutions and organizations, such as colleges, hospitals, service clubs, faith communities, and other health and community organizations, all have access to groups of community members who might need to hear your message. Now the task is to put it all together into a plan that you can act on. By the time you reach this point, your plan is already done, for the most part.

A strategic communications plan can help you communicate your message to the right people at the most opportune time. By considering these five components, you can put together a solid strategy that could drive more success for your business and bring about your desired results in less time. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify? This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here.

More From Forbes. Nov 10, , pm EST. Nov 10, , am EST. Edit Story. Jun 22, , am EDT. Haseeb Tariq Forbes Councils Member. It can take a long time to build a great business reputation, but just a second for it to all go up in flames. More often than not, this is the result of poor communications planning. Communications planning assists to increase positive awareness of your business and works to boost your credibility with your publics. Accessibility statement. Perform a situation analysis.

To conduct your own communications audit, you may need to do the following: Brainstorm with communication staff. Conduct surveys and focus groups. Talk to other departments in your company. Define your objectives. Define your key audiences. Related associations. Local government officials.

Media representatives. Identify media channels. Establish a timetable. Evaluate the results.