Communications Plan: Benefits of Business Communications

A communications plan is an action plan clarifying all your company’s communication needs and the processes that team members should undertake to address them. It provides all stakeholders with a clear set of guidelines about which communication methods to use to contact each other, when they should do so, and who they check in with as a supervisor.

Your business or nonprofit’s public relations and marketing communications plan might differ from your internal one. On an outward-facing level, communications plans focus on how to best deliver key messages to consumers.

Suppose your company is planning a new product launch. You would likely have one communications plan outlining how you will work together to complete all the tasks necessary to launch the product and another to indicate how you’ll reach out to customers before and after the launch.

Once your team has a communications plan in place, you lay the groundwork for increased future success. Here are just three of the key benefits to crafting one of these roadmaps:

1. 1. Greater clarity: Project communications plan templates allow key stakeholders to see what they’re supposed to do and when, as well as who they need to get in touch with if they have questions. Sometimes people try to get work done while only knowing a sliver of what they need to in order to meet expectations. Communications plans grant everyone—both team leaders and those they oversee—the clarity they need to excel.
2. 2. Improved morale: A team needs to communicate effectively to unlock their potential. Once you establish a firm communication process—along with clear metrics by which everyone can measure their success in adhering to it—you make it much easier for people to work together. By getting the right messages to the right individuals, teams can also work better collectively.
3. 3. Less redundancy: As employees work toward their goals, a strategic communications plan dictates how they should reach out to stakeholders when complications arise. When communication efforts get jumbled, there’s a potentiality certain coworkers might end up doing more work than necessary. With a concrete plan in place, you help eliminate the possibility of such redundancy.

Creating a communications plan helps your entire organization connect more efficiently and effectively. Keep these tips in mind as you draft one of your own:

• Ask for feedback. Brainstorm with your entire team about the best ways to communicate. Treat them as an in-house focus group—no one will have better feedback on internal communication breakdowns and successes than your own team members. Draft up different communication plan examples and ask what everyone thinks makes for the best way forward. Ask for specific examples of where current communications could’ve been better and perform a situation analysis of those instances to see how you can improve for next time.
• Create a clear schedule. Communications team members need a real-time project management communication plan, complete with deadlines for all deliverables. When people have a concrete timeframe, it helps focus their efforts and allows them to plan their own schedules accordingly. Work alongside your other teammates to decide who needs what when, and then plan the schedule accordingly.
• Define roles clearly. A good communication plan clearly defines roles, designating who needs to report to whom when they reach certain milestones or run into trouble. Everyone in your company should have specific communication objectives. For example, suppose your business needs to put out a press release. A copywriter would need to know to whom they should send their draft once it’s complete to ensure the release goes out on time.
• Identify communication strengths and weaknesses. Ask your team where your internal communications need work and where it’s currently excelling. A Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat analysis—or SWOT analysis—could be useful. This will help you create a list of measurable milestones to pave the way to meeting all your company’s communication goals.
• Outline a chain of command. Alongside ensuring each project team member has a well-defined role, create a chain of command throughout your entire company when it comes to approvals. Make sure all project stakeholders have the relevant contact information necessary to connect with whoever will sign off on their work. Successful communication relies on this sort of well-established hierarchy.
• Set expectations for team meetings. With communication management, it’s important to let people know how often to expect in-person meetings (or videoconferencing) versus when they should reach out electronically (i.e., via a messaging app or email). If you can solve a small problem via some form of text communication, it’s likely you’ll save more time than if you held a full team meeting. Save in-person get-togethers for more thoroughly going over SMART goals (goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound).
• Specify communication channels. In today’s workforce, there are endless types of communication methods suitable for different audiences and purposes. For example, you might decide to use a messaging app for internal communications and rely on email for external interfacing with clients. Similarly, when it comes time to communicate with your target market for marketing purposes, outreach via social media might be more suitable. Regardless, make sure everyone knows the preferred way to keep each other up to date on their individual progress.

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