In the culinary world, the best way to make a dish successful is to follow the recipe correctly. Of course, you can cook without a recipe, but when you want to cook an exquisite dish that will surely please the guests you receive, it is rather adventurous to start without prior preparation.
It’s a bit the same thing with a communication plan; it is the “recipe” that gives a message every chance of being received by the different audiences, according to the expectations set at the start.
The communication plan will help you structure yourself and implement effective communication strategies, according to the different audiences, to achieve the measurable objectives you have set.
So why decide to make a communication plan? To communicate more skillfully, in a planned way, in a multi-platform era and maximize the chances that people will perceive your business as desired.
What is a communication plan
First, let’s get back to basics. A communication plan is a tool to help plan a communication campaign, whether to respond to a communication issue (reactive) or to meet a communication challenge (proactive).
How to make a communication plan
There are several ways to make a communication plan, sometimes divergent from one company to another and from one person to another. Here, we propose a simple 9-step plan :
1. Purpose
What is the purpose of your communication plan? Is it in proactive mode (eg promoting a product, promoting your company, strengthening your brand image) or in reactive mode (eg responding to an issue in the media, with employees or other). This is the first question to ask that will help guide the next steps.
2. Location
What are the defining elements of your business today? You need to paint a picture of your business and its reputation. List your strengths and weaknesses, the opportunities available to you, elements specific to the sector of activity, articles in the various media, if applicable, etc. You can use the SWOT matrix (for Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats or SWOT in English), well known in the industry.
3. Objectives
What are the objectives of this communications plan in relation to the initial goal? Objectives will be used to measure the success of your plan, so make sure they are SMART( ): specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.
4. Target audiences
Here, we have to think about which audiences we want to reach in order to achieve our objectives. More specifically: who are the people whose behavior you want to change with your message? For each audience, we need to draw up a profile to guide our actions (consumption habits, gender and age-specific factors, motivations, etc.). In general, there are primary audiences and secondary audiences (which impact primary audiences). Based on your research, you will tailor your message and strategies to these audiences.
5. Communication axis:
What angle do you want your entire communication strategy to take? The axis of communication is the tone of your communication plan which often results in a slogan. It is therefore necessary to think carefully about your values and your business philosophy to define it. For example, a line of communication can be: ” La Réserve Zéro Déchet supports eco-responsible consumption through its product offering and its actions”.
6. Key messages
What do you want to say? It is at this stage that you determine what you want different audiences to remember about your company as a result of your communication efforts. There may therefore be one key message or several, depending. Key messages are, in a way, variations on the communication axis, according to different facets. They are formulated in the form of statements, such as: “Buying in bulk avoids the creation of additional waste caused by over-packaging”.
7. Financial means (if applicable)
What financial resources do you have? The financial resources allocated to you will determine the scale of your campaign. First of all, you have to consider the budget to put actions on paper (purchase of advertising space, design costs, human resources, etc.)
8. Communication strategy and means
What actions are you going to take to achieve your goals? The communication strategy is all of these actions that you will list in a table, taking care to mention several key elements for carrying out each action.
We suggest you create a grid with the following elements :
- What? (stock)
- Who? (target audience AND responsible person)
- When? (date AND recurrence)
- How? (mean ET message)
- Why? (how it meets an objective)
9. Post-mortem and results
Did we achieve the objectives? Regular monitoring of your current plan can allow you to readjust, if necessary, by revising your actions. This is the time to review each of the objectives and see if the targets have been achieved in full, partially or not at all. It’s also a great opportunity to highlight successes and areas for improvement for a future communication plan.
In short, this is only a summary. The important thing is to reflect and rigorously plan the different actions that will help you communicate more effectively and thus help you influence the perception of the target audiences about you.
