Communications Plan Template (Page 2 of 4) in pdf

Communications Plan Template Page 2

Stakeholders and audiences

Ask yourself who needs to know, who can impact your work and who does your work impact?

Then list them as either a stakeholder or audience:

stakeholders are those you want to work with in your communications or project

audiences are those you are wanting to communicate with.

Do you need to break groups down? For example, the public may be too big a group and you

might need to think about population sub-groups, like young people or those living in a

particular suburb.

Approach

Talk about (at a high level) how you plan to achieve your communications objectives – what

approach will help you get there?

Outline the rationale for your approach and the communication activity planned. For example,

why you want to target a particular group and how your choice of channel (eg face to face

meetings, or twitter) is suited to them.

What are the barriers, risks and issues your communications needs to take account of?

Messages

Your messages should be focused on your identified stakeholders and audiences. Use language

they will understand and take into account their existing knowledge.

Depending on the topic, you may develop different sets of messages for various audiences,

tailored to their area of interest. Or sets of messages that change as time goes on.

Focus on the end use/outcomes rather than the process.

Can your messages highlight the positive difference your initiative will make to the audience or

stakeholder groups?

Use the what, when, why, who, where and how questions to make sure you’ve included the

basic information in your messages.

What is your call to action – what do you want people to do after they hear your messages?

Communications Plan Template Page 2