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Developing a Communications Plan - An Overview
Forward-thinking organizations often find it helpful to develop a brief communications plan as a roadmap to help them reach their program goals. Once these goals and the corresponding communications objectives are established, a second communications plan can be written for either the general program or a specific aspect of the program, such as participant recruitment, fundraising, policy change, or advocacy.
Step 1 of this toolkit includes a blank Communications Plan Worksheet for your use, as well as an example of a communications plan for XYZ Youth Coalition.
The basic elements of a communications plan are listed below. By answering the questions in each section, you will be able to develop your own plan.
Elements of a Communications Plan
Program Goals
What is your major program goal? You may have multiple program goals, though some may be better suited to communications efforts than others. As you fill out the worksheet, please select one program goal or select a short and a long term goal that you wish to focus your communications efforts on. At a later time, you may want to create another communications plan for other program goals.
Communications Objectives
How will communications help you achieve your program goal? For example, do you need to create a strong coalition? Do you need to educate a particular audience about your program? Do you need to find partners to sustain your efforts? Do you need to recruit and retain a broader group of participants? When you're establishing your objectives, try to make them as specific as possible. (For example, "Reach 80% of middle school parents with a mental health education campaign" or "Recruit an additional 20 participants into a violence prevention curriculum and retain 80% of participants for 12 months").
Situation Analysis
Some people refer to situation analysis as a community resource analysis or asset-deficit mapping. What is the presenting issue or problem that your program is meant to address? What change(s) do you want to occur? What barriers are present? What opportunities are present (e.g., motivated community leaders, a supportive business community)?
Resources Available
What resources are available to help you achieve your program goal? For example:
- Staff and consultants
- Time
- Budget
- In-kind donations
- Free publications or resource material
Target Audience(s)
What specific audience(s) has the power to create the change you have stated in your program goal? You may have both a primary and secondary audience. A primary audience is the most important group for you to reach. A secondary audience might be an influential group that has the power to reach this audience.
Messages
What two or three key points do you want your audience to take away? Your messages should speak directly to your goals and your audience(s).
Strategies
What are the best strategies you can employ to communicate a message to your audience? Of the many possible strategies, which ones to use-and whether to use them alone or in combination-depends greatly on your communications objectives. For example, to raise awareness, you may want to choose a combination of media relations and community outreach. To change behavior, you may want to choose social marketing or media literacy.
Channels
What are the best mediums to reach your audience with your messages? The most popular channels include print material, radio or TV ads, public service announcements, paid newspaper ads, and letters to the editor. Alternative channels include church bulletins, flyers, and billboard ads. As you consider the most effective channels, take into account what channels are most relevant, credible, and popular with your target audience(s).
Evaluation Measurements
How will you measure the impact of your communications efforts? For example, you might use an 800 number to measure phone calls, send direct-mail reply cards, or count the number of people who come to meetings.
Note: As you're implementing your plan, you should continually evaluate the effectiveness of your tactics and make any revisions that are appropriate.
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