What every communication plan needs to be successful

Launching a product or new initiative takes a careful, well-defined and committed action plan. In conjunction with a launch, you’ll need a strategic communications plan that will guarantee effective, targeted messaging, brand awareness and media exposure. Your plan will lay out all of the pieces that will help you deliver your message to the appropriate audience.

Here’s the structure that I like to use for developing a strategic communications plan.

Identify the background

In the early stages of the project, the details may be slim and scattered. The top of your communications plan should be a brain dump of the information you have access to. Essentially, this is the “what” of the project and explains why action is needed. Don’t over-complicate this! This part of your communications plan should just be a couple of sentences explaining the concept.

Important dates

Here’s where you list out the top important dates in your communications campaign. In the beginning stages, this information will be preliminary and continue building as you get closer to the launch.

Think about these questions:
What date will the product/plan launch?
What date is the event?
What date is the ribbon cutting?
What date is the press conference?

Key messages

Identify at least three key messages about your brand/business to your target audience. This will be the foundation of your communication efforts throughout the process.

Media objectives

At this point, it’s time to jot down your goals for this campaign. Try to be as specific as possible when it comes to your media campaign objectives. If your goal is to attract media attention, include what type of media you’re targeting and how much coverage you anticipate. If you’re launching a social media campaign, think about KPIs, such as engagement, event sign-ups, or other performance metrics that are date specific. If you want to boost website traffic, consider goals around analytics such as link clicks from your campaign’s efforts.

Engagement strategy
This is your plan of action that will ensure that your goals are met.

Tactics

These are the individual steps and actions that will help you reach your goals.

Spokespeople

Who will be speaking publicly on behalf of the brand? Include at least two people and the dates/times they’ll be available for possible media interviews. Make sure they’ve agreed to this and have the messaging and talking points needed. The last thing you need is your spokesperson getting off-topic and steering too far away from the messaging.

Media contact list

Now it’s time to do your research on what media outlets and contacts will be part of your media outreach. Be intentional and selective about who you include in your media contact list. Do not, I repeat, do not send an email blast to every single media contact you’ve ever worked with. Do your research, use media contact tools, research recent news articles similar to your pitch or identify aspirational media organizations and search their list of reporters. Create a list of all the journalists you’d like to pitch, with the name of the organization, email and Twitter handle.

Social media plan

Carve out your plans for distributing the information through Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok and any other social media platforms.

Your media pitch

Carefully write out your press release and/or pitch based on all the details that you’ve gathered up to this point. Think about ways to reinforce your key messages and keep your audience in mind. Include images, videos and links when you can! Do not forget to include who your spokesperson is and their availability. When you’re done writing your pitch, step away and edit when you have a clear mind. Proofread… then, edit again and again (and again) before emailing and DMing your media contacts.

And finally… a media report
After you’ve connected with journalists and set up interviews, create a clear report that highlights your efforts and success.