A while back I wrote a blog post on how to write a comms plan and the icebergs for you to navigate past.
It’s a subject that keeps coming up so I thought I’d take a fresh look at it and simplify things.
Yes, comms planning and evaluation is still important but its so often the thing that gets squeezed out.
Do it well and it saves you time in the medium and long term. It also demonstrates your worth.
Who should be involved in comms planning?
You should be and you should be holding the pen, too. You should be involving the service area and maybe two or three others too. The service area bring the data and you bring your expertise.
What can go wrong?
The comms plan is shaped by one person. This is a collaboration between you and other people. If it goes wrong it’s the fault of whoever drafted it.
They’ve got no data. If they’ve got no data you’re stuffed. You need to understand where you are now and where you’re going. You’ve got 100 volunteers. You need 120. So, that’s 20 recruits. That’s a different shaped campaign compared to one that needs 200 recruits or 2,000.
They’ve already made their mind up. It’s posters we want, choppety chop. This is not a comms plan. This is the text of an email to Prontaprint. You need to sit down to work through this plan.
They’ve left it too late. At this point you are managing expectations.
Here’s what an effective comms plan template looks like
Here are the questions for you to ask.
- Where are you now?
2. Where do you want to go and why? (5 minutes)
3. You’ve done these two before the meeting, so there’s no need to spend too long on this. This points out on the map where you are.
4. Who do you want to talk to and why?
5. What’s the one thing you want them to do and why?
6. How much work time and money do you have to help you reach them? (15 minutes)
7. How long have you got?
8. When and how are you going to evaluate?
9. Who are you going to tell that you are doing this so you can tell them how it has gone?
10. Whats the timeline of tactics for it all?
Do this in advance and you’d got more chance of making the thing work.
The template can be found as a downloadable Google doc here.
I deliver the ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER workshop which includes comms planning and evaluation.