Before you start telling your well-crafted authentic story, take some time to plan how you will communicate it.

A communication plan helps you to pull together what you want to say, who you want to say it to and how you’ll say it.

Current situation

Outline the opportunity or problem you’re trying to fix. Include current perceptions, key facts as well as risks. Who are your likely critics and opponents – who is getting in your way? What strategies will you put in place to mitigate and manage them?

Aims

What are you trying to achieve through this communication plan?

Evaluation

How will you know when you have communicated successfully and how will you measure it? (How much did we do? How well did we do it? Was anyone better off because of our work?)

Target audiences

Who are you seeking to communicate to and engage with? Include primary and secondary audiences, individual names as well as organisation.

Key messages

What are the messages for your target audience, your supporters and your critics? There may be different messages for your internal audience (team) and external audience.

Tools

What tools will you use, ie web, social media, email, advertising? Who are your spokespeople?

FAQs

Sometimes it is useful to prepare a list of most frequently asked questions and answers for internal and external audiences.

Action Plan

What are the key tasks? Who is responsible and what is the timeframe?

Budget

List each item with details and their cost.