This basic template can be used by communications professionals to guide internal stakeholders through the process of creating a communications plan for their project or initiative. This simple document will help you introduce colleagues to the concepts of audience identification, key message development, and channel utilization. You can use this worksheet to help a colleague organize their thinking. I like to sit down for 45-60 minutes and talk through the worksheet, while they take notes. At the end of the meeting, I instruct them to flesh out further details independently, type it up, and then schedule a follow-up meeting with me to review the plan and begin to execute.

1. Communications Planning Template
Communication plan for (project or activity name):
Overall communication objective:
This communication plan will be considered a success if(Success Metric):
Audiences How are they affected? Audience objective What Message/Key Points Channel Timing Next steps… Who is responsible?
Who is affected? to we need them to do, What should we say? How will we
know, or think? reach this
audience?
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*attach more sheets if needed for additional audiences
Other stakeholders What do they need to know? Message/Key Points Channel Timing Next steps… Who is responsible?
Besides those who will be impacted, who else needs to be informed? What should we say? How will we
reach this
audience?
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created by Alison Kosakowski, Communications & Marketing Director http://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonkosakowski