How To: Communications Strategy vs Plan

At Spruce, we specialize in helping organizations improve their communications and better connect with their audiences. In our work, we’ve noticed that there is sometimes confusion about the difference between a communication strategy and a communications plan. 

A comms strategy is a high-level document that lists your organization’s goals, target audience, key messages, positioning, and desired tone. A comms plan is a practical document that focuses on implementation. It can include guidelines on branding, media planning, press releases, and social media. Your strategy informs your plan.

There are some basic touch-points that every comms strategy and comms plan should have, whether you’re creating your own or working with a consultant. Here are our suggestions on what you should include!

Your Communications Strategy

If you’re just getting started developing your organization’s comms strategy, it’s important to understand what questions you should be asking yourself, your team, and your board. If your organization already has a strategic plan, it’s a good idea to tie your comms strategy directly into it for consistency.

Check out our suggested outline below.

Organizational Goals: What is your organization trying to achieve? Be as specific as possible.

Your Audience: Who are they? Who else do they talk to? What context do they have for your work? Where would you come into contact with them? Again, be as specific as possible!

Messaging Pillars: If your audience could only know a handful (2-3) of things about you, what would you want them to know?

SWOT Analysis: SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Ask yourself:

• (S) What are your organization’s natural advantages?

• (W) What will you need to compensate for, explain, or make up for?

• (O) What things could give you an edge? What are you willing to risk to achieve your goals? What conditions could you help create to achieve your goals?

• (T) What things outside of your control do you need to monitor or be aware of?

Positioning: In a landscape of other organizations, who are you competing with, partnering with, or sharing an audience with?

Tone: What is your organizational voice? What sort of language gets your message across in the way that you want?

Remember: an effective comms strategy is a usable comms strategy. Keep it as short as possible while still including all the relevant information so that your team can reference it easily.

Your Communications Plan

Your comms plan acts as your team’s roadmap, providing guidelines and standards that shape their daily activities in a practical, easily understood way. When writing your comms plan, we suggest including the following sections:

Overview and Scope: When, what, and where does your plan cover? If you’re just getting started then we recommend starting small by creating a 6-month plan. There may be adjustments down the road, but that’s okay – adjustments are part of the process!

Branding: Establishes your official logo, brand colours, templates, and plain-language or accessibility standards for your content.

Comms Channels: Lists all the channels that you use to connect with your audience. This list should include your website, social media platforms, intake materials, and both printed and digital outreach materials (ex. physical posters versus digital slide decks). Explain what each one is for and any guidelines for using them.

Media Planning: Provides guidelines on what to share (or not to share) during interviews with media outlets. Include a draft press release or template to serve as an example for your team.

Roles & Responsibilities: This section clearly outlines the various roles and responsibilities within your organization concerning communications. We recommend putting together a table that lists all your communication channels and/or deliverables and assigns staff as Owners and Supporters for each item. Include due dates and timelines where appropriate.

Content Calendar: Keep a list of what you plan to share on social media for the first 6-8 weeks of a program launch or campaign. While your program or campaign will likely go on for longer, we don’t recommend planning your calendar too far in advance – your approach will likely change based on feedback from your audience.

Deliverables or Asset List: Create a list of all the communication assets you can access that are valuable to your team. These can include things like press releases, social templates, website copy, intake or reference materials, FAQs, and more!

Risk Mitigation: This section documents any concerns that you may have or scenarios to be avoided. Examples could include your organization having too many clients, not enough clients, confusion with other services or programs, or sudden negative media attention. Describe the concern or scenario and explain what you’ll do to avoid it.

Want More Support?

At Spruce, we can support you by working together to develop your comms strategy and plan. If you’re looking for more help with your communications, please reach out! We’re happy to talk about your concerns, whether you’re just getting started or need help fine-tuning your approach.