Corporate Communications Planning for 2024

Before I left the exciting world of entrepreneurship to join the corporate ranks, one of my favorite activities to complete with clients was a strategic communications plan.

Simply because of its potential.

In communications, one of the most important things to build is trust. In our organizations, we gain trust by planning, engaging in internal feedback, and scheduling. And externally, building trust means engaging with your audience in a consistent and strategic way.

A well done strategic communications plan helps to build the kind of trust and confidence that creates influence, persuasiveness, and a connection you can’t beat.

What is a Corporate Communications Plan?

A corporate communications plan also known as a strategic communications plan is a roadmap for your organization’s communication efforts.

Think of it as a business plan for a communications team.

It’s vital to an organization’s success. It identifies your priorities, your target audience and a framework to execute.

Most companies skip this very crucial process for a few reasons. But the biggest one is because they don’t know how to create a corporate communications plan.

Luckily, the beginning of a new year is the perfect time to start the process. Here are some tips for getting the most out of your corporate communications planning.

Five tips for getting the most out of your corporate communications planning this year

1. Articulate a Vision for the Year Ahead: Decide what you would like your ideal year in communications to look like. Think of this as the foundation of your corporate communications plan. Try to narrow it down to a few words that you can easily remember.

2. Identify Your Communications Objectives: What is the purpose of your corporate communications activities this year? Stick to at least 5 objectives. This allows you to focus on a few areas. Remember to be as specific as possible when you’re identifying your objectives. All of your communication tactics will be centered around ensuring that your objectives are met. At the end of 2023, you should have met some, if not all, of these objectives.

3. Select Your Audience: Strategic and corporate communications is all about influence, information and persuasion. Who do you need to reach to achieve your objectives? You must identify your audience and focus on those individuals, stakeholders, and communities. What do they care about? Organizing them by the intensity of your focus on each helps you allocate time and resources effectively. It’s also okay if you have more than one target audience. It means that your messaging will be specialized for each key group.

4. Craft Your Messaging: After you’ve selected an audience, your next step is to create messaging for those specific groups. What you want to say is important, but it should be tempered by what your audience wants to hear about. Knowing your audience intimately is paramount to crafting the ideal messaging. If you’re in a position where you can test your messaging using focus groups, for example, do so. This can show you how effective your messaging is with your chosen audience. It’s normal to have different messaging for each key audience.

5. Choose your Channels: After you've determined your vision, objectives, audience, and messaging, it's time to determine what channels to use. The media landscape is diverse, and there are lots of channels to choose from these days. Some are more effective than others. Use the decisions you've made in the previous years and your understanding of each channel to guide which ones you use. Maybe your organization already owns its channels like a Facebook page, website, or podcast? Again, categorizing is key to ensure the strategic use of time and resources.

Moving Forward with your Corporate Communications Plan

This list isn’t exhaustive because there will be a part two. 🌚. But it is enough to get the ball moving and to help you begin to plan for the year ahead.

A corporate communications plan isn’t something that can be created overnight. It takes a lot of time and work to be as thorough as possible. With these five steps, you are well on your way.

Joey Gaskins is a public affairs professional with a formidable record of designing and executing innovative strategies, campaigns, and tactics—turning around negative perceptions, reaffirming trust, amplifying and influencing policies, and achieving unprecedented results.

Connect with him on LinkedIn.