Planning How Your Business Communicates with Your Target Markets

Save time, save money, communicate better.

Entrepreneurs know that a business plan is critical for funding. Marketers know that marketing plans are key to management and success. Sales pros have a plan to approach target markets, they wouldn’t dream of selling without it. But what about communications?

Yeah, we’ve got a plan for that.

A true communications professional will have a document that shows what they have planned, when it goes live, and how long it impacts their audience. Add budgets and hours, and you have a document that keeps every department in the company on track. With every dollar critical, it would be irresponsible to not have something in place.

This is how we do it.

Developing a strategic communications plan is one of the client services Ideahaus has provided for more than 20 years. Although each plan has been unique, patterns and process have revealed themselves. With feedback from CEOs, VPs, marketing directors, entrepreneurs, sales professionals – and you – we continue to improve our process to what you see today.

A couple caveats from the podium: First, this only works if you follow the process. Improvising along the way voids my warranty that this will deliver a comprehensive, efficient and strategic plan. Second, you only get out of it what you put into it. Third, developing instructional tutorials and tools to help improve your communications take time and resources. Thanks in advance for contributing to our efforts. – kp

1. Review the categories of communications.

The first step is to create a list of the types of communication we’re documenting. Even in our meetings there’s an occasional, “Oh yeah, I didn’t think about that.” Throw everything in the pile to begin – even the improbable.

Now talk about each of them.

Why? Because the word “communications” is like the word “art.” Everyone has their own, slightly different interpretation of what the word means to them based on their experiences, and it skews depending on which department you come from. It’s a good idea to survey your team to see which types of communications your plan should include – you may be surprised at the answers. We start with…

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Ideahaus Communications Planning Tool Set / Video

Developed from the best practices of Ideahaus: Watch the video to help you quickly understand the planning process, use the Reference Guide and Planning Template to draft a complete communications plan for your business.

Price: $100.00