Reinforce a current idea. Help staff members connect with and support your organization’s vision and mission statement. Introduce an organizational change. Communicate the problem or challenge and its planned solution. Integrate new leaders into the company by announcing them and creating multiple opportunities for staff and customers to hear from them via one-on-one or departmental meetings. Re-brand your organization. Give customers a new impression of what your company stands for.
Your internal audience involves your staff members. However, you may need to define messages even more specifically for different levels of staff: leaders, middle management, and standard-level employees. External audiences include your clients, business partners, and the general public. Though information may overlap, each audience will need a well-defined message.
Choose communication mediums your audiences will connect with. This might include social media or an online video, both popular with younger generations. It might also involve face-to-face communication, more popular with older crowds. Identify any current communication outlets. These provide a natural outlet to communicate important information. Look at your budget. If you have a smaller budget for your communications plan, consider using cost-effective mediums, like email and social media. If you have a larger budget, you have more opportunities to utilize other options, like radio and television ads, a direct mail campaign, or posters. Consider using multiple outlets for each audience. People tend to remember information better if they receive it in various forms.
Consider how often you want your audiences to hear this message. Repetition helps them understand the message and adopt it as their own. Recognize that change is a slow process. People’s beliefs and actions will not change overnight. Be realistic in your time frame and give people enough time to adjust to your message.
