Defining the scope helps you deploy the best tactics and resources while preventing scope creep. Set the scopeīefore you dive into the operations, understand what you’re communicating and what you hope to accomplish. If you need to loop in teammates outside of OpenPhone, you can even automatically forward any text or voice messages into Slack and other platforms. OpenPhone is a virtual phone system with team collaboration features that help you communicate with customers and share conversations with team members seamlessly. □ Want an easier way to talk to your team and customers? Sometimes we’ll have a list of five ideas for messaging that we’ll narrow down to three after reviews.” The process is to go out, talk to people, and see what they find the most compelling about what we’re launching. “To validate our messaging and make sure it resonates, I’ll turn to sales or customer-facing teams or conduct customer interviews. George suggests coming up with a few ideas for messaging and then narrowing your list down based on customer input: You want to optimize for the least amount of misunderstanding essentially everywhere,” Jordan explains. “As long as everyone internally gets it, everyone externally should as well. Getting internal stakeholders to weigh in on your messaging has an added advantage.
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You want to optimize for the least amount of misunderstanding essentially everywhere.” Jordan Simas, Senior Product Manager at OpenPhone Dial in the messaging, and the rest will follow,” says Jordan. “Revisions push things out and become necessary when ideas are poorly or vaguely communicated. Why does this matter to our customers or audience?įor example, after aligning with OpenPhone’s founders about the messaging for the Series B announcement, Jordan created a central document that all collaborators could reference.ĭocumenting your core message prevents confusion and multiple edits.What aspects of the product do I want to highlight?.With the foundation in place, it’s time to come up with the story behind the campaign. It may not always be possible to pinpoint an exact persona, but narrowing it down helps you understand how to tell the story in a way that matters. Whether our audience is investors or current users, we can address their specific pain points and provide helpful solutions. This will help you create a hyper-specific and actionable communication plan.įor example, when writing a blog post at OpenPhone, we first identify our ideal customer profile (ICP) - making it easier to craft a personalized message. Nail down who you are trying to reach early in the process. Whether managing a crisis or announcing a new feature, make sure your goal is clear, defined, and measurable. “Each crisis will warrant a different communication plan, and thus different goals, but if the focus remains on getting organized and getting control over the narrative, these preliminary questions are great places to start,” Ashley explains. An organized checklist and timeline of steps.“If you’ve identified that the experience is indeed a crisis, then your communication goals need to reflect control over the narrative as much as possible,” Ashley says. Will this event critically impact my company’s operations?.How will this event affect our bottom line?.Is our brand’s reputation at risk with stakeholders, employees, customers, prospects, and other industry players?.Pro Tip: Since responding to a PR crisis requires a proactive approach, Ashley Levesque, VP of Communications at Banzai, recommends asking: In this case, your goals might be increasing transparency, rebuilding trust with customers, and being quick to respond on social media. On the other hand, you may be dealing with a PR crisis - an event that could damage your brand image. Your goals will differ based on the larger marketing initiative, but it’s important to have a high-level measure of success.įor example, If you’re releasing an innovative feature, George mentions you may be focused on new user acquisition and awareness, while a more table-stakes feature may be aimed at deepening engagement with existing users.
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While creating a communication plan from scratch may seem like an overwhelming task, it’s more manageable with a framework.įollow these seven steps to develop an effective plan, and download our communication plan template to fill out as you read.
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7 steps for writing a communications plan It can help you launch a new product or feature, handle a crisis, roll out a new initiative or campaign, announce milestones, and more. A communication plan is a shared document an organization uses to lay out the goals, target audiences, and strategic initiatives behind a plan of action.