Good communication is a very important aspect of our lives.
A business with struggling internal and external communications often lags behind in growth and suffers from poor employee retention.
That is why most organizations learn how to create a business communication plan.
This ensures that the company won’t fall prey to any of the pitfalls above and ensures seamless communication.
Don’t know how to start creating a communications plan? No problem. With Venngage’s plan templates, you can design effective plans without design experience.
Click to jump ahead:
- What is a communication plan in business?
- What are the benefits of having a good business plan communication?
- Examples of business communication strategies
- Business communication plan templates
What is a communication plan in business?
Business communication can be divided into two categories: internal and external.
Internal communications deal with how effectively anybody within the company communicates with each other.
It deals with issues regarding the flow of information, processes, and ideas in more specific terms.
On the other hand, the external part deals more with communication with the shareholders and the customers.
However, an internal communication plan, like this project plan template, is effective if the target audience in the organization understands and embraces it.
It is not as simple as putting all those strategies in a manual, handing them out to your employees, and telling them to go nuts with it. Obviously, that won’t work.
A good communication plan needs to be able to seep itself slowly but effectively into your company’s culture and values.
Employees need to eat, sleep, and breathe good communication.
This is the reason why you need to have solid communication strategies in business. Be strategic about it, like with this crisis communication plan, and include some out-of-the-box ideas.
A business communication plan needs to have consistency, variety, informativeness, and entertainment.
That is what we want to help you with today. We want to give exciting business plan strategies that you can implement to boost your organization’s communication exponentially.
But before we go into that, let us dive into the importance of a communication plan.
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Related: 8 Steps to Create an Actionable Employee Development Plan [with Templates & Examples]
What are the benefits of having a good business plan communication?
Let us get to know first what great things will happen if communication is seamless within the company.
Things get done faster.
Take a look at this one-page fact sheet. It’s a great way to communicate business objectives and successes to team members. 
You can also use this template to convince investors and partners about the benefits of working with your company.
Design infographics like the above example using Venngage’s extensive icon library. We offer 40,000 icons as well as diverse people icons.
With a good business communication plan, the target audience within the organization knows the proper flow of information and absorbs the key messages.
Employees will also know whom they can talk to about certain things and whom they can’t talk to. The result? The communication strategy will help tasks around the company get done faster.
Solving issues and problems is quicker.
Problems and issues will always arise if you have a thriving business. Whether it’s logistics, sales, marketing, operations, etc., challenges abound almost daily.
For example, this sales action plan outlines how the business works, as well as performance indicators. This will help team members understand the budget and their goals.
With good communication channels, any issues with workflow get solved faster, and the company keeps moving forward and growing.
Design plans effectively with Venngage’s real-time collaboration feature, available with every Venngage Business account.
Employees feel more valued.
A company that fosters great internal communications with its people will always gain the latter’s loyalty. That loyalty can kick-start a lot of things like better efficiency and output.
Teams will also grow closer and form bonds. That is when the company can maximize even a small workforce.
Related: How to Improve Employee Engagement with Visuals
Customer service improves.
Good communication plans also extend to one’s target audience. Customers always love swift, timely, and helpful responses.
A customer service mind map, like this example below, will make it easier for businesses to keep customers happy.
If your company knows how to communicate its key messages with customers properly, you will react quicker than if you do not.
Employee retention rate increases.
What happens when employees feel more valued and have an easier time communicating with each other?
You get a lot of people willing to stay for a long time.
Bad employee retention rates cost companies a lot of money and task stagnation. Create an internal communication plan to manage this strategy, like this performance review process mind map.
Pair the communications strategy with effective communication channels to boost employee retention.
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Examples of business communication strategies
Now that we have learned the benefits of a great business communication plan, let’s find out some of the most effective and exciting strategies out there.
Integrate fun videos into your communications strategy
If you want a good business communication plan example, then think of a video.
It’s no secret that videos can help people be more engaged, learn effectively compared to reading and writing, and understand key messages faster.
This one is really a no-brainer for external and internal communications.
An example of video communication is this video series about racial healing.
Other good examples of using videos in your business plan communication are monthly messages from the CEO.
Challenges and appreciative messages from the head of the company can easily be relayed to the employees. This is something that your people will surely love.
What is a communications strategy that works? Scheduled open meetings.
Scheduled open meetings are helpful for the company’s growth and can be something employees really look forward to.
How are they impactful for internal communications? And why should they be included in a communications strategy mind map, like this one? There are several great benefits that we should talk about.
First, open meetings encourage employees to share their thoughts and ideas.
This allows people to help grow into leadership roles while helping the company flourish by getting lots of fresh ideas.
Secondly, it can also be a place for employees to give their feedback. This helps the company continuously learn how their people feel so they can adjust accordingly.
Lastly, open meetings help empower employees and make them feel that they have a voice within the company. Issues also get resolved faster through these meetings.
For these reasons, every internal communication plan should include room for open meetings.
How to create a communication plan? Employee newsletters.
Another asset that should be added to an internal communication plan is employee newsletters, like this example.
These help teams easily assimilate information in an entertaining and informative way.
Employee newsletters should be equal parts informative, professional, and sometimes silly.
If you look at an internal communication plan example from a company, it should include newsletters.
They are a great way to learn about new protocols, new products, and emergency news around the company, like in this reopening guide email.
With a Venngage for Business account, you can access the export as HTML feature. This makes it easier to import your design into Mailchimp or Outlook for a clickable email campaign.
Don’t forget to put stuff like fun and inspirational news about your people, whether it’s a bit personal (as long as it is still within respectable boundaries) or professional.
Related: 65+ Engaging Email Newsletter Templates and Design Tips
Good business plan communication strategies make training interesting.
During internal communications planning, the first thing that you need to think about is training or, more specifically, how you continuously and effectively train the workforce.
Jazz up your seminars by using entertaining tools like infographics and short videos. Infographics like a project timeline template are also a great way to improve internal communications.
Infographics are a fun and effective way to summarize data and information through the use of charts and eye-popping graphics.
Fire up the Venngage app and start making an infographic using hundreds of ready-made templates.
Use the large database of images, icons, and charts to give your training that much-needed punch.
Next, try to implement fun video slideshows in their training to keep their visual minds stimulated.
Videos are by far more effective than oral learning, so use those to your advantage.
Keep things consistent. Training shouldn’t be done just once and never again. Have a monthly training session if you can. And use visuals like this microlearning infographic.
Just make sure that you keep them entertained while you are at it.
Remember, when it comes to training, if they snooze, you lose.
Related: How to Make Engaging Training Materials with Visuals (+ 20 Template Examples)
Another good business communication plan example? Use digital workspaces.
Digital workspaces allow teams to work and complete projects in a more efficient and timely manner.
That is why it is always a great idea to use those apps as part of your business plan communication strategy. You can adapt the communication plan below to accommodate digital workspaces.
With digital workspaces, everything is done online, so people can work faster even if they are at home.
This also allows them to communicate and post updates wherever they are.
Best of all, every step of the project is recorded with timestamps, so everyone can easily backtrack tasks and conversations.
Related: 18+ Project Management Infographics for Pain-Free Project Planning
Business communication plan templates
You now know the importance of a communications plan. Here are some templates that will help you build better plans for your company.
Nonprofit campaign communications plan template
Design a simple but effective communication plan like this example for your next campaign. The uncluttered design makes it easy to read and absorb the key messages.
Using colors and lines, the template divides each section so the team is completely aligned. And you can adapt the visual for other types of companies, as well.
Marketing plan template
There are so many processes in a business. Keeping managers and team members on the same page can be a challenge.
That’s where a mind map like this comes in handy. It breaks down complex systems into bite-sized pieces of information.
This template can be customized for a variety of purposes, including creating a communications plan for a company.
Business update newsletter
We’ve already mentioned how useful newsletters are for boosting internal and external communications.
This customizable newsletter template is perfect for sharing updates with customers. It can easily be adapted to share news within a company, as well.
Informational infographic template
Sharing information with employees doesn’t have to be boring. With this template, you can educate your target audience effortlessly.
The template has plenty of room to share information via text. But you can also add a diagram to illustrate your point.
Did you know you could create Smart Diagrams with Venngage? Look for the Smart Templates tag in the Venngage library and start creating for free.
Customer onboarding plan
What’s one of the most important facets of a customer-facing business? Onboarding the customers efficiently.
Boost your communications plan by adding the following customer onboarding process infographic.
This template uses text, icons, and colors to make it more readable. These elements also make the steps in the infographic easy to follow and implement.
Good communication goes a long way.
Learning how to create a communication plan means that you need to understand how to make things fun for people.
That is why you need to implement some out-of-the-box ideas and refine the more traditional ones.
Get successful at this, and your company will reap the big benefits.