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In theory: [strategy][comms planning][architecture][writing for the web]
Planning
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Your chance to outline the history that has led up to the need for the comms plan, and also your chance to pitch your solution.
Communications goal:
What is my/my client's most important goal? You have to distill this down to the heart of the plan. You should try to put this into a simple declarative sentence, for example it could be one of these:
- to provide a website that encourages customers to purchase widgets.
- to provide a website that helps customers get their widgets serviced.
- to provide a website that reinforces the customer's decision to buy our widgets.
- to
create a website that strengthens the Widget Company brand.
Generally, there are three main goals:
Audience:
Who is my target audience? Be as specific as you can, and break your audiences down into groups, and layers of importance. This can be quite a challenge for sites that have large audiences. Audiences can range from:
- broad audience (www.amazon.com)
- narrow (www.webdeveloper.com)
- ll the grey areas in between (salon.com)
Objectives:
Are there specific objectives (or sub-goals) that you need to meet?
For example, the UWO site, may have many objectives:
- let people know about new programs
- explain new policies
- keep students abreast of important dates
- inform alumni
- communicate with general public, etc.
Key Messages:
What are the messages/themes that will best communicate my goal?
- great use for your tagline, if you have one, eg:
- All the news that's fit to print
- widget.com: better widgets faster
- Western: Leading. Thinking :)
IIf dealing with a client: who can help me with these?
Doesn't have to be just one message -- there might be multiple messages for one audience/many audiences
Strategy
You
can outline what you're going to do and how.
Budget
Explain
your budget and how you're going to spend it.
Potential
Issues
Your
chance to explain the problems you face with the specific project, and
how you'll deal with them.
Timeline
When
what is going to happen.
Evaluation
you might want to allow for some measurement of the
success of the project too.
See a sample comms plan...>
point for your whole web design process. With a
well-written, thoughtful communications plan in
your hand, you will be well on your way to meeting
your communications goals.
You can also find the sample comms plan I handed
out in class on this site.
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