Internal Communication ~ 9 min

Internal Communication Plan Template: All the Steps and Tools You Need

Don’t be intimidated. Putting together your internal communication plan template is easier than you think, if you follow these simple rules.
Communication Team, Experts in Internal Communication, Sociabble
Communication Team Experts in Internal Communication
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An internal communication plan template doesn’t have to be complicated. But it does need to be effective. It ensures that your internal communications messaging is effective and reaches the right employees at the right time. This guide walks you through the necessary steps in creating a successful internal communication plan template and explains how Sociabble, a leading internal communication platform, can help you at every stage.

Understanding the Importance of a Tailored Communication Plan Template

So why does it matter so much to have an effective communication plan template? Simple. A tailored internal communications plan allows you to deliver internal communications messages that resonate with your employees, enhancing understanding and engagement. If your plan is tailored to the specific needs of your employees, you’ll connect with them more directly, and they’ll actually end up using your platform and interacting with content. And yes, the right tools can enhance your strategy, assist with targeting, and make a huge difference when it comes to engagement. 

Sociabble, for example, provides a content hub where information can be tailored to specific employee profiles, ensuring the right message reaches the right audience.

10 Steps to Creating the Ideal Internal Communication Plan Template

1. Evaluate Your Current Situation and Your Budget

Before diving into creating an internal communications plan, it’s crucial to take a step back and evaluate where you currently stand. Assessing your existing communication channels, employee engagement levels, and the efficiency of communications flow internally, within your organization, provides a baseline to measure future progress. Consider what’s working well and where there are gaps.

Alongside this evaluation, it’s also important to set a realistic budget for your communication efforts. A clear understanding of your financial resources will help in choosing the right tools, communication channels, and actionable communication strategies that align with both your communication goals and your organization’s financial capacity. By thoroughly understanding your current situation and budget constraints, you can create tailored, cost-effective internal communication strategies that deliver maximum impact.

2. Defining Communication Goals and Business Objectives

And for the next step: before you start creating content, it’s vital for key stakeholders to define the goals and objectives of your internal communication strategy. Are you aiming to improve employee engagement, inform staff about new policies, or promote collaboration across departments? Define clear KPIs to measure success and track progress, and always remember that these objectives need to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timed).

How Sociabble can help:

  • Analytics and Performance Measurement: Sociabble provides advanced analytics to track content performance and audience engagement, helping you understand which internal communications messages resonate most with your employees, and the overall effectiveness of various internal communication strategies. 

3. Creating Tailored Key Messages

Tailoring your internal communications messages is essential to ensure they resonate with different segments of your workforce, from office staff to frontline workers. Think about the tone, language, and context that will be most impactful for each group. Make sure your key messages are clear and consistent throughout your channels and media. Some of the best internal communication strategies happen when targeting and audience segmentation are worked into the plan. 

How Sociabble can help:

  • AI Assistance for Content Creation: Sociabble’s AI-powered tools can help create engaging content tailored to your company’s tone of voice and values, with minimal time and effort built into strategic communication plans.
  • Translation and Multilingual Support: Sociabble offers real-time translation in over 50 languages, ensuring that internal communications messages are understood across a global workforce, so nobody feels left out. 

ask AI internal communication trends

4. Building and Targeting Audiences

Audience segmentation is critical to ensure your internal communications messages reach the right people. A good internal communications plan template should outline how to categorize your workforce based on factors like role, location, department, or seniority. Some messages are helpful for everyone, but often it’s just a small segment that you want to inform. Internal communication planning needs to take this into account.

How Sociabble can help:

  • Granular Audience Targeting: Sociabble enables detailed audience segmentation as part of internal communications strategies, so you can tailor content to specific groups, ensuring messages are relevant and personalized, and that nobody gets bogged down with message overload. 

5. Choosing the Right Format and Channel

Selecting the appropriate format for your content – whether it be text, images, videos, or infographics – can significantly impact the effectiveness of your internal communication. Also, decide on the channel, such as newsletters, mobile apps, or in-platform messages.

How Sociabble can help:

  • Multi-Channel Content Distribution: Sociabble allows you to distribute content across various channels, including a web app, branded mobile app, Microsoft Teams, email, and SharePoint.
  • Rich Media Support: Sociabble supports various content formats including photos, videos, quizzes, and polls, enabling you to create immersive and engaging internal communications. Creating videos and audio files is easy!

6. Selecting the Relevant Device

In today’s diverse work environments, reaching employees on the right device is crucial. Whether your workforce primarily uses mobile devices, desktop computers, or even display screens, your internal communication strategy should consider how best to connect with each group. An internal communications team focused on identifying these various groups will achieve higher rates of message engagement.

How Sociabble can help:

  • Device Flexibility for Office and Frontline Workers: Sociabble is designed for both office and frontline workers, with a mobile-first approach that provides access to information even on personal devices, ensuring that everyone both outside and within the communications team stays informed. Employees in a factory or on the road will have exactly the same access and capabilities as an employee at HQ.

sociabble mobile app with a vote page open

7. Getting the Right Timing

The right message must be read by the right audience, but also at the right moment. According to whom you are talking to, timing is key. Not all employees (or groups of employees) are available at the same instant, so you need to time your communication to fit their availability for it to be effective. Also, you need to make sure you are not overwhelming them with too much content. 

How Sociabble can help:

  • Editorial calendar: Sociabble comes with a dedicated feature that assists you in internal communications planning. The editorial calendar allows you to organize and schedule your communications, ensuring the consistency of your communication plan template. You can also time the delivery of your internal communications messages to correspond to work hours and time zone differences, so that all employees receive the message at the opportune time. 

calendar

8. Measuring Efficiency for Your Communication Plan Template

A successful communication strategy includes a framework for measuring the efficiency and impact of your communication. Monitor key metrics like open rates, content interactions, and feedback loops to refine your internal communications strategy template over time.

How Sociabble can help:

  • In-Depth Analytics and Engagement Tracking: Sociabble’s analytics dashboard gives you a clear view of which content generates the most engagement and which groups are most active, allowing you to improve internal communications message delivery and impact.

9. Encouraging Two-Way Communication

Communication is a two-way street, not a one-way alley. And a strong internal communication plan should foster not just top-down communication but also allow employees to share feedback, ideas, and user-generated content with leadership and key stakeholders. This will help you hone your internal communications strategy template and also boost morale and engagement, as employees feel that their opinion matters. 

How Sociabble can help:

  • User Generated Content: Sociabble encourages user-generated content, allowing employees to share their experiences, ideas, and feedback in a controlled manner, which can be moderated by the platform as needed.
  • Surveys: A must-have in upward communication! Make sure your employees can express their ideas and suggestions and participate further in the company’s discussions. Sociabble comes with a built-in survey engine that makes creating and sending them simple.
  • Comments and Reactions: Sociabble offers a simple way to enhance employee engagement by letting employees comment directly on posted content and react with different types of emojis.
  • Instant Messaging for Quick Communication: Integrated messaging tools enable real-time conversations across the workforce, bridging the gap between office and field staff.

10. Continuous Improvement of Your Internal Communications Strategy

Your internal communication plan template should be a living document, constantly refined based on feedback, employee communication data, and changes within your organization. Rather than a static idea, think of your communication plan template as an evolving goal, which can be fine-tuned and adapted by key stakeholders, with changing currents and trends incorporated to create measurable desired organizational outcomes. 

How Sociabble can help:

  • AI-Driven Insights & Data Analytics: Sociabble’s AI features streamline content creation and translation, allowing for quick adaptations based on real-time feedback. Detailed analytics track the effectiveness of communications, enabling data-driven adjustments to improve engagement and message impact over time.

Conclusion: Sociabble is Your Ideal Partner for Internal Communications Success

If this article has made one thing clear, hopefully it’s this: creating an effective internal communication plan template is essential for fostering a connected, informed, and engaged workforce. By following the 10-step approach outlined in this guide, you can build a smart internal communications strategy template that not only aligns with your organizational goals but also reaches the right people, with the right internal communications message, at the right time.

However, even a strong internal communications strategy requires the right tools for flawless execution. That’s where Sociabble becomes your company’s best ally. With its advanced features tailored for communication and engagement, Sociabble offers a seamless, multi-channel employee comms platform that enhances your ability to craft, distribute, and measure the success of your internal communication efforts. From tailored internal communications messaging and audience targeting to in-depth analytics and AI-powered insights, Sociabble provides everything you need to keep your workforce informed, motivated, and actively participating.

Ready to transform your internal communication strategy? Let Sociabble empower you to build an informed, engaged, and connected workforce, no matter the size or structure of your company. Global leaders like Coca-Cola CCEP, L’Occitane en Provence, and AXA already use Sociabble every day to enhance their communications, and we’d love to discuss ways we can help your company achieve its communication goals, too. Reach out to Sociabble today and take the first step towards revolutionizing your internal communications plan.


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Want to see Sociabble in action?

Our experts will answer your questions and guide you through a platform demo.