Communication strategy template with a worked example

Communication strategy template

A communication strategy defines what an organization needs its audiences to know, feel and do, and the messages, channels and timing that will get them there. It is owned by the head of communications and agreed with the executive team, the leaders of the change being communicated and those who manage frontline staff.

Horizon: 18 months4 priorities · 11 outcomes

Use this template

What this communication strategy template includes

ContextThe situation, the challenges to solve, and what is deliberately left out.
Audience analysisEach audience, what they think now and what should change.
Key messagesThe core message and the versions tailored to each audience.
ChannelsWhat each channel is used for and how often.
Communication calendarThe planned moments across the period.
Feedback and listeningHow the organization checks that messages have landed.
Priorities and measuresThree to five priorities, each with an owner, outcomes with a baseline and target, and the initiatives behind them.

Communication strategy example

A complete communication strategy for a fictional organization: city public transit authority preparing a bus network redesign.

Worked exampleCommunication strategy

Organization	City public transit authority preparing a bus network redesign (2,400 staff)
Ambition	Have every rider know their new trip, and every operator able to explain it, before the redesigned network launches in August 2027.
Horizon	18 months

Context

Where we are and what we are choosing

The redesigned bus network launches in August 2027. It replaces 78 routes with 61, grows the frequent network from 9 routes to 19 and removes 1,150 of 6,400 stops. Modeling shows 74% of riders get a faster or equal trip, 14% gain a transfer, 9% walk farther and 3% lose service within a quarter mile. Only 38% of riders have heard of the redesign and 24% can say how their route changes. Of our 1,450 operators, 46% feel able to explain it, and 61% of staff first heard about the draft from the news or from riders. Priority neighborhoods produce 52% of boardings but 19% of the 4,200 consultation comments so far.

Challenges

Riders who depend on the bus most are the least aware of the change and the least represented in the consultation, so the final network risks reflecting the views of those who ride least.
Operators answer more rider questions than every other channel combined, yet they are learning about the redesign after the public does.
About a quarter of riders face a transfer, a longer walk or a lost stop. A message that only promotes the benefits will not survive the first morning at the bus stop.

We will focus on

Personal, stop-level information: what changes for this rider at this stop, shown where they wait and ride.
Operators, supervisors and call center agents first, before every public announcement.
Priority neighborhoods and the 31% of riders who speak a language other than English at home, reached through organizations they already trust.

We will not

A campaign that sells the redesign as good news for everyone. One rider in four gets a harder trip, and saying otherwise would cost us credibility for the launch.
Citywide town halls as the main consultation format. They draw the same 200 people, most of whom ride rarely.
A separate redesign app or microsite. The before-and-after trip lookup goes into the existing trip planner, with phone and text options for riders without mobile data.

Audience analysis

Audience	Current view	Desired view	Preferred channels
Riders on changed routes, about 60% of 105,000 weekday riders	Something is changing; assume it is a cut	I know my new route, my stop and my first trip	Stop notices, on-bus cards, text alerts, operators
Riders with limited English	Largely unaware; official notices are not read	The same clarity, in my language, from someone I know	Community organizations, in-language radio, places of worship
Seniors and riders with disabilities	Fear losing the nearest stop and paratransit eligibility	I know my stop and the walk, and paratransit coverage is unchanged	Senior centers, printed maps, the phone line, travel training
Bus operators and frontline staff	Planned without us, and we will take the complaints	We hear first, can answer in a sentence, and our input changed the plan	Garage briefings, supervisor huddles, pocket guide, union stewards
Board members and city council	Support the principle, nervous about losses in their districts	Can explain the trade-off to constituents with local facts	One-on-one briefings, district fact sheets
Employers, hospitals, schools and colleges	Unaware that shift and class trips will change	Have told staff and students about their new trips	Account briefings, toolkits for human resources and student services

Key messages

Core message	More buses, more often, on the streets where most people ride. Most trips get faster and some get harder, and we will show every rider their new trip before launch day.
Supporting messages	Riders: look up your trip now, because your route number may change even where your stop does not. Riders losing a stop: here is your nearest stop, the walk and how to ask for a review. Operators: you hear first, and what you told us is in the plan. Council and board: we chose frequency over coverage, and this is what it means in your district.
Proof points	Nineteen routes running every 15 minutes or better, up from 9. The same total service hours as today. An average weekday trip 6 minutes shorter. No change to the paratransit service area. Every change made to the draft is published alongside the comments that prompted it.

Channels

Channel	Used for	Frequency	Owner
Garage briefings and operator pocket guide	Telling frontline staff first and collecting what they hear from riders	Before each public announcement, then monthly	Internal communications lead
Stop notices and on-bus cards	Stop-specific changes at every affected stop	Three waves: consultation, 8 weeks before launch, launch	Rider information manager
Trip planner and website	Before-and-after trip lookup in six languages	Updated at each milestone	Digital manager
Text and email alerts	Route-specific reminders to 48,000 subscribers	Monthly, then weekly in the last 6 weeks	Digital manager
Community partner network	Conversations in priority neighborhoods and in-language sessions	22 funded organizations, two sessions a month each	Community engagement manager
Community and in-language media	Reaching riders who do not use our own channels	During consultation and the last 8 weeks	Media relations manager
Board and council briefings	District-level impacts and summaries of comments	Before each milestone	Chief communications officer

Communication calendar

When	Message	Audience	Channel
November 2026 to February 2027	The draft network is out: see your trip and tell us what does not work	All riders, priority neighborhoods first	Partner sessions, stop notices, pop-ups at the 30 busiest stops
March 2027	What we heard and what we changed	Operators, commenters, council	Garage briefings first, then report, email and council briefings
April 2027	The board has approved the final network	Staff, then riders and media	Garage briefings, press briefing, website
May to July 2027	How the new network runs and what it means for your next bid	Operators, supervisors, call center agents	Training sessions, pocket guide, route familiarization rides
June to August 2027	Find your new route before August	Riders on changed routes, employers, schools	Stop notices, on-bus cards, texts, radio, employer toolkits
Launch weeks, August 2027	We are here to help with your first trip	All riders	300 ambassadors at 60 hubs, extended call center hours
September 2027 to April 2028	What is working and what we are fixing	Riders, staff, board and council	Monthly performance report, garage briefings, stop notices for adjustments

Feedback and listening

Listening channels	Call center contacts and comment forms coded weekly by route and theme. Operator feedback cards collected at each garage. Session notes from partner organizations. Ambassador tallies during the launch weeks. Monitoring of local and social media.
Pulse checks	An intercept survey of 1,200 riders at stops each quarter, in six languages, testing awareness and whether riders can describe their route change. A five-question operator pulse at sign-in each quarter. Both run weekly during the launch month.
Who acts on it	The chief communications officer chairs a weekly huddle with service planning, operations and customer service. Recurring confusion gets a message fix within a week. Recurring service problems go to planning's adjustment list, and the outcome is reported back to the people who raised it.

Priorities and measures

Priority 1Owner: Rider Information Manager

Show every rider their new trip before launch

Only 24% of riders can say how their route changes. A rider who finds out on launch morning misses a shift, and that story defines the redesign.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
Riders who can describe how their route changes	24%	70%	Q3 2027
Riders aware of the redesign	38%	90%	Q3 2027
Riders who have looked up their new trip	0 riders	35K riders	Q3 2027

Initiatives

Add a before-and-after lookup to the trip planner, with a text and phone version
Post a stop-specific notice at all 6,400 stops, including the 1,150 being removed
Send route-specific text alerts to subscribers on every changed route
Supply employers, hospitals and colleges with a toolkit for staff and students

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Priority 2Owner: Internal Communications Lead

Tell operators first and equip them to answer

Riders ask the operator before they call or search. Today fewer than half of operators feel able to answer, and most staff heard about the draft from outside the authority.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
Operators confident explaining the redesign	46%	90%	Q3 2027
Staff who hear major decisions from the authority first	39%	85%	Q2 2027

Initiatives

Brief every garage 48 hours before each public announcement
Issue a pocket guide with the ten questions riders ask most and a one-sentence answer to each
Agree a joint briefing schedule with union stewards ahead of the operator bid
Publish what operators raised and what changed in the network as a result

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Priority 3Owner: Community Engagement Manager

Hear from the neighborhoods that ride the most

Priority neighborhoods account for 52% of boardings and 19% of comments. A network adjusted on that feedback would serve the loudest riders, not the most frequent ones.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
Consultation comments from priority neighborhoods	19%	40%	Q1 2027
Comments submitted in a language other than English	3%	15%	Q1 2027
Priority-neighborhood riders who can describe their route change	17%	70%	Q3 2027

Initiatives

Fund 22 community organizations to run sessions and collect comments in their own settings
Take comments on board buses and at the 30 busiest stops with multilingual staff
Translate all rider materials into the five most spoken languages after English
Buy airtime on in-language radio during the consultation and before launch

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Priority 4Owner: Chief Communications Officer

Keep rider confidence through launch and the first six months

Some trips will go wrong in the first weeks. Riders forgive problems that are acknowledged and fixed, and they do not forgive silence.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
Riders satisfied with information from the authority	51%	70%	Q1 2028
Call center calls abandoned	18%	8%	Q4 2027
Rider-reported issues with a published response within 14 days	35%	90%	Q1 2028

Initiatives

Place 300 trained ambassadors at 60 hubs for the first two weeks
Extend call center hours and add 25 temporary agents for the launch month
Publish a monthly report on reliability, ridership and the adjustments made
Hold a six-month review with the board and partner organizations in February 2028

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Blank communication strategy template

The same structure with a prompt in every field. Copy it, or download it as a Word or Excel file.

Your planCommunication strategy

Organization	[Describe your organization in a few words, with its size]
Ambition	[One sentence on where you want to be at the end of the plan]
Horizon	[How long the plan runs, for example 12 months]

Context

Where we are and what we are choosing

[Where things stand today: the facts that make this strategy necessary]

Challenges

[A problem the strategy has to solve]
[A problem the strategy has to solve]

We will focus on

[Something you are choosing to concentrate on]
[Something you are choosing to concentrate on]

We will not

[Something you are deliberately leaving out]
[Something you are deliberately leaving out]

Audience analysis

Audience	Current view	Desired view	Preferred channels
[Audience]	[Current view]	[Desired view]	[Preferred channels]
[Audience]	[Current view]	[Desired view]	[Preferred channels]
[Audience]	[Current view]	[Desired view]	[Preferred channels]

Key messages

Core message	[Your core message]
Supporting messages	[Your supporting messages]
Proof points	[Your proof points]

Channels

Channel	Used for	Frequency	Owner
[Channel]	[Used for]	[Frequency]	[Owner]
[Channel]	[Used for]	[Frequency]	[Owner]
[Channel]	[Used for]	[Frequency]	[Owner]

Communication calendar

When	Message	Audience	Channel
[When]	[Message]	[Audience]	[Channel]
[When]	[Message]	[Audience]	[Channel]
[When]	[Message]	[Audience]	[Channel]

Feedback and listening

Listening channels	[Your listening channels]
Pulse checks	[Your pulse checks]
Who acts on it	[Your who acts on it]

Priorities and measures

Priority 1Owner: [Role accountable for this priority]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]

Initiatives

[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]

Priority 2Owner: [Role accountable for this priority]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]

Initiatives

[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]

Priority 3Owner: [Role accountable for this priority]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]

Initiatives

[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]

Priority 4Owner: [Role accountable for this priority]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]

Initiatives

[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]

How to adapt it

01
Write down what each audience believes today, using survey data or direct quotes where you have them. The gap between the current and desired view is the job of the strategy.
02
Decide who hears first. For most changes that is the frontline staff who will be asked about it by customers.
03
Keep one core message and adapt the supporting messages for each audience. If the core message changes by audience, people will compare notes and trust none of them.
04
State the downside plainly for the audiences who bear it, and tell them what help is available.
05
Choose channels by where each audience already pays attention, and give every channel an owner and a frequency.
06
Set up the pulse checks before the first message goes out, so there is a baseline to measure against.

How to run it

A plan only works if it is reviewed on a rhythm. This is the cadence the example assumes.

Check-in	Outcome owners update progress and confidence weekly.
Review	Priority owners review outcomes and unblock initiatives monthly.
Reset	Leadership revisits priorities and targets quarterly.

Tability keeps this cadence for you. Each priority becomes an objective, each outcome a key result with its baseline and target, and each initiative a tracked task. Owners get a check-in reminder and the plan shows what is on track.

Track this plan in Tability

Still comparing tools? See the 10 best strategy software tools.

Common mistakes

Announcing to the public before staff, which leaves frontline employees unable to answer questions about their own organization.
Measuring what was sent, such as emails and posts, instead of what people now know and can repeat.
Communicating only the benefits of a change. The audience that loses out notices the omission and stops listening.
Treating feedback as a box to tick, with no named person responsible for acting on it and reporting back.

Questions, answered.

What should a communication strategy template include?

It should include an audience analysis showing current and desired views, a core message with supporting messages and proof points, the channels with their purpose and frequency, a calendar of planned moments and a way to check that messages landed. Add measurable outcomes for awareness and understanding.

What is the difference between a communication strategy and a communication plan?

The strategy sets the audiences, the change you want in what they know or do, the core messages and how success is measured. The communication plan is the schedule of specific messages, dates, channels and owners that follows. The strategy stays fixed for the period, while the plan is updated as events move.

How do you measure whether communication is working?

Test what the audience knows, not what was sent. Survey a sample before and after, and ask people to describe the message in their own words. Add one behavioral measure, such as lookups, sign-ups or calls, and one measure of trust or satisfaction with the information received.

Does a communication strategy cover internal and external audiences?

It should cover both when they are affected by the same change. Employees are an audience and a channel, since customers ask them first. Treat internal communication as a sequence within the same strategy, with staff informed before the public, instead of writing two documents that drift apart.

How long should a communication strategy run?

It should run for as long as the change it supports, plus the period afterwards when people are adjusting. For a major change that is often 12 to 18 months. An organization-wide communication strategy without a specific change is usually set for a year and reviewed each quarter.

Communication strategy template

Get the Word file

What this communication strategy template includes

Communication strategy example

Context

Audience analysis

Key messages

Channels

Communication calendar

Feedback and listening

Show every rider their new trip before launch

Tell operators first and equip them to answer

Hear from the neighborhoods that ride the most

Keep rider confidence through launch and the first six months

Blank communication strategy template

Context

Audience analysis

Key messages

Channels

Communication calendar

Feedback and listening

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

Get the Word file

How to adapt it

How to run it

Common mistakes

Questions, answered.

What this communication strategy template includes

Communication strategy example

Show every rider their new trip before launch

Tell operators first and equip them to answer

Hear from the neighborhoods that ride the most

Keep rider confidence through launch and the first six months

Blank communication strategy template

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

How to adapt it

How to run it

Common mistakes

Questions, answered.

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