How to Build a Strategic Communications Plan That Actually Works
In many organisations, a “strategic communications plan” is a beautifully formatted document that gets written, shared, nodded at, and promptly ignored.
It’s not that teams don’t care. It’s that most comms plans fail to connect strategic intent with practical action. They’re either too abstract to guide day-to-day execution or too tactical to influence the big picture. Worse still, they often reflect the brand’s ego, not the audience’s needs.
A real strategic communications exists to earn trust, align internal and external voices, and give clarity in moments of uncertainty. And when it’s done well, it becomes one of the most valuable tools in your entire organisation.
What Strategic Communications Is
(And Isn’t)
Strategic communications isn’t PR. It’s not content planning. And it’s definitely not a fancy term for a crisis protocol.
Strategic communications is the practice of intentionally managing how, when, and why your organisation communicates (internally and externally) in order to achieve long-term goals. That includes everything from your company narrative and executive voice to how your customer support team explains product changes.
It’s not about sounding good. It’s about being clear, consistent, and credible across every channel and audience.
If your marketing, HR, product, and leadership teams are each telling different versions of the same story, your communications strategy is broken, no matter how many press releases you put out.
The Building Blocks of an Effective Plan
Let’s break this down into elements that actually matter. Not just for filling out a slide deck, but for aligning human beings.
1. Clear Objectives That Serve the Organisation
A comms plan isn’t just about messaging. It’s about movement. What business outcomes should your communications help drive? Awareness? Talent acquisition? Trust after a rebrand? Your objectives should be few, focused, and measurable.
2. Audience Intelligence
You’re not talking to “the public.” You’re talking to customers, prospects, journalists, employees, and potential hires, all of whom need different things from you. Segment your audiences based on what they want, not just who they are.
3. Narrative Architecture
This is your strategic core: what do you stand for, and how should that be communicated across teams, channels, and moments? It should evolve over time but remain rooted in values and clarity.
4. Channel Strategy
Where do your audiences actually engage with you? And what role does each channel play? If your employer brand relies on Instagram but your leadership team only talks on LinkedIn, you’ve got a disconnect to resolve.
5. Alignment Mechanisms
It’s one thing to write a plan. It’s another to ensure every internal team knows how to use it. Build feedback loops, training, and internal visibility into your strategy from day one.
Circular Marketing and Strategic Comms: Where They Meet?
Circular Marketing is a trust-first approach that blends beautifully with comms strategy. While funnels try to “guide” users through a staged journey, Circular Marketing and strategic comms both assume people will enter and exit the brand conversation at will.
That means your comms plan must:
• Be discoverable, not defensive.
• Focus on value over vanity.
• Prioritise clarity, especially across performance and event efforts.
In fact, if you’ve read the 3 Pillars of Circular Marketing, you’ll recognise how content, events, and performance overlap with communications strategy. A panel appearance, for instance, is both an event and a comms opportunity. So is a product update. So is a job description.
The point is to unify them under a strategic story that’s told consistently.
Why Most Plans Fail?
Here’s what typically goes wrong:
• They’re written in isolation, with no input from operational teams.
• They prioritise brand polish over audience truth.
• They’re built to impress the board, not empower the front lines.
• They never evolve beyond launch.
These failures are critically dangerous for the organisation. In moments of crisis, rebrand, growth, or scrutiny, your comms plan is either your biggest liability or your strongest asset.
What a Successful Plan Enables?
Done right, a strategic communications plan gives your organisation:
• A unified voice across departments.
• Confidence in how to show up under pressure.
• A filter for saying no to off-brand messages.
• A baseline for measuring impact beyond media hits.
It turns communications from a reactive cost centre into a proactive trust engine.
Communicate to Align, Not Impress
A plan that sounds good in a boardroom but doesn’t help a customer support agent, recruiter, or sales rep is theatre. Real strategy shows up everywhere, not just on launch day.
Your communications plan is the infrastructure of your organisation’s future.
Build it to last. Then let it evolve.
Iskren Lilov
iskren@lilov.com
Marketing and communications expert specialising in strategic consultancy and sustainable brand building. Author of the Circular Marketing Model™ that offers a paradigm shift for marketers in the age of AI, replacing the classic understanding of the funnel with a sustainable circular model.
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