When you work on a large product with many communication channels, sometimes you need to be able to create small communication strategies for specific events. For example, if you're an EdTech company and you're facing a crisis communication situation like closing a course, I suggest using my template for a communication strategy for important events.
To do this, you need to answer a few questions, here they are:
- Who is speaking and about what?
- Why are they speaking?
- Who are they speaking to?
- When are they speaking?
- How are they speaking?
To find the best way to answer these questions and how to format it all, take a look at my communication strategy template using the example of course closure.
I believe that the benefit of this template is that it effectively brings together all communication stakeholders and prevents misunderstandings between different departments, as it includes examples of both what to do and what not to do in communication.
Who is speaking and about what?
<aside> 💡 In this section, you need to determine who is the client of the communication and what they want to tell the target audience. For example, in my case, the design department wants to speak with potential and current students of the communication design course.
Additional questions you can ask yourself here:
The design department communicates with prospective and current students of the Communication Design course.
Why are they speaking?
<aside> 💡 In this section, I advise you to fully focus on the business's communication requests. At this stage of work, it is necessary to understand what the criteria for successful communication are and what the criteria are for unsuccessful communication.
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The Communication Design course is being frozen in its current form. We will not be enrolling new cohorts. The 5th cohort, if it forms, will be the last.
We need to negotiate new terms of study with current students. Instead of expecting A, they should be sold on expectation B.
We believe that if we talk honestly and calmly with students about the new conditions, they will agree to continue studying with us. There are currently 200 students in total. Ideally, we would like each of them to agree to continue their studies.
Who are they speaking to?
<aside> 💡 At this stage of work, you need to conduct a study of the target audience for the communication.
Additional questions that may help:
Such a deep dive into the context of the target audience will help to avoid communication blunders, such as offering sympathy where it is unnecessary and inappropriate.
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Prospective students are those who are going through the free track. Current students are those who are now studying in the Communication Design program. They are divided into 4 cohorts: 1st cohort – the program is shortened by three months, from 18 to 15
2nd cohort – the program is shortened by three months, from 18 to 15
3rd cohort – the program is shortened by three months, from 18 to 15
4th cohort – shortened to 13 months
5th cohort – shortened to 13 months
When are they speaking?
<aside> 💡 At this stage of the work, you need to understand what the structure of your communication will be. In simpler terms, in which communication channel we use which content format and what we say.
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