College- and Career-Ready Communications & Outreach Plan Template
This communications and outreach plan template aims to lay out the major issues for consideration in the planning of a communications strategy. You may find all of it useful – or only certain elements – and it was designed to be used flexibly, so feel free to modify the template as needed. Good luck! I. GOALS & INTENDED OUTCOMES What does your communications and outreach plan ultimately seek to do/change in your state? These goals can be broad (to broaden statewide support for the college- and career-ready education agenda policies) or specific (to get 50% of all high school students enrolled in a college- and careerready course of study). List the goals of your communications and outreach strategy:
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College- and Career-Ready Communications & Outreach Plan Template II. STRATEGY INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS When putting together a communications strategy, a critical first step is assembling a team of people you will need to develop, gain support for and promote the college- and career-ready reform agenda. Ensuring this team – which will likely involve actors from different public agencies and, potentially, from both inside- and outside-the-government – is well informed, engaged, and on-message is crucial to having a successful external communications campaign.
Identify what mechanisms you will adopt to ensure good internal communications:
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College- and Career-Ready Communications & Outreach Plan Template TARGET AUDIENCE(S) You should focus first on speaking to your supporters and understanding what messages and tactics move them to champion the agenda. This will enable you to both grow your base of support and increase the intensity of your supporters. Then, you can spend more time on targeted outreach to those not fully sold on the college- and career-ready agenda. Audiences may include: Educators and administrators Key legislators / legislative committees Parents Students Key business and workforce leaders The head of education agencies (K-12 and postsecondary) The media (While the media is often considered a target audience, you are not really looking to gain or maintain the support of the media. The media is actually a vehicle by which you can reach and influence your target audiences; thus, it should be included on your list.) Key community groups in your state (e.g. civil rights, religious, non-profit groups) Identify the primary audiences you want to reach
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College- and Career-Ready Communications & Outreach Plan Template MESSAGING Typically, the first message will define the issue; the second will outline the problem; and the third will explain the solution. The key three should be distributed to all internal and external team members and communicated consistently, without variation, at all times. Identify your key three messages:
Next, for each of the priority audiences selected above, you should identify sub-messages that you think would best resonate with them, drawing from the key three core messages OR, you may want to create sub-messages that address common concerns: Identify your key three sub-messages for target audience #1 OR common concern #1:
Identify your key three sub-messages for target audience #2 OR common concern #2:
CHANNELS The mechanisms through which you will communicate and deliver you messages in order to reach your target audiences (e.g., Twitter, newsletters, roundtables, associations, TV ads, etc.) Identify the primary channels through which you will communicate
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College- and Career-Ready Communications & Outreach Plan Template III. BUDGET Estimated Budget:___________________ Once you have identified your budget – including existing resources, in-kind services and any money that has been raised – you need to allocate it based on where you want to have the greatest impact. It is important to identify early on how much you are willing to spend on different resources or materials. SAMPLE PROGRAM BUDGET
Updated as of:
MM/DD/YYYY
Budgeted
Spent to Date
Remaining $$
0.00
0.00
0.00
Notes/ Assumptions
Talent Staff Time Consultants Material Development Design/development Printing Distribution/Dissemination Paid Media Print ads (newspaper, billboards, etc.) Broadcast ads (TV, radio, etc.) Online ads Events Press conference(s) Roundtable(s) Research Survey(s) Focus groups Coordination Costs Internal meetings Travel OTHER: Total
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College- and Career-Ready Communications & Outreach Plan Template IV. COMMUNICATIONS CHANNELS & ACTIVITIES DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIALS As you consider the different resources you want to develop, you should always consider first the reasons you want to undertake them. It is a good idea to consider a mix of resources to get your message out through various communications channels; you want your target audiences to see your messages in various news and public sources. Materials to Develop:
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College- and Career-Ready Communications & Outreach Plan Template TARGETED OUTREACH As you have determined your key audiences and materials you will develop for them specifically, the next step is to map out the specific outreach activities you will engage in to reach those audiences to deliver your messages. These efforts can – and should – include leveraging existing communications channels and partnerships, along with newly developed outreach activities. Any of these activities can be explored/explained in more detail below – and should as they become more fleshed out and complex.
ACTIVITY
Target Audience(s)
Timeline (When Will This Occur)
Person/Organization Responsible
Key Questions/Issues
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College- and Career-Ready Communications & Outreach Plan Template V. TIMELINE Communications and outreach plans offer include various phases of work to ensure a smooth roll out of messages, materials and targeted outreach. Below are the major activities/actions that need to be accomplished at each phase of the work to ensure readiness for the subsequent phase. Phase I: To-Do
Phase 2: To-Do
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College- and Career-Ready Communications & Outreach Plan Template VI. MEASURING YOUR IMPACT As your college- and career-ready campaign progresses, you will want to measure exposure, awareness and understanding of your messages among your target audiences. You will want to know how deeply your reform agenda is penetrating and what kind of traction it is receiving. As with communications activities, the metrics you choose can range from no- to high-cost. Planned Metrics Metric #1: How will you measure this: What will this cost:
Metric #2: How will you measure this: What will this cost:
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