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Communications Planning

Summary

We develop Communications Plans, Crisis Communications Plans, and Engagement Strategies specific to each organization with which we work, taking into account their opportunities, challenges, capacity, resources, and community needs.

Our plans are specific to your community, including being designed with your branding, to ensure absolute relevance and long-term value.

Overview

Communications Planning

We work with local government in developing Communications Plans that create structure around the need for both short-term, day-to-day needs in the execution of public communications and engagement, and in developing and executing long-term strategy that supports broader organizational direction.

Our Communications Plans are extensive, driving multi-year success and sustainable growth in your approach to ensure a strong relationship between organization and community. Think of these plans as a combination of strategic planning and tactical planning.

We work with your team to determine desired direction, conduct a SWOT analysis, and more, before developing a series of appropriately prioritized goals, supported by tactical outputs and strategies, and performance measures.

Crisis Communications Planning

Crisis Communications Plans are not a luxury and cannot exist as an appendix to a corporate comms plan. These are essential tools in local government, and we are proud to have created numerous plans that have stood the test of crises time and again.

These plans are adaptable to any crisis you encounter, including templated statements, and are divided into three sections appropriate for in-crisis use, ongoing team training, and valuable crisis communications tools and resources.

By building plans in this way, we ensure they don't sit on a shelf collecting dust. They are referenced frequently, with opportunity for updates and amendments as required, and are incredibly useful in the event of emergent events and crises.

Engagement Strategies

While we can include this as an element of Communications Planning, there are some organizations that have begun seeking a plan specifically for building out public engagement.

These efforts include setting specific goals, strategies, tactics, and measures to bolster public engagement, with opportunity to tie individual processes back to a larger plan.

Outcomes

Effective planning lays the groundwork for success in how you communicate with your residents and other local members, how you succeed through crisis, and how you engage your residents and bring them into the conversation. Each of these is crucial to short-term municipal success, and long-term organizational and community stability and sustainability.

Our plans are tailored specifically to your needs, and to the specifics of your organization and community, meaning you end up with a document that is usable and useful on an ongoing basis, and which will play an important role in continually strengthening trust between residents and local government.

We are commonly asked to provide training on these plans upon completion, and most frequently for Crisis Communications Plans.

Learn about our Training and Workshops

Learn about our Communications Audits

The Town of Olds worked with Ben Proulx and Catalyst Communications for the development of the Town’s Crisis Communications Plan, and ensuing Crisis Communications training. Ben’s professionalism and experience were a great help to the organization, and in getting buy-in from leadership to create a fully functioning plan for crises. Ben has a wealth of experience and knowledge, and there is always so much to learn from his presentations. Highly recommended!

Jillian Toellner, Engagement & Communications Supervisor

Town of OIds