Communication Plan Template

Keep stakeholders updated and aligned through regular communication

Successful projects are built on good communication. Without a communications planning template, it’s easy for misunderstandings between the team and stakeholders to occur. When people are not in alignment, the chances for a project to go off the rails rise exponentially. This simple communications plan template will help you focus your updates, develop a regular cadence for delivery, and assign owners for accountability.

Start by creating a new project for each individual or group of stakeholders. Determine the format and content for the updates they need along with the appropriate frequency. Once this has been established, create recurring tasks to ensure a regular communication schedule. View the plan as a table to get an overview of your communication strategy.

How to build a communications plan template in Wrike

This guide to building a comms plan template will show you how to: 

• Organize your project stakeholders
• Determine the content and frequency of updates
• Create recurring tasks to ensure a regular communication schedule

Organize your project stakeholders

Create a new folder in Wrike by clicking the + button and label it Project Updates. Within this folder, create new projects using the + button for each of your individual stakeholders or stakeholder groups. For example, you may give all investors the same update and specific individuals like the CEO another.

Once you have a project for each stakeholder or stakeholder group in your Project Updates folder, use the product description in each one to write down the person’s title, key interests, relation to the project, preferred communication style and/or format, desired frequency, and any other relevant comments.

Schedule your updates

In each stakeholder project, create a task for the project update. Assign it to a specific member of your team, and set a date. Based on the desired frequency, set the task as recurring.

How to create a recurring task:

1. In the task, click on the three dot menu in the upper right and click on Make recurrent
2. Set the cadence based on the particular stakeholder. This may be daily, weekly, or monthly
3. Save the task and in the task description, write the contents of your update
4. After the stakeholder’s been updated, complete the task. It will be automatically reassigned according to the option you set in step #2

Get an overview of your communication plan

Select the folder that houses your completed communications plan template and choose the Table view to get a spreadsheet-style view of your communication plan.