Context
The first section of a communications plan I work on is the context. Why? Because it forces you to do two things:
Boil what’s going on down to a succinct summary
Focus on the topic on which you’re about to write a plan.
The “context” section of your plan focuses on setting the scene. This isn’t about details of an announcement – heck, you haven’t reached the part where you decide what your communications objectives or strategy will be yet. This is about the background to your initiative.
This should be a relatively easy part of your plan to write. If you know the subject this can pretty much write itself. If you don’t, you need to bring yourself up to speed. To write the context section, you need to know exactly what’s going on.
A side effect of doing this first is that you can’t launch into the other aspects of the plan without doing your background research.
Here are a few things to think about when you think about the context for your initiative. Note that they have an internal focus:
What is the initiative about?
What related announcements have you made?
What are the timelines?
Is there an upcoming product launch/conference/deadline, etc?
Are there any notable milestones?
Who is involved?
Who within your organization has a stake in this?
What other organizations are a part of this?
Do you have partners in the initiative?
Note: This isn’t a stakeholder list – that comes later.