Cynosura

Report template for a Strategic Communications Plan

Once you have completed all the necessary research from which to make recommendations and build a plan you may well have to prepare a report.  The template provided below gives you the core areas and topic heading such a report will require.

For every organisation there will be additional items to be added and, depending upon the nature of the report, some areas may require more detail and therefore a section on its own. 

Cover Page

The cover page gives your report the style and gravitas to make people want to read it.  In most cases the cover page will include:

• The logo for your organisation
• The title of the report
• The author(s)
• The date
• And if required ‘Strictly Confidential’

Contents

Your report is likely to be long enough to require a contents page.  Normally any report longer than 10 pages would need a contents page.  This gives the topic headings and the page numbers where each topic starts.

If your report is of a very forma nature, you may well have used a numbering system, in which case you should indicate the page number for each of the numbered items.

Executive Summary

This allows those who are very busy, or who do not need to know all the fine details to get a quick and easy summary of the project.  Typically it will not be longer than one page or two at the very maximum.  The Executive Summary will cover:

• A summary of the project brief
• Methodologies used for the research
• Conclusions
• Recommendations 

Introduction

The introduction will contain a summary of the objectives of the project.  If you were given a written brief then you should lay out in some detail what the written brief stated and the objectives laid out in the brief. 

If you don’t have a written brief then you should indicate who commissioned the project, what they expected from the project and any criteria they may have laid down for the way in which the project should be conducted.

Methodologies

This will include a description of the methodologies you used to carry out your research.  This might include:

• Audit
• SWOT/PEST it is often a good idea to show the charts so that they can be studied
• Questionnaire(s)
• Interviews
• Organisational research
• Research of written materials.

In each case you should indicate the extent of the research; i.e. X interviews conducted, Y questionnaires sent out and Z responses received.

Stakeholders

In most reports it is usual to find a description of the stakeholders.  You might include a more detailed analysis of the stakeholders through the use of the Power/Interest matrix and Engagement/Understanding chart⁽¹⁾

Findings/Results

In this section you start to put together your findings.  This is often the longest part of the report and will contain a lot of detail.  It is the detail behind the research you undertook.

Recommendations

Sometimes the recommendation are included with the findings/results and sometimes it is a separate section.   If your intention is to move beyond recommendations and to include a plan of action within your report, then the recommendations are likely to be a separate section.

Plan of Action/Campaigns Plan

It could be that your remit went only as far as carrying out an audit and creating a report back with your findings; in which case you would not expect to include a plan of action.

However if, as part of your brief, you were asked or expected to put a comprehensive plan in place as a result of your findings then this is where you would add that plan.

In a lot of cases the plan may appear in the form of a table.  Certainly it is likely to be a detailed part of the document.

Your plan should contain the following elements:

• Individual projects or campaigns within the whole framework
• Timelines/deadlines/time frames
• Resources required for each campaign, including budget, human and technological resources
• Key audiences and you might indicate the nature of the information you would expect to give each key audience
• Messages to be developed
• Communications channels
• Success criteria and evaluation techniques to determine the measure of success

Conclusion

Every report should have a conclusion.  This should include a summary of the key points in the report and, where necessary, a call for action.

Appendices

Appendices might well include:

• The original written brief
• Text of interviews where taped or summary paper of key interview findings
• Sample of any questionnaires
• Results of any questionnaires/surveys
• Other sample materials that support and enhance the findings of the report, such as press clippings, speeches etc.

There is a big difference between knowing the theory and making it happen. For help in implementing your communications practices email us now.