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Communication plan

A communication plan template that maps each stakeholder audience to a channel, frequency, and owner, so updates go out on schedule instead of by memory.

About this template

Most stakeholder communication breaks down the same way: someone means to send an update, gets busy, and the stakeholder finds out about a change secondhand. This template turns "who needs to know what, and when" into a board instead of a mental note.

Each card is one recurring communication: an audience, a goal, a key message, a channel, a frequency, and an owner. The goal and key message matter as much as the logistics — a communication with no goal gets skipped or padded with filler, and one with no defined message turns into whatever the sender feels like writing that day. Mark when it was last sent and when the next one is due, so nothing slips past its cadence.

The same fields work whether you're running a routine project status update, a company-wide internal announcement, a long-running strategic communication plan, or a crisis update — only the content and the urgency change, not the structure. Keep it as one board across projects rather than rebuilding a new plan from scratch each time.

Especially useful once a project has more than two or three stakeholder groups with different information needs — below that, a quick weekly email might be enough on its own.

What’s inside

Columns included

Stakeholder mappedScheduledSentNeeds follow-up

Task types

Status updateMilestone announcementRisk escalationCrisis updateExecutive summary

Custom fields

AudienceGoalKey messageChannelFrequencyOwnerLast sentNext due

Key features

  • Audience-to-channel mapping in one view
  • Goal and key message fields so updates stay purposeful, not just scheduled
  • Frequency field to enforce a real cadence
  • One owner per communication, always visible
  • Last sent / next due tracking to catch overdue updates
  • Same structure works for status updates, internal announcements, strategic comms, and crisis updates alike

Who is this template for?

  • Project managers with multiple stakeholder groups
  • PMOs standardizing status reporting
  • Change management teams running rollout communications
  • Agencies managing client update cadences
  • IT teams coordinating maintenance and outage comms

How to use this template

Use this board to define who gets what update, why, and on what schedule — then confirm it actually went out.

Step 1

Define the goal and key message before the logistics

Decide what this communication needs to achieve and the one thing the audience should take away, before picking a channel or cadence — skipping this is how status updates turn into filler nobody reads.

Step 2

Map each audience to a channel and frequency

List every stakeholder group that needs updates, and decide how often and where — email, Slack, a live meeting.

Step 3

Assign one owner per communication

Each recurring update needs a single owner responsible for sending it, not a shared assumption that "someone" will.

Step 4

Track last sent and next due

Update the last-sent date every time, so overdue communications are visible before a stakeholder has to ask.

Ready to get started?
Learn how to create a board from this template in just a few steps.
Read the step-by-step guide

Frequently asked questions

A structured map of which stakeholder groups need which updates, why, how often, through which channel, and who is responsible for sending them.

Once you have more than two or three groups with different information needs, a formal plan starts paying for itself. Below that, an informal cadence is often enough.

Whatever your team actually uses — email, Slack, a status page, or a live meeting. The Channel field is free text, so it fits your existing tools.

Compare the Last sent and Next due fields during a weekly review, or filter the board to surface anything past its due date.

Because skipping straight to channel and frequency is exactly how updates turn into noise nobody reads. A one-line goal — "keep the sponsor confident enough not to escalate" — keeps the update focused and makes it obvious when a recurring send has stopped earning its slot.

Yes — audience, goal, key message, channel, frequency, and owner work across all of them. Only the content and the urgency change, not the structure, so keep it as one board instead of building a separate plan per type.

Yes — a stakeholder analysis tells you who matters and how to engage them; this template turns that into an actual send schedule. Many teams set the two up right after each other.

Yes — many teams set up the communication plan right after the charter is approved, since the charter defines who the key stakeholders are.

No — it organizes when, why, and to whom status reports (and other updates) go out. The reports themselves can live in Vaiz Docs, linked from each card.

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