When the eggnog starts flowing, I know my favorite season has arrived: Communications Planning Time! I love pulling up my spreadsheets, tucking my calculator by my side, and digging in. Seriously. Yesterday I laid out an annual plan for one of our best clients. This is part of the work we do to ensure we are providing new and relevant content to all of their audiences on a regular basis. I mention they are one of our best clients because working with people who understand and value this part of the process always results in our best and most successful work. When a company must communicate with many audiences, it’s important to begin with communications goals — what each audience should know, think, feel, or do about your offering. An annual plan helps you establish those goals and define your approach. At this point, audiences, positioning, tone and visual direction, budget and recommended tactics have been determined. It’s now time to apply that to a workable plan. Outline Your Process. Your annual plan outlines your opportunities for creating communications experiences and prioritizes each.  It is a map for how and when you will provide opportunities for your customers to interact with your brand. Schedule and Manage Resources. Outlining these activities and tactics over the course of a year helps you schedule and manage resources. With a well managed communication plan, you can look for and take advantage of opportunities that you may have otherwise overlooked, and it gives you the chance to explore new ideas without sacrificing your tried-and-true tactics. Work with Interdisciplinary Teams. Marketing Communications draws together many disciplines and talents to develop programs that capture your audiences and shape their relationship with your brand. Advanced planning with an interdisciplinary team will help you deliver rich, effective, and well-focused messages through the most engaging and appropriate channels for your clients and your team. Deliver on Your Promise. The logic and processes developed through annual planning helps you deliver the right message, at the right time, in the right way, even building anticipation in your audiences, and ensuring reliable delivery of each communication. Involve People. Now, more than ever, audiences are willing to participate and value being included in corporate communications. Building audience communities, enabling viral marketing, combined with other more traditional tactics, build a more engaging approach that was not possible just a few years ago. In any integrated plan, it’s important to develop material that can be used across media, layering and building upon the message, to maintain your audience’s interest and engagement. Annual planning structures that process so you stay on target, on message, and build audience loyalty. Mind Your Budget. Finally, the best reason we can think of to develop an annual plan is your annual budget. There is simply no better way to manage your work against budget than to have a clear structure for spending your communications dollars. With your audience goals in mind, your opportunities mapped, your strategy for layering your messages clear, your available dollars help you to choose your media with care, never letting the funding run out before your conversation with your audience is complete. Our Pitch. If you’ve never created a communications plan before, of course we can help you learn. If you are an old hand at planning, but feel your same old tools and channels just aren’t doing the job, we’d love to help introduce you to some new and less costly ways of reaching your audiences. But whether or not you call us, the season for planning is here. Enjoy.