24 Communication Tools and Strategies | Introduction to Communication Plans

“Science isn’t finished until it’s communicated.”
– Sir Mark Walport
From The Principles of Scientific Communication

Hubspot, a leading developer of marketing, sales and customer service tools, defines a communications plan as a plan that “enables you to effectively deliver information to appropriate stakeholders. The plan will identify the messages you need to promote, to whom you’re targeting those messages, and on which channel(s).”⁹ Applying this definition to an academic environment, your communications plan is the concentrated effort to communicate with key stakeholders about your research or academic activities.

This section will provide a high-level overview of what a communications plan is, why having one is important, and the key steps to develop an effective communications plan. This section will also introduce various key concepts and definitions that will be important as you move through the rest of this module.