How do you plan communications when audiences see hundreds of messages a day?
By mapping where every message reaches your audience, not just the paid ones. We identify who you need to reach, map their journey across paid, owned and earned channels, then build a plan and the dashboards to prove it. Ofcom puts the average person's daily message count near one hundred and fifteen.
What communications planning is
Communications planning is the thinking that comes before channel choices and budgets. It starts with a clear objective and a real understanding of your audience, then works out which combination of paid, owned and earned channels will move them - and in what order. Get this right and every later decision, from creative to media buying, has something firm to stand on.
Why it matters
People meet your brand across email, social, search, broadcast, out of home and word of mouth, often on the same day. Planning for those touchpoints as one connected journey, rather than a set of separate campaigns, is what stops budget being spent twice on the same job and leaves gaps where it counts.
Our five-stage process
Scope
We agree the objective, the audience and how success will be measured, so everything that follows is anchored to a clear brief.
Identify and Understand
We research who you need to reach and what shapes their decisions, drawing on data and on what real audiences tell us.
Map and Analyse
We map the journey across paid, owned and earned channels and analyse where messages land well and where they are missed.
Create
We build the plan and the channel approach, matching the right message to the right moment across the mix.
Maximise and Learn
We activate, measure against the success criteria, and feed what we learn back into the next round of planning.
Where it connects
A plan is only as good as the proof behind it. We build the measurement and reporting to match, so you can see the journey working rather than take it on trust - see our analytics and data insights and dashboard building. When the plan is set, our media services handle the buying across every channel.
Common questions
What is the difference between communications planning and media planning?
Communications planning decides what you need to say, to whom, and across which mix of paid, owned and earned channels. Media planning then works out exactly where and when to buy the paid space. The first sets the strategy; the second turns it into a schedule.
Do you cover owned and earned channels, not just paid media?
Yes. Good planning treats your website, email, social presence, PR and word of mouth as part of the same journey as paid media. We map all of it so paid activity supports what you already own rather than duplicating it.
Will we get a dashboard to track the plan?
We build the measurement to match the plan, so you can see how the journey is performing rather than wait for a monthly summary. Our dashboard building service brings the relevant channels into one reporting layer your team can read at a glance.
How long does a communications plan take to produce?
It depends on the size of the brief and how much audience research is needed, but most plans take a few weeks from scope to a finished, evidenced document. We agree the timeline at the scoping stage so it fits your campaign calendar.
Planning a campaign and want the thinking done properly first?
Call +44 (0) 191 933 7588, email info.route@route.agency, or send us your brief.