With organizations notoriously treating internal comms as last-minute, or in case of emergency for crisis communications, it can be incredibly hard to get time and resources to plan out activities. And you're not alone in this, with 31% of North American internal communicators working without formal planning in 2018 and 60% of organizations in 2020 starting they do not have a long-term communications strategy.

Spur-of-the-moment, fragmented, and ineffective comms are common in today's businesses. But if you have time to plan next year's initiatives, start with a communications calendar. These tools are the central hub for planning and scheduling all communication activities, ensuring consistency, efficiency, and achieving desired outcomes.

While closely related, the "communications matrix" offers a complementary approach by helping you select the most effective channels for reaching specific audiences. In this article, we'll delve into the intricacies of creating a robust communications calendar, exploring its key differences and similarities with a communications matrix, and how to know which is right for you.

What is a Communications Calendar?

A communications calendar is a central planning document that outlines all planned communication activities within a specific timeframe. It serves as a master schedule, providing a clear overview of dates, deadlines, target audiences, communication channels, key messages, responsible parties, and, where applicable, budget allocations for each activity. A good communications calendar visually represents your editorial process, from ideation to content promotion.

Comms calendars can be used for external or internal communications, so you will find many resources for templates, tips and more. What's important to consider from all these is what will work for your process, purpose and overall business.

Not sure where to start? This infographic by Brafton shows what elements to start with in an empty content calendar, and Interact's calendar resource keeps track of relevant national days.

Key Benefits of a Communications Calendar:

• Increased efficiency and productivity: Your team knows what to focus on, when, and what deadlines for finishing work.
• Improved coordination and collaboration: You can tell when to contact other departments for content later on.
• Consistent messaging across all channels: With spur-of-the-moment kept to a minimum, you can plan out messages to align over time.
• Better tracking of campaign performance: Knowing what you put live and when makes it easier to review performance and understand why spikes or drops happened.
• Improved resource allocation: Knowing what you're working on means knowing who has the capacity and when

What is a Communications Matrix?

A communications matrix is a visual tool, typically a grid or table, used to analyze and select the most effective communication channels for reaching specific target audiences. It maps different target audiences against various communication channels to determine the best fit for each.

Communication matrixes, like a communication calendar, can be used for internal and external communications, especially project management. They are most useful when you have a project or purpose in mind—you can use them to audit all channels and determine what to use them for, but this will be quite broad. 

Communications Calendar vs. Communications Matrix

Both are essential strategic communications tools, improving effectiveness in identifying and targeting audiences and key messages.

Key Differences:

• Communications calendar focuses on scheduling and timing of communication activities, while the communications matrix focuses on channel selection.
• Calendars cover all communication activities across all channels, while the communications matrix focuses on channel suitability for specific audiences or purposes.
• A communications calendar is usually a chronological timeline and layout, while the communications matrix is typically a static grid or table.

When to Use:

• Use a Communications Matrix when:
  • Determining the most effective communication channels for specific target audiences.
  • Analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of different channels.
  • Optimizing communication strategies based on audience preferences.
• Use a Communications Calendar when:
  • Planning and scheduling campaigns across multiple channels.
  • Coordinating efforts across teams and departments.
  • Tracking campaign progress and deadlines.

Basically, you can use a content matrix to audit and determine your most effective channels, and a comms calendar to plan activities across those channels. 

How to Build a Communications Calendar: Step-by-Step Guide

1. Define Objectives: Clearly outline your communication goals and objectives.
2. Identify Target Audiences: Determine the specific audiences you want to reach with each communication.
3. Choose Channels: Select the most appropriate communication channels for your intended audience and message.
4. Develop Key Messages: Craft compelling and concise messages for each audience once you've set who you're speaking to and via which channel.
5. Schedule Activities: Create a timeline for all your communication activities, including deadlines and milestones.  
6. Assign Responsibilities: Determine who is responsible for each task within your team.
7. Allocate Resources: Determine the budget and resources required for each activity.
8. Monitor and Evaluate: Track progress, measure results, and adjust as needed.

Essential Elements

While it's not completely necessary to have your calendar in a strict date format, you should lay it out in some kind of chronological format, whether this is by quarter, month or week. Generally, to show messages and channels over time, you'll want some kind of spreadsheet, but if another form will help communicate the plan to your team and stakeholders, then go with what your business needs. Some other elements you should consider incorporating into your calendar:

• Make it a shareable resource: Stakeholders involved in any part of content creation, and any leaders with a stake in your progress or who need to be kept informed of results should be able to access your calendar when needed.
• Only include the most important details: A calendar needs a lot of detail, but try to keep a clear central view for checking activity at a glance. This view should include publishing dates, distribution channels and team member ownership. Clarity makes accountability for everyone easier within the content production process, improving the effectiveness of your communications.
• Consistent messaging or messaging guidance: Provide guidance on phrasing and tone for content producers to keep messages consistent. This may mean you need to create supporting documentation outside your communication calendar, but it is essential if you aim to decentralize content production across many people in your organization. The more help you can give to content producers beforehand, the less you will need to correct and update in review before publication.
• Regular scheduling: Try to ensure there aren't any gaps in your calendar, you don't want to bombard employees with multiple messages for a week and radio silent the next. If you can, space out different campaigns to minimize overlaps and make messages clearer to your audience/s.

Leveraging an Internal Communications Platform for Strategic Communications

Once you've planned all your comms with a communications calendar, you must ensure you have the tools to deliver on it. An effective internal communications platform can help you:

• Streamline Content Management: Create custom workflows based on your content production needs and processes. With automatic notifications, the right people can review content before publication and review stale content over time.
• Enhance Communication Effectiveness: Easily distribute messages to specific employee groups from one place, ensuring the right information reaches the right audience at the right time. Gather real-time feedback and track engagement metrics to measure the effectiveness of your communication campaigns and refine your messaging strategies.
• Drive Employee Engagement: Foster a more connected and engaged workforce by providing a centralized hub for all internal communication activities. Encourage two-way communication and facilitate knowledge sharing among employees, fostering a stronger sense of community within the organization.

With Akumina, you get all these features and more to power more effective internal communications with less time, effort and resources. Find out how we can help you transform your business' comms by speaking to our experts today.