Writing a Strategic Communications Plan: Executive Summary

Although the Executive Summary is the first or, sometimes, the only thing a person will read in a Strategic Communications Plan, it will be the last thing you write before submitting your first draft to the review committee.

photo credit: Ramp Creative

The purpose of an executive summary is to provide an overview or preview to an audience who may or may not have time to read the whole report carefully. This group could account for 90-percent of the people who will receive copies of the plan. Therefore it is critical that your executive summary do these three things:

1. Explain why you wrote the plan
2. Emphasize your conclusions or recommendations
3. Include only the essential or most significant information to support those conclusions

After reading the executive summary, your audience should understand the main points you are making and your evidence for those points without having to read every part of your report in full.

Tips for Writing an Executive Summary

The summary should be no longer than two pages. The executive summary has one job: to present the facts and entice your reader to read the rest of the plan. Brevity is paramount.

Provide a real summary. The plan itself will provide the details, so don’t waste your reader’s time if they can’t commit to reading, or don’t need to read, the entire plan.

Proofread and polish. Read your plan aloud. Does it flow or does it sound choppy? Once you’re happy with it, ask someone who knows nothing about your business to read it and make suggestions.

Finally, remember that an executive summary should communicate independently of the plan.

Here are other articles I have written on this topic:

• 10 Online Writing Style Guides
• What Is Strategic Communications?
• I’m Interested in Journalism’s Future, Not its Past
• New Campaign for Will County Health Department
• Chicago 2016: The Biggest PR Failure in a Generation
• 10 Day Tune Up for H1N1 – Day 2: Your Message
• 10 Day Tune Up for H1N1 – Day 1: Influenza Update
• Writing a Strategic Communications Plan: Evaluation
• Writing a Strategic Communications Plan: Planning & Implementation
• Writing a Strategic Communications Plan: Key Messages