For an organization's communications to be effective, there need to be strategies to accomplish specific objectives. To develop such strategies requires an assessment of an organization's present situation, who its publics are, what actions or behaviors from each of those publics are desired, the action steps and resources needed to carry out the strategy-based (strategic) communications program.

RMD Communications designs the planning format identifying the information to be obtained through extensive debriefing sessions with the client. He then prepares the plan and oversees its implementation on an ongoing basis as a consultant. While plan formats vary, depending on the client's needs, a typical strategic communications plan prepared takes into consideration the following steps:

• A concise, focused statement describing the organization's mission (what needs does/should the organization meet; for whom, where and how are those needs provided?)
• What the organization's vision is for the intermediate and long-term future;
• An analysis of the present situation;
• Which publics are the most important to the organization? (the priority publics)
• How is the organization currently perceived by each priority public?
• How does it want to be perceived?
• What behaviors does it want from each priority public?
• What are the obstacles to obtaining those behaviors?
• What messages will best facilitate the behaviors from each priority public?
• What are the strategies to obtain the desired behaviors?
• What are the action steps (timetables, responsibilities)?
• What are the resources (budget) needed?
• How are the results to be evaluated?