Recently, I was asked to describe the purpose of a communication toolkit and thought it would be helpful to provide some details on what they are and how people use them.

The communication toolkit typically includes ready-made materials or template materials that can be customized by others to aid them in achieving a particular goal. The goal might be education, crisis communication, providing talking points to partners or helping employees be better brand ambassadors.

Consider the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) creation of a COVID-19 Vaccination Communication Toolkit. In this case, the CDC has created materials that can be used by healthcare teams to build confidence about COVID-19 vaccinations. These materials are for medical centers, clinics and clinicians, but are also accessible to the general public on the CDC website.

When we inspect their toolkit, we find an impressive array of materials, including:

• Tips on Getting Started. An introduction to six strategies that healthcare professionals can use to build vaccine confidence within the health system or clinic, along with companion tools such as a communication readiness checklist and tips on how to start the conversation. The six strategies include:
  • Encouraging senior leaders to be vaccine champions.
  • Hosting discussions where personnel can ask questions.
  • Sharing key messages with staff through emails, breakroom posters, and other channels.
  • Educating teams about the vaccines and how they were developed.
  • Educating non-medical staff about the importance of getting vaccinated. And,
  • Making the decision to get vaccinated visible, and celebrating it.
• Fact sheets and FAQs. These downloadable materials help educate healthcare teams and other staff working in your facilities to help them communicate effectively and accurately.
• Posters. These can be downloaded, printed and hung in breakrooms and other places to foster discussions and remind people about the importance of vaccinations.
• Stickers. The CDC has created printable stickers for staff to wear to show they’ve gotten their vaccine.
• Presentation Slides. There are three prepared slide decks with associated scripts that people can use for educational purposes. They’re titled:
  • “Building Vaccine Confidence in Health Systems and Clinics: Tips for Immunization/Vaccine Coordinators,”
  • “COVID-19 Vaccine Basics: What Healthcare Personnel Need to Know,” and
  • “Building Confidence in COVID-19 Vaccines Among Your Patients: Tips for the Healthcare Team.”
• Social Media. The toolkit includes sample messages for use on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
• Video. There is also a CDC video, “How CDC is Making COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations.”

Another reason to use a communication toolkit is when a company has third parties that need to communicate on their behalf and they want to arm them with accurate information. For instance, many years ago I worked on a campaign for MasterCard in which we developed a toolkit for banks that were issuing MasterCard credit and debit cards and needed to know how they differed from other payment solutions.

In other instances, a company may want its employees to be able to communicate effectively on a topic. If the organization is large, the company may want to create a toolkit that employees can use in their communications, especially if the organization has a small marketing or communications staff and is looking for its employees to be ambassadors on a particular topic.

Over the years, we have provided a wide range of toolkits to help organizations and their partners and stakeholders communicate more effectively and efficiently. If you’re interested in how we can help you develop these materials or understand how they might be employed to help you educate key audiences, build thought leadership, or simply get the word out about a particular issue or event, please reach out.