Communication is so important for all that we do.
Is there is a place where you don’t need it?
Whether it’s in the family, in my social network, inside the company, with customers, and also while talking with target prospects… communication is required everywhere.
I think the key to success of any communication is credibility. How credible do you come across?
And the way to establish credibility is to understand what your target audience wants. And, then communicate in a language that would make sense to them.
I break down the communication in four parts –
Direct communication
When you are in the face-to-face meetings, presentations, workshops, or at trade shows, you have opportunity to interact with people directly.
- Do your homework to understand them ahead of time. Past conversations and questions, their location, their participation in different industries, the website and other external communication say a lot about who they are, and what their interests are.
- When you engage with them, ask questions and give them opportunity to express their needs, areas of interest, concerns and questions. This is a very powerful ice breaker.
- Also, remember and keep in mind what they need. Keep your communication anchored on that.
Marketing Content
I think what you communicate in your marketing message is key to the branding and the execution of the marketing strategy.
- Segment your audience into different categories – this could be based on target industries, geography, demographics, psychographics, product/service group …etc. Every business has its own target segments.
- Prepare and deliver separate message for each persona. Keep it simple and easy to understand. One easy way to do it is to have each message answer one specific question or need.
- As David Merriman Scott explained so well in his book (The New Rules for Marketing and PR ), talk directly to your target audience.
Website
Your website is glue that holds all of your marketing together.
When you use it to integrate different marketing channels, and measure using web analytics and testing, it is also a very interactive and powerful medium to learn and communicate.
- What are your marketing objectives? Where and how the internet fits in with that? What would you like people to do when they come to the website?
- Have landing page(s) for the different market personas. Give what they need on the landing page, and have calls to action for them that helps your marketing objective.
- Measure, test and learn with time.
Public Relations
The public relations help a business with branding. When done right, it can help with capturing and sustaining the market share. What do you communicate in the publish relations content?
- Focus on problems that you solve. Weave in customer stories and use cases while doing that.
- What questions do they ask? Answer them.
- Add value with every message that you use.
I am going to elaborate on each of these four communication channels in this series. Stay tuned on that.