Improving Marketing Communications : Six Simple Steps
Are you missing out on sales? Do customers ignore your advertising? Have you thought about improving marketing communications to hit your targets? It’s very common for small business owners to think that simply providing good products and services is enough; that the business will ‘speak for itself’. Sadly that’s often not the case.
Improving marketing communications is relatively simple with these six steps. Each action is designed to help you ask deeper questions of your business. Asking questions will help you to devise a plan relevant to YOUR business. You’ll find tips on setting objectives and, importantly, evaluating the results.
So let’s get started.
Action One: Review
How do you currently communicate with customers? Think about face-to-face, e-mail, website articles, social media, events you sponsor, advertising, through third parties, etc. Does the market know who you are? What are your points of difference or distinguishing attributes? Do you undertake public relations or media relations? Have they been successful? Have you been able to measure the results?
Action Two: Evaluate
How successful have your past communications been? What worked and what didn’t? Who responded? In what timeframe? Were your objectives met? Did you ask for or receive any feedback?
Action Three: Set Objectives
Be specific about what you want to achieve. Don’t just say “an increase in sales” say “an increase of 15% in sales by March 30, 2016”.
You may have other business objectives including influencing a sector of the market, generating sales leads, creating media interest, introducing a new product, service or team member, or changing public perception of your business. Prioritize multiple objectives. Have no more than two or three related objectives for one strategy. Don’t confuse the target audience.
Know your desired outcomes so you can measure and evaluate them. Consider how you will measure the success of your campaign – survey, direct response, voucher use, walk-ins, phone calls, media response, interviews given, etc. You can have several measurement tactics.
Action Four: Develop Messages
Develop simple short statements that clearly define what you want the target audience to know. Repetition is a good tactic so relevantly repeat key messages throughout your written and verbal communication. Remember, customers will be looking for the WIFM factor – What’s in It For Me? Pretend one of your team is the customer and ask questions from their perspective.
Action Five: Plan Tactics and Timeframe
Be realistic about timeframes and resources. You’ll need a start date and an end date for your campaign to evaluate its success. Plan the ‘how’ by asking yourself questions such as “What are we doing” and “Who are we targeting” – go over the how, where, why, when, who and what questions.
Action Six: Evaluate and Measure
Measure the success against your objectives in Action Three. Ensure your team and those involved know HOW to measure. For example, will all walk-ins or phone calls be asked “How did you hear about us?”
Clearly knowing your objectives is crucial to developing strategic communications and measuring the results.
I’d love you to follow me on Twitter @insanelyclever and Facebook /insanelyclevermarketing
where you’ll find inspiring quotes and marketing tips to help your business.
Insanely Clever Marketing 