Tips for effective communication marketing
Effective communication marketing is often driven by understanding what not to include.
This is because businesses survive and prosper on their reputation and the integrity of their products and services.
In this respect, marketing communication is more than just attempting to attract new customers and reminding existing ones that you are there. It involves not only thinking of the upside of your messaging strategies but also considering the downside.
Used appropriately, communication marketing and public relations can be very effect tools in the total sales and marketing mix and knowing what not to include is an important part of this.
The following provides some starting point for developing a considered strategy for your marketing campaign:
- When campaigns are undertaken with limited understanding of the market place they usually deliver limited success.
- Advertising or one-of activities are not a panacea for business success.
- Sometimes we get lucky and market circumstances provide the market environment for immediate and significant results. But this is not the norm.
- Effective communications is as much about protecting your image as about promoting your products or services.
- You have ethically and legal obligations to your clients and in the eyes of the law, ignorance is no excuse.
Answer two simple questions honestly
To achieve a more considered and effective campaign, it can be useful to answer two simple questions honestly
1. What specific product or service am I promoting?
Your goal is to get your customers to engage, not learn everything about you.
Be clear about the services you are promoting and do not try to promote be all things.
Cramming campaigns with multiple and complex messages and expecting readers or viewers to study the fine detail as you have is misguided.
All promotion and communication efforts are competing for the time and attention of customers in the already noisy and crowded publicity space.
Keeping the campaign simple and to the point, with clear branding and a small number of messages designed to attract attention and motivate clients to make an enquiry is usually more effective than a busy crammed campaign with a lot of copy and images.
If further detail is required, a more effective approach can be to refer potential clients to your website or literature that is listed in the ‘call to action’ (the instruction provided to help clients make contact or learn more about the product and service).
2. Do the products or services offered target existing or latent demand?
Effective marketing communication addresses the specific needs of a market.
To achieve this, it is important to remain client-focussed. Promoting services from your perspective can lead you to overlook the needs of your clients and create a ‘disconnect’ between the services you are advertising and the sought after services of your accessible market.
For example, a gym proprietor may love fitness, believing that high-level training is a solid foundation to success in life. The gym proprietor runs a local campaign that promotes sports training, but the gym is located in a community of older people who are more likely to want exercise in order to remain independent and mobile. Such a campaign is likely to fail because high levels of fitness and training do not address the needs of accessible clients.
Researching your market can help you gain a better understanding of your potential clients in regard to the services they may need and want. Local government websites offer extensive breakdowns of the socio-economic, age and ethnicity of their communities.
Disclaimer: The information, views opinions, advice and tips expressed in this article are offered as an overview of issues to consider and should not be regarded as comprehensive or definitive advice. The author accepts no liability in respect to any losses or damages in regards to the views and ideas expressed in this article. It is your responsibility to ensure you are compliant with the law and to seek professional advice regarding your advertising campaign.