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Developing A Communication Strategy For Your Brand

A communication strategy is not only important to increase sales or generate more traffic, but it also shapes the public’s perception of your brand in the long term.

In this article, you will learn all you need to know about communication strategies and how to develop one for your brand.

What is a Communication Strategy?

This is the road map for achieving your brand’s objectives. As a rule, this strategy focuses on keeping current customers and gaining new ones, but it can contain many other objectives, such as increasing sales of a new product or getting registrations for an event.

A communication strategy always has three elements: the brand’s vision or mission quantified in macro objectives, the major communication initiatives to achieve these objectives, and an estimate of associated costs.

Importance of a Communication Strategy

The first and most obvious importance of a communication strategy is that it guides the marketing efforts of your brand.

From email marketing to TV ads, this strategy guarantees an integrated vision oriented towards the established objectives and unifies campaigns whether online or offline.

Communication is thought of as a whole, making campaigns more cohesive, complete, and therefore, more effective.

The creation and monitoring of this strategy mean that you plan better, your results can be measured, and adjustments can be made when necessary.

Another importance of a communication strategy is that it increases the efficiency of the investments made because when creating an effective plan, it is necessary to study the audience and the competition.

By knowing your audience better, you can establish a better relationship with consumers and communicate in a language that speaks to their values and desires.

On the other hand, by studying your competition in depth, you can identify and take advantage of gaps in your communication.

Without a strategy, there is a risk of not being accurate or effective in communication, which opens up room for various losses.

Regardless of the industry you operate in or the size of your business, your brand can create and implement successful strategies, as long as they follow some good practices.

How to Develop a Communication Strategy

This involves a few essential steps to generate the desired impact on consumers.

Determine the objectives of your communication strategy

Firstly, it is important to define what you want to achieve with your strategy. Generally, the most common objectives are increasing sales, increasing the margin on a product family, increasing awareness, or building customer loyalty.

However, it is important to make these goals quantifiable; otherwise, you won’t be able to know if they are effectively achieved.

Therefore, your objectives must be SMART: specific (Specific), measurable (Measurable), attainable (Achievable), realistic (Realistic), and with a deadline (Time Bound). SMART objectives are more likely to be achieved.

Know who you are communicating with

A communication strategy must speak the same language as the audience it’s intended for. For this to happen, it is essential to know who you are going to address.

So, you should make a list of all your possible target audiences, which very often tend to be: communication vehicles; digital influencers on social networks; customers; government officials; related associations; investors, etc.

Then, adapt the content and form of your message to suit these segmented target audiences. For example, business customers require a different strategy than end consumers.

Define the channels you are going to use

For each audience identified in the previous step, it is necessary to indicate the most appropriate channels to communicate with them.

Always keep in mind that, for each type of message, there is a communication channel that is more suitable than another.

Therefore, research which communication channels are most effective, according to the type of message and the target audience.

For example, LinkedIn can be more efficient when targeting the B2B market. Instagram, on the other hand, can be more strategic if it is a more visual and relaxed message for the B2C market.

Some other common examples include emails, press releases, content marketing, and outdoor advertising.

Another good way to make a difference is to consider offline channels with greater impact e.g. Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) advertising, which allows the distribution of advertising content in cities, remotely and in real-time, with a virtually limitless scope.

Create an action plan

Next, it is important to create an action plan that describes, in detail, the actions, timelines, and resources you would need to execute the strategy.

To more solidly ensure that objectives are achieved, you need to plan and schedule every step of your plan.

Thus, it will be possible to organise the means, content, audiences, and moments of communication in a sequential, orderly, consistent, and effective way.

Implement and evaluate

After setting up your plan, the next step is knowing how to measure your results.

After all, evaluating which changes are necessary, understanding what is working, and discarding those that don’t produce results, are all essential to obtain the intended results.

This way, you don’t run the risk of automatically continuing a strategy that is not viable, and you can rediscover new possibilities to get your message across.

It is important that all assessments are done regularly and with accurate metrics. This way, it is possible to compare results and know which ones have improved (or not), considering the same period of time.

As a tech-driven logistics company, GIGL always looks out for ways through which our customers can grow their businesses.

If you implement the above steps in building a communication strategy for your brand, you’ll achieve better outcomes in increasing sales and retaining high-paying clients.

To enhance your business operations and ensure that your products reach your customers at the right time and in good condition, GIGL is your one-stop solution for seamless logistics services.