Why is it critical to have a strategic approach to marketing communication for the establishment and growth of a company? 

Let’s break it down for a more holistic view; keep in mind that having the best or most in-demand product or service in the world does not guarantee that your target market will know about it unless you are willing to make an effort in marketing your products or services – which will cost you both your time and money. 

Before establishing a marketing strategy for your company, you will have to develop your goals, evaluate your positioning and have a clear view of your business direction. Review the past year and find out which strategies worked and which ones didn’t.

For a company to reach its target market, having a comprehensive marketing communication strategy is essential. Understanding your target market is the first step and the principal focus of your marketing communications strategy.

1. Study Your Avatar – understand their needs, interests and challenges. 

Understanding your target market, audience or what they call avatar is the first step. Carefully analyse your existing client database by focusing on the why, where and how they behave. 

Why do they choose your products or services? Where did they see or hear about them? How do they purchase?

2. Produce High-Quality Content for Existing Customers and New Prospects 

Creating high-quality content is a remarkable step in increasing traffic to your website. Having a landing page for your content will help as a driving factor for traffic, but remember that you will need to convert the leads as marketing-qualified leads or potential customers for future content.

Make sure that you have a personalised approach when you craft your message for whatever content – be it for blogs, videos, email, and other materials. Keep in mind that the more you personalise your approach, the more favourable your customer’s response will be.  

3. Engage Your Target Audience in Marketing Campaigns and Events 

Have a dedicated team within your communications and marketing department to engage your existing customers and new prospects. There’s a mixture of effective channels that you can use which include, but are not limited, to:

• Events
• Online Events
• Public Relations
• Sponsorships
• Online/Offline Marketing

4. Improve Your Branding

Your company’s brand should always have a consistent image and feel across all your marketing materials – the so-called “omnichannel” delivery – to help you establish your company brand, both online and offline. Specific channels to focus on include:

Website – Aside from your main website, you could also have a micro-website to help promote upcoming events and marketing activities that your company will be involved in. 

Business Cards and Company Portfolio – A concrete and effective way to share your business information to new prospects through live meetups. 

Social Platforms such as LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc. – these web-based technologies would help you engage with your target audience and promote your user-specific products.

Apps – Creating specific apps would help both your existing customers and employees interact and share your product information online.

Direct Marketing Campaigns – Using several different formats, such as point of sale, postal mail, telemarketing, etc., there are many benefits of direct marketing campaigns. This will also give you clear measurable results that you can use for further strategy building later.

Efficient Advertising Campaigns – Remember that to accomplish a specific objective, a dynamic advertising campaign should be built. Exercise the use of concise messages that share a singular idea and theme. 

5. The AIDA approach

The AIDA approach is prevalent in marketing and advertising. AIDA model is an acronym for Attention or Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action. 

1st Stage: Attention

First priority of any advertisement or promotion is to capture the audience’s attention – to get their mind-space. To do this, you must be aware of the things that can make your market turn your ways such as compelling visuals and popular content messaging styles.

2nd Stage: Interest

Once you’ve caught your customer’s attention, you will now have to focus on their interests. By creating your marketing content around educating your customers about the benefits that your products/services can offer, this will increase customer engagement that will lead to a favorable response.

3rd Stage: Desire

Now that you have your customer’s attention and have caught their interest, you will now create in them a desire towards your brand. This is particularly important in Inbound marketing as creating a desire for your products is the key to conversions and sales. 

4th Stage: Action

The latter approach on the AIDA model is the action – existing customers/new prospects form a purchase either by shopping around, engaging in trials or making a purchase. 

6. Manage Leads and Client Data

Now that you know your audience and you’ve improved your company brand – what’s next? Having a database that allows you to organise information of all your contacts (contact information, files, records, emails, calls, etc.) will help you have a good understanding of your client’s behavior through the sales funnel. 

This system is called a CRM (Customer Relationship Management). 

7. Execute Your Marketing Communication Strategy – put it into action!

The 7th and last step – once your marketing communication strategy is in place, execute these marketing strategies, measure your success and revamp your approach as required. 

You can efficiently utilise these marketing communication strategies and fully establish your brand but keep in mind that other factors are also  contributing to the growth of a company, although these 7 steps are the foundation. Continue to research industry standards, know your competition, understand your weaknesses and strengths. Each one of these steps need to be fully considered and executed to ensure that you will be able to obtain the most significant returns on your investment.

Carrying out a marketing communication strategy will benefit your company tremendously but keep in mind to track your performance. Remember, to always follow through – inspect what you expect!