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An external communication strategy can keep your conversation going with your customers, partners, and other external parties.
You live with your brand day in and day out. But external brand communications are how a newcomer to your brand might be introduced to you. It might even be the first time they have even come across you.
More importantly, what do they take away from that first interaction? What do they remember?
Are your future customers being guided along their path to purchase
Most organisations think they are found, and customers buy, but this isn’t the case. It depends on where your customers are in their journey along the path to purchase. But how do you shape a winning External communications strategy?
Where do I start with Planning an External brand Communications startergy?
Achieving effective communication with the outside world is essential when you want to sharpen the image you’ve created for your brand and develop the relationship you have with your customers. For most organisations, the road to success is paved with analytics. After all, the more you learn about the people you’re communicating with, the more you can enhance your messaging. However, the following tips are sure to get you started on the right track. Apart from all your external communications being on-brand and consistent, what other criteria should you consider? Well, as we’ve already mentioned, your customer’s path to purchase is critical to planning your external communications.
Where to next? Define your path to purchase and help customers get to where they need to be
Your customer’s path to purchase helps plan to message and the type of communication platform you choose.
What is the best type of External brand Communications?
Where is your client, and what’s the best way to reach them at the juncture? Advertising? Activism? Catalogues? Content Marketing? Email? Event? Try-vertising? Mobile Apps? Newsletters? Phone Calls? Press Conference? Press Releases? Product Specification Sheets? Promotional Merch? Public Relations? Social Media? Or just via your website? The list goes on and on. Knowing who you are with a clear brand strategy allows you to align your planning for which comms will deliver the best ROI.
As your future customers get to know who you are and consider you into the mix of choices, you eventually choose you. Your comms platform will look different than when they engage with you, and once then, your media choice will adjust once they become a customer and, even better, still a repeat customer.
Be you not them.
Have you ever noticed how easier it is to communicate with someone if you share their views and values? When designing your external communication strategies, ensure that you know who your end customers are. Build up and assess your customer personas carefully, and think about each segment’s different preferences. Then finding cross over points that resonate with all stakeholders. Develop your unique tone of voice and personality. Remember, your external community is looking for reasons to connect with you. Whether it’s an investor wondering where to put their money, or a customer, you need to make sure that you’re having the right impact. Don’t just copy what your competitors are doing.
Be Clear and utilise the power of repetition.
In the world of external brand communications, it’s crucial to find a good balance between sharing unique ideas and repeating your brand’s messages. Effective brand communication is all about explaining the same things in different creative ways to make your brand information accessible to a broader group of people. Repeating certain aspects of your brand identity in your campaigns, events, and conversations with shareholders help to give you a level of credibility that’s crucial for long-term success.
What are the benefits of Planning External brand Communications?
At its core, you’ll save two things while building momentum in your brand: time and money.
Where to next? Define your path to purchase and help customers get to where they need to be
Too often, organisations are guilty of producing mountains of communications material and content without a clear understanding of the intended impact on crucial audiences or the organisation’s bottom line. It’s a common misconception that an entire external communication strategy and program are only needed or affordable for the largest corporations. But in reality, any communication platform is cheap when it’s effective—but understanding what “effective” looks like is the key to perfecting your communications game plan, sticking to it, measuring the results, and adjusting accordingly.
Building an external brand communications strategy is complicated. It requires you to think carefully about how you can translate your brand message into the correct language for a range of different audiences. However, when it’s used correctly, external communications can also help you achieve many important brand objectives.
The critical thing to remember is that external communication isn’t just about marketing; it’s about having honest, valuable discussions with the people outside your brand. Through these discussions, you can constantly develop helpful insights to realign your brand to the market. Communication is the key to any good relationship; make sure that you have the right strategy for your brand.