In any successful marketing strategy, effective communication is at the core. If you’re ready to launch a new product or creatively change your target audience even if it means just freshening up your brand for a little more visibility then without a clear marketing communication plan, none of these initiatives can succeed. What does a marketing communication plan look like, though? And how can it help your business to thrive?
This guide is here to tell you everything you’ve ever wanted to know, from what a marketing communication plan is in the first place to how good plans help drive results that are real and measurable.
So, What Is a Marketing Communication Plan?
A marketing communication plan is a strategic blueprint that outlines how a company communicates with its target customers. It ensures all marketing efforts are consistent and unified — working together to achieve specific business objectives such as increasing awareness of the brand, generating new leads or nurturing customer loyalty.
Unlike a company’s overall marketing strategy which covers a wide area of its business’s branding goals, a communication plan goes straight for the ‘what’, ‘how,’ and ‘when’ in terms of interacting with our audiences. Hence it includes decisions on what message they should be getting from you, what media you want to use for that purpose (e-mail, Twitter, walking advertisement in your store) and when those messages should go out so as to maximize their impact. Learn more about marketing communication methods.
The Importance of a Marketing Communication Plan
Without one, your message will go with the wind in different directions, people will forget what you’re really all about, or worse still – it might not even be relevant. All of which just serves to confuse customers and harm your brand ultimately hurting your income stream. A good communication plan ensures that no matter what happens:
- Consistent Message — It ensures that your brand conveys the same message across all channels and the public’s perception remains unchanged by time or space
- Better Return — With sharp and focused campaigns, your resources can be intelligently allocated for maximum return in marketing investments.
- Stronger Relationships — A well thought out communication plan should consider what your audience needs and likes, thus engendering trust and goodwill.
In order to develop one, it is first necessary to know what the key elements of a communications plan are.
Target Audience
What is known as “target market” denotes that: Before defining a marketing strategy, you must clearly understand who your customers are. What do they look like in profile and segment fact?
- Who is the decision-maker/buyer within each organization?
- How frequent are your customers and when do they purchase things from you?
- Where is your area of business?
- Why do people buy from you?
The ability to create interesting and relevant messages depends on how well you know your audience – whether it be pros or amateurs you’re talking to – social networking users, or top legal counsel for large enterprises.
Message
This is what you want to say or the story and value you represent when talking to your audience. Your core message must be clear, concise and in alignment with the mission of your brand. For example, if you are a health-education brand your message could be aimed at promoting healthy living.
Communication Goals
The key factor around which a communication plan twists.
What evidence are you hoping to reveal? For example:
- Increase detection rate through product awareness?
- Increased access to your website?
- Better engagement on social-media platforms?
It’s necessary to establish measurable targets (such as achieving a 10% increase in website visits.)
Channels and Tactics
Match the platform and tools with your audience preferences:
- Social Media for youthful, tech-savvy demographics
- Email Marketing in order to nurture prospects and maintain current clients
- Content marketing (like blogs or videos) can inform and educate
Timeslice & Schedule
Wherefore run off in a given time period of the year, the housing industry hopes to accomplish 25% of its annual sales volume. Are actions supplementary to either other or interior, or a function of time?
Appropriation of Funds
Divide resources properly so as to ensure that your plan will be financially sustainable. A successful communication plan achieves a balance between creative leeway and financial restraints and finds cost-effective solutions.
Metrics and Evaluation
How do you know your marketing communications are going well or not? We need to establish what success looks like.
Factors such as website traffic, conversion rates and social media engagement provide invaluable feedback for analyzing one’s own performance.
How to Develop a Successful Marketing Communication Plan
Take these six steps and put them into practice, you’ll produce a communication plan that truly pays off:
Set Clear Goals
What do you want to accomplish? Using the SMART system can guide you in setting your goals:
- Specific: Avoid vague terms. For instance, instead of “promote companies,” say “increase Instagram followers by 20% this quarter.”
- Measurable: Define what determines success, say through number of people engaging or quantity of sales made.
- Achievable: Set realistic goals within reach of achievement.
- Relevant: Make sure that your goals support the business’s core values.
- Time-Bound: Set specific deadlines for reaching each goal.
Know Your Audience
Practical tools like Google Analytics, audience surveys, and social listening platforms are essential for understanding the wants and habits of your audience.
Create detailed customer personas to represent each of the various types of audience that you appeal to.
Create a Key Message
Condense your message to just one point that will hit home with your target audience. It should convey not only what your product does, but how it resolves their need or problem.
Example:
- Elevator Pitch: “Our software simplifies invoicing and accelerates payment cycles for small businesses.”
- Slogan (optional): “Get paid faster with less effort!”
Select Communication Channels
What platforms or tools will yield good returns on your own labour expense?
- Instagram Stories if you have dynamic visual content.
- LinkedIn posts for making inroads into the business community.
- Newsletters-detailed content sent direct to people’s private mailboxes.
Think in terms of an all-round way (omnichannel) and make your presence felt on all platforms.
A Content and Media Strategy
Make a decision about what sort of material to produce, and when to publish it.
Examples:
- Blogs, infographics, tutorial videos or user generated content (UGC)
Select a methodology that fits your niche and integrates with your overall performance framework.
Monitoring and Adjusting Your Composition Plan
Once you put your communication plan into effect, you need to in all ways keep track of what effects it has on audiences. Use tools like Google Analytics and event dashboards provided by social media platforms themselves to monitor how your marketing campaigns are doing.
Examples of Marketing Communication That Sang and Succeeded
Here are a few case studies in brands that were masters of their marketing communications:
- Coca-Cola: “Share a Coke” Personalized Marketing Campaign – focusing on specific demographic groups with products designed for individuals in mind, creating an emotional link
- Nike: “Just Do It” Campaign – communicates an appealing, inspirational message directly into consumer’s hearts
Today Your Business Needs a Marketing Communication Plan
For the brand owner in any field, communicating with an audience is more and more complex and intense competition for attention occupies less time and space. A structured marketing communication plan thus provides your company with that map it needs to break clear from the noise and gain recognizable results.
Get to know your audience, make your language clear, and choose the right platforms. Through these things your brand may soar and bound to be linked with consumers.
Are you ready to move up the next step?
Start building your own marketing communication plan today and see what benefits it brings for your business with SanMo Bd!
