In this blog, we carefully take you through creating a communication strategy that keeps your business at the top of its game. To communicate effectively, you have to understand the communication trends that will work for your business. For example, a manufacturing business may not need influencers as much as a fashion business. Knowing the channels your audience frequents will help you understand where to put your energy in.
Why Do I Need Strategic Communication?
- Connect with Your Audience:
By creating a plan, you already know what your audience likes to see and how to bring it to them. It will ultimately save you time and money because you are already focusing on what matters.
- Maintains focus:
In a world that makes innovations every minute, sticking to one communication tactic for your business can take effort. A strategic communication plan means you can focus despite all the trends around you. Even if you decide to use a new method, you will have put enough thought into it.
- Gives you an upper hand:
Instead of worrying about what to do in every communication situation, your business will act as soon as possible. It is only having a plan that makes this possible. You can also stay on top of your game and achieve goals like audience engagement faster. Remember, you need to have smart plans to achieve any business goal.
What Trends Will Help Me Create A Strong Communication Plan In 2024?
- Using ChatBots:
It is common for customers to make enquiries about a product they just bought or a problem they encountered while working with the company. If your team members have to answer every customer request, it will take a lot of time and most likely lead to frustrated customers. Using chatbots programmed with realistic answers will save time, help your customers get answers quickly, and increase engagement.
As a brand, the best way to use chatbots is by adding them to your website or mobile apps and ensuring they can answer commonly asked questions.
- Creating Personalized Content:
The use of generative AI has increased, especially in the last few years, as everyone, from content creators to sales teams, has been using it to improve their content. Your brand can use AI to personalise content to its customers so each customer feels like they matter to your business. For example, you can use email marketing services that save the data, which can help you address them by name and send them emails that meet their needs. Brands like Netflix continue to grow daily because of their ability to personalise content and marketing messages to each account. Strategic communication is better and achieves more results when it feels natural to the customer.
- Micro influencer marketing
Micro-influencers are social media influencers who do not necessarily have a large following but have managed to build a community that engages with their content and purchases their recommendations. Although they have around ten thousand to one hundred thousand followers, brands that use them will get better results than influencers with millions of followers. These influences have created social relationships with their audience, and whatever message they create for your brand will resonate, turning their audience into potential customers.
Using micro-influencers is a good plan for strategic communication as it will ensure you communicate to the right audience at the right time while using the right channel. For example, if you are a brand that sells statement jewellery, use a micro-influencer with ten thousand followers who has proof that their audience purchases the pieces they recommend.
- Adopting short-form video content
One of the best ways to strategically communicate with your audience is to create short videos that communicate your message easily. Instead of creating long videos, your business should make content that adds value while subtly promoting your product. This way, your audience will want to know the next step after consuming your content, and you can easily position your brand as the solution.
Platforms like Instagram and TikTok have made it easier to make short video content, and this is the best time to use this strategy for your brand growth. Ideas include tutorials, informative videos, brand stories or even wholesome trends that you can relate to a service you offer. For example, you can create an entertaining Instagram reel about what it requires to run a jewellery business versus the expectations.
What Can I Do To Make These Trends Work For My Business?
- Know who your audience is:
You need to know your audience to use micro influencers or even determine what kind of video they should create. A solid profile of your average customer helps you make better business decisions and develop strong engagement plans. You can do this by carrying out surveys or creating customer profiles. This will help you know the kind of content to create and what form to send it out in, which will all be determined by your audience type. For example, if your audience is primarily 19-year-old girls in college, you already know that video content on Instagram and TikTok is the best way to promote your brand. This will also help you determine the type of language to use and when to publish your content.
- Create a content strategy:
Creating content on social media without a plan is bound to flop because you must be consistent and keep making content when engagement is not bringing the expected result. The best way to approach content creation is to create a calendar that clearly outlines the format, purpose, channel, and type of content you will create over a specific period. This will help you create content ahead of time and also experiment with other forms of content when your content is not performing as well as expected.
One strategy to improve brand communication is putting out different kinds of content. Your brand should create blog posts, reels, carousels, infographics and even YouTube videos depending on the message you want to convey.
- Engage with your audience constantly.
What is strategic communication if you are not carrying your customers along? Engaging your audience and communicating with them in their preferred manner is important. You can do this by asking them what kind of content they want to see, doing contests, giveaways, quizzes or social media lives. This will help you understand your audience better and build a loyal community of customers with you at the top of their minds.
- Measure your content performance:
You need more than just communicating; you must know if your message impacts your audience. For example, if you send an email to your customers, track how many customers have opened the email, read it, and perform the call to action. Some email marketing tools even tell you if your customers unsubscribed from your email list after reading the email. Having metrics like this helps you know if your content is working and what areas to improve. You can understand your audience better and give them the value they need. In turn, they will appreciate our brand and become loyal customers.
Creating a strategic communication plan is definitely not easy, but it is worth the work. It will save you hours of time, help you understand your audience better, and help you achieve crucial business goals. Only through communication can you know what your audience needs and give it to them. You can create this plan with your marketing team or hire a communications specialist like us to help you take charge of your business communication in 2024.
