Marketing Communication Strategy: How to master this FREE marketing tool?

What is the marketing communications strategy?

Marketing communications strategy is used by a company or individual to reach their target market using various types of communication. It consists of three elements: your message (WHAT is to be said), the medium (WHERE it is to be said), and the target (WHO would you like your message to reach).

You might be wondering: what’s a marketing communications strategy that always works, and can it work without a budget?

Absolutely! Yes, you need to put some work into it and it requires consistency, but it is simple and does not cost a penny. It is about building a relationship with journalists to get press coverage, guest posts, working with ambassadors and backlinks.

Marketing communications or Public Relations is the ‘Promotion’ bit of the “4P’s of marketing” you might have heard of these already (product, place, price, promotion).

Since “marketing communications strategy” is quite a mouthful, most people call it “Public Relations” or “PR” which essentially uses online channels and software to identify relevant journalists, pitch them relevant stories and a free media coverage.

Usually, PR strategy means building top of mind awareness amongst your ideal customers about the product or service.

How you go about this will depend a lot on your experience, industry, and budget. If your marketing plan has a budget of a million pounds to spare, you can reach out to your target market with a promotional mix that includes Facebook ads, radio or TV ads.

However, if you’re like most entrepreneurs, you want to promote your business without breaking the bank.

And there is no better way to do that than by managing your own PR campaign internally without retaining the services of a media relations company or a full-service marketing company.

Yes, I did say FREE!

If you apply the methods in this post to your own marketing communications strategy, you’ll learn how to build lasting relationships with journalists and influencers, get free press, and as a result acquire more customers through a sustainable organic approach.

Anyone from your team can easily play the role of a marketing communications manager. You don’t even need to hire a dedicated marketing communications specialist! Have I actually said it? Well, yes. You know your company, products and services best. If you do not have time for it, or anyone else in your team, I can help, but there is so much you can do yourself, it is more of a case if you want to do it, or would you prefer someone else doing it for you.

Three principles of Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy

As I mentioned earlier, the marketing communications strategy defines the entire range of activities you will do to market your offer. This includes everything from paid marketing to media relations (PR).

Any integrated marketing communications strategy (IMC) should have three guiding principles:

• Brand alignment: Whatever marketing channel you choose should have the same brand perception as yours. For example, if you sell luxury yachts, build relationships with journalists from YACHTS International magazine, not those writing in your local newspaper or The Sun.
• Customer alignment: Follow the oldest marketing rule – ‘be where your customers already are’. Pick channels where your consumers are already active. If you’re targeting younger millennials, advertise on social media platforms like Instagram, not Facebook, and certainly not day-time TV!
• Budget alignment: Choose a marketing channel that fits your budget. If you don’t have a budget, getting a print advert in TIMES will be out of your reach. But perhaps you can get a free press mention on TIME’s website by reaching out to the journalists.

Any large company’s marketing plan will have several campaigns on multiple channels simultaneously. The combination of all these channels – PPC, social media, emails, advertising on TV, print, radio, etc. – is called the “marketing mix” of your marketing communications strategy.

Smaller businesses, however, usually stick to one or two marketing channels to reach their target customers. Else you risk diluting your budget and focus.

Steps in Creating an Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy

Keeping the above principles in mind, you should create an annual Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy (IMC). Here are the key steps for you to follow.

1. Understand Your Target Audience

Before you can create a strategic communications plan, you need to understand your target audience.

Any marketing communications plan has to be formulated for a specific group of target customers, aka buyer persona. Your IMC has to define the needs and characteristics of this target audience.

The simplest way to do this is to study your existing customers through surveys, interviews and so on. I have explained how to define it in one of the previous articles about Buying Persona, but in short, you can ask:

• Who are they? (Demographics)
• What’s their reality? (Background)
• Why are they buying your products or services? And why not? (Motivation and bottlenecks)

These consumer insights are crucial for creating highly targeted marketing messages that your persona can really relate to.

Your integrated marketing communications plan should always follow an outside-in approach, i.e. be centred on extensive customer analysis. You should invest time to stay in touch with shifting customer needs even if you are doing b2b marketing and you think you already know your customers very well. Avoid using an inside-out approach which does not invest sufficient resources in researching and analysing customers. A marketing communication mix based on insufficient research is bound to be flawed.

2. Define your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Your USP is the foundation of your integrated marketing communications plan. The USP should be reflected in every message across all communication channels, whether it’s for PR, sales or content marketing.

A clear USP will ensure that your brands messaging is strong, consistent and recognizable. It will also help you in crafting compelling media pitches.

Doing a SWOT analysis of your company from the viewpoint of your target audience will help you frame your USP. You can ask yourself:

• Why will a consumer choose you over a competitor company?
• Where do you fall short of your competition?

Survey your existing customers about their purchase intention. Understand the rationale behind the decision-making process of your typical customer.

3. Determine your Marketing Communications Mix

Marketing communications mix is the combination of channels you use to reach out to potential customers.

Your marketing mix could include:

• Online advertising on AdWords, Facebook, etc.,
• Offline advertising on print media, billboards or TV,
• Direct marketing,
• Personal selling,
• Email marketing,
• Events,
• Sponsorships,
• Content marketing,
• An annual sales promotion.

Large corporations would have dedicated teams within their marketing & sales department to take care of each of these activities. A start-up or small business would have to choose only two or three of these marketing strategies as part of their communication process.

The decision to choose which marketing activity will bring the best results is one of the toughest ones for small businesses. However, the most budget-friendly channel that drives the maximum results, apart from word of mouth is DIY PR.

4. Define Branding Strategy

Branding is a vital part of your IMC. It broadly includes two things.

At the most basic level branding is about having a consistent look and feel across all your online and offline marketing materials, such as your:

• Website,
• Apps,
• Social media platforms,
• Sales collateral,
• Direct marketing campaigns,
• Advertising campaigns,
• Business cards etc.

However, at a deeper level, branding is about the core identity of your company, the BIG IDEA that describes the existence of your company and its uniqueness. It’s about what you stand for, and what you want people to recognize you as. For example, Apple’s branding is all about cutting edge but extremely user-friendly technology. This identity should be a part of every marketing communication your organization sends out whether it’s for PR outreach, a new advertising plan for a sales promotion or a personal selling campaign. If you need help with defining your Brand Strategy, get in touch. I have just the tool that will help you. If you have one already, keep reviewing it, as with time, this may change, as the market changes.

5. Define Success Metrics

Once you have decided on your promotional mix, you also need to plan the right set of success metrics for all communication channels.

For instance, your success in Public Relations can be measured by a range of outcomes from brand awareness to sales. Here are a few metrics to consider:

• The number of mentions (different outlets and blogs),
• Number of website visits/signups from each article,
• Number of backlinks acquired,
• Website visits from social media shares,
• The number of leads or sales that can be attributed to Public Relations (This is easier to track in services businesses such as a graphic design or software services company).

You will have to define metrics for each component of your communication mix.

These metrics will determine whether you are fulfilling the key objectives of your communications plans. Make sure you pick metrics that actually drive value to your business, irrespective of what communication platforms you are measuring.

For example, just because you are measuring social media, don’t use vanity metrics such as likes or retweets. Instead, go for website visits, leads acquired as these will indicate a higher degree of engagement by your target audiences and potential consumers.

6. Execution

This is it!

Once your plan for your marketing communication process is ready, you execute these marketing strategies, measure your success and modify your approach as necessary.

How to Create a Marketing Communications Strategy for Your Start-up

Here is a little bonus.

If you’re a small company or start-up, your marketing communications strategy will be vastly different from that of a large business. The P&Gs and IBMs of the world can be on multiple channels and communication platforms at once – online and offline advertising, public relations, social media etc.

For you, however, I believe that being efficient and cost-effective matter the most. And getting a free press for your business is classed as such, right?

This is the process of approaching influencers, journalists, and bloggers with stories about your company, your brand, your products and services.

Depending on the target and your own goals, you can often turn this outreach into guest spots on high-value publications, press mentions, and interviews – all things crucial for a successful marketing communications strategy.

A story in a top media outlet is an amazing way to get in front of a vast number of potential customers. It can work wonders for your brand awareness, generate website visitors, signups and backlinks – all objectives you would’ve expected from paid marketing.

A marketing communication plan for getting press has three steps:

1. Creating a story that works on your target channel (press) and aligns with your brand image. The story should address the interests of your buying persona and solve their problem
2. Finding press targets that have interest in your product and the same audience as your target market (Crunchabase and JustReachOut can be a great source if you run out of your usual ideas)
3. Building relationships with press targets and pitching them your ideas – journalists like to be involved, see that you reach out to them for a reason, so make sure you make it personal, offer them a sneak peek, keep them updated with the launches etc.

A story in a top media outlet is an amazing way to get in front of a vast number of potential customers. It can work wonders for your brand awareness, generate website visitors, signups and backlinks – all objectives you would’ve expected from paid marketing.

Now, over to you. You can definitely create your Communication Strategy. Let me know if you have found the steps above useful. Get in touch if you need any help. I here to support you as much or as little as you need.