Today, there are so many channels to communicate with; these include social media, email campaigns, telephone, face to face, mail campaigns and more. Determining which works for your business may take some time, but it is worth testing which platform works for you. In preparation for this, it is worth putting together a communications plan.
Having a communications plan is an effective way to plan, track and measure ROI. You can include statistics on how a post or email is performing. This is a great way to quickly identify which posts have worked and which haven’t – and it will help you learn and grow. A communications plan doesn’t need to be overly complicated – just whatever works for you, even a simple spreadsheet will do the job.
Within the plan you should think about any upcoming events, awareness days or popular holidays e.g.
A plan can also make sure you are keeping content varied and offering plenty of opportunities for engagement.
Undertaking a review of competitors’ communications is also a useful exercise and will enable you to see what others are doing well; what aren’t they doing well and where you can improve on this.
In addition to this, it can be used outside of marketing. For example, what services they offer, how good is their customer services team. For communications, this is a great what to see what they are doing and what is working for them.
To put it concisely, communication is critical; plan, plan and plan again, define goals and re-evaluate goals. The business and marketing worlds are constantly shifting, so change with them.