What is the Importance of a Strategic Communications Plan?
Building a strategic communications plan is important for your business because it relays how your departments can work together to build solid communications with your customers. Your plan provides structure by detailing the roles and responsibilities of each department and paints the bigger picture of a unified strategy involving everyone’s efforts, what they are meant to accomplish, and the timeline of expected results.
Creating a Strategic Communication Plan
There are many resources out there offering help to create your strategic communications plan. Some are lengthy, while some are direct and to the point. There are even templates you can use to create your communications plan.
The problem is no two companies are the same. While each of these sites will give you a general approach to creating a communications plan, they will not address your specific needs. To create a communication plan that benefits your company, you will need to figure out certain elements that are unique to your organization and then determine which tools can help you execute your plan
1. What Is the Message?
To be successful, you need a clearly defined brand message from the very start. Your brand message is the essence of your company and what it has to offer to its customers. Defining that message clearly must be a priority, and then your strategic communications plan works to relay your brand message to your current and potential customers. Using customer communications management (CCM) software helps to relay your message by providing current customers with targeted information using an omnichannel approach.
2. Who Is Your Audience?
After defining your message, you must identify the intended recipients — current customers and potential customers. Before sending out your message, perform a detailed analysis of your customer base. With current customers, CCM software will not only allow you to send targeted, personalized messaging, but you can also provide dynamic documents and the ability to plot the customer journey.
3. What Do You Hope to Accomplish?
You need to know going in what the overall goal of your communications campaign will be. Is it something you send out just as a branding exercise, or are you hoping to bring in leads? If it involves additional services for your current customers, what is the rate of success with which you will be comfortable? Correspondence management is vital in your approach.
4. How Long Will This Last?
Obviously, the campaign you run is not going to be a one-and-done thing. Your message will be sent out in different ways over the course of a week or a month, maybe longer. Emails need to be written, as do blog posts and any other piece of collateral (eBook, whitepaper, etc.) that you feel is necessary. Most of your communications will probably come in the form of emails.
While most communicators use email as a feedback channel, only a few of them use email analytics as a measure of their effectiveness. Since it’s such a vital part of your campaign, you need to monitor the open rates and click-through rates of emails you send. If the rates are lower than your goals, adjustments will need to be made.
CCM provides your company with detailed analytics and monitoring for all forms of communications. It enables you to identify problem points in the customer journey and resolve them to improve the efficiency of your communications.
Once you have everything in place, and everything has been approved, it is time to develop your strategic communications plan and implement it. Your company should make sure to follow a calendar for messaging, and email analytics should be monitored as well.
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Brands that follow the latest customer service trends can serve their customers the best.
15 years ago, an average consumer typically used two channels when buying an item, and only 7% regularly used more than four.
Today consumers use an average of almost six channels, with nearly 50% regularly using more than four.Omnichannel systems allow you to streamline your communication process through a single unified channel and saves time and labor.Research shows that companies that provide a consistent service quality across multiple channels retain 89% of their customers.
A decade ago, there were limited ways to reach brands.
The following graph shows the channels most preferred by the customers.Most preferred communication channelsOmnichannel support helps businesses perform well and provide instant customer support.
If a company or brand’s inbuilt culture is customer-centric, it is more likely to attract customers and increase the retention rate.According to a survey by Deloitte, 28% of support agents state that they understand the company’s culture well.
To provide up a better and more intuitive experience to the users, the companies worldwide are now shifting their marketing focus towards the user experiences.Recently, a survey showed that the companies are excited about the opportunities bought by the customer experience, and they will beat the competitors such as mobile marketing and content marketing.
In the coming future, Customer Experience may overtake products and the cost as very crucial brand differentiators.What is Customer Experience?Customer’s insight into how a business treats them can be termed as Customer Experience.
It has a direct relation to customer satisfaction.
When the customers find your business to be customer-centric and responsive, they will like to continue your services and recommend it to others.However, it requires a lot of work, precision, and speed to collect data regarding the customer experience to get valuable insights and in-depth knowledge.
You should consider these six areas:ReachabilityService conveniencePurchase conveniencePersonalizationSimplicity and ease of useChannel flexibilityHow to Create a Better Customer Experience?Below we have mentioned some ways to achieve a better customer experience:Divide the Customers into Segments and Analyze their Experiences to Match the Needs of Each GroupIf you want a customer-centric strategy, then understanding your customers is essential.
Real-time feedback helps determine where you can make improvements, and if your products or services are correctly fulfilling customer’s needs or not.Utilize Multiple Channels to Deliver a Consistent ExperienceIt would be best if you delivered a high-quality CX time no matter when the customer is at during the buyer’s journey.
The changing trends create a dynamic platform where a business cannot properly track the behavior online aptly.Even if a business cannot clearly understand what the customers are thinking, developing a customer retention strategy by understanding their pulses can add an extra edge.
Another report tells us 68% of the customers will remain loyal to a business if the brand responses to their pain points, resolve issues, and provide an ideal user interface to find relevant products/services.
To develop such strategy, one has to feel the pulse of a target audience or an existing customer pool.
Here is what the top brands do and survive amidst all these diversities.Customer experience is the prime element to focusThe first and most important element that a company has to focus on is customer experience.
This perception leads to personification of a brand.
Leads converted to loyal customersNew leads will land on the online portals following the promotional content and referrals.
2020 has been the most challenging year for businesses.
Incorporating the latest trends and innovations will give an edge to direct selling business in the coming times.
It will help business owners adapt their business strategies to navigate the constantly changing situations.
Here are a few customer experience trends that are being widely adopted by businesses.Direct selling companies are ensuring prioritized accessibility of their content, not just to follow a customer experience metric, but also to make sure that the products, services, and environments they offer are more usable by all kinds of people.Companies have understood the importance of empathetic customer experience and are making a concerted effort to ensure it in every aspect of their business, from product development to the final selling stage.
Customer empathy is a key factor when it comes to delivering a great customer experience.
More companies are implementing emotive technology to understand the emotions of the customers in order to ensure the maximum customer experience.
