STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION IN MARKETING
Effective communication between business owners and consumers is important in brand awareness and influence, the perception the customers have of both the product and the producer. Marketing provides insight into the characteristics of a product or service and its standing when compared with similar products and services. Through communication strategies used in marketing, companies retain and expand on their customer base, aiming for an increased market share of their products or services. The importance of communication in building a relationship between the service provider and the customer cannot be over emphasized as it leaves a long term impression that influences customer behavior towards the service or goods provided. Communication in marketing can be achieved through different means with the most prominent being advertising. Others include promotional videos, photo galleries, blog posts, webinars and even case studies on the product relating to consumer sentiment. Communication helps provide potential customers with information about the product so they can adopt a broader perspective on the importance of what’s being provided. With the advent of online channels like you tube and many other TV and radio stations available online, companies have taped into this and posted promotional videos or advert. Recently VOLVO posted a you tube advert for their new trucks, within a week of posting viewership reached more than two million, reaching a wider audience within the time frame than other conventional methods. Using videos to promote your companies product, relates with the customer through audio and visual messages leaving a long lasting impression this is much faster than they having to read about the product as the hear and visualize within a few minutes. Another advantage is that the video can be linked to the company’s official website, blogs and shared on other social platform.
Another avenue used by companies to communicate and market their products and services is through the use of mobile devices such as hand phones, tablets and even wrist watches. With the dawn of the 21st century almost every mobile phone subscriber has a smart phone or two, with companies spending more than six billion dollars in 2012 and a forecasted workforce of more than one million by the year 2015. Promotion can be done through the service provider or through the many apps used and loved by mobile users. With smart phones and other mobile devices business can be conducted on the go, such as making investments, receiving payments clinching business deals.
E-mail marketing provides another avenue in which companies get to communicate with their customers. Many might view e-mail marketing as less efficient than video and mobile methods, but the truth is it provides the most direct line of dialogue which can in turn lead to sales. Communicating through E-mails are the cheapest way to go and are very effective if the mail has good content that build trust between you and the customer. E-mail marketing has a downside if the content is poor, newsletters that do not communicate and other spam. It is important that there should be a personal interaction, communicating value to the customer. One or more strategies can be employed in communicating with the customer, and once this has been decided on, the next step is to ensure that the content relates to the customer.