An effective communication strategy can make or break your business. Everything from successful sales, strong investor and employee relationships, customer trust and loyalty all depend on effective communication. So, it’s critical to build a powerful communication strategy that delivers long-term results.
A communication strategy goes beyond talking to customers. It’s interacting and connecting with constituents at every level in a way that shows you can meet their needs.
Developing a solid strategy is simple, but it takes some effort. The plan should address your organization’s unique needs. First, identify your goals and target audience. Then, you can customize the communications for your audience. Decide the best way to reach this audience and continue to monitor results.
By following these five simple steps, you can produce an effective communication strategy. Of course, having the right tools also helps turn that strategy into reality.
1. SET YOUR OBJECTIVES
To design an effective communication strategy, you must know your purpose. Establish your goals in clear terms. This will direct your strategy development and tailor it to work for your team and end users. For example, is your primary objective to create more sales? Drive customer engagement? The answer will steer the rest of your strategy.
In addition to the main goal, you can extend several secondary goals. These add depth to your strategy. If spreading brand awareness is your primary goal, some secondary goals might include informing more people about the company’s story and making prospects more familiar with the benefits of your product.
2. IDENTIFY YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
Once you know your objectives, it’s time to specify your audience. Delineate the people you want to reach with your communication strategy and add as much demographic information as possible. The better you know them, the better you’ll be able to convince them with your messaging.
By identifying your audience, you can see more easily what their needs are and how to address them. This step shapes the tone of your communication so you talk to the audience in a way they’ll welcome. Knowing your target audience also sheds light on your own motivations.
You can further group your audience based on categories like lifestyle interests. If you’re targeting businesses, focus on their verticals and the people making the buying decisions. An effective communication strategy revolves around your target audience.
3. DISCOVER POSSIBLE COMMUNICATION HURDLES
Plans inevitably encounter hurdles—so it’s important to prepare and react. Some of the most common communication challenges involve each category of workplace: traditional, remote, and hybrid. Effective communication strategies can help overcome the obstacles—as do communication solutions like Vivo’s.
When employees work remotely (which has become far more common in recent years), they often suffer a unique set of problems, such as a lack of feedback and extended assistance times. When you’re not sitting in the same office, it’s usually harder to communicate. Hence, remote workers often receive less feedback than in-office staff. They may wait longer for support if the IT team focuses on in-office problems first.
The distance of remote work may also make these employees feel isolated. And if they’re working from another time zone, remote employees have an even tougher time communicating with the team.
On the other hand, traditional workplaces often fail to deliver the flexibility that remote work offers, creating challenges around communication. And while hybrid workplaces combine the best of remote and traditional workplaces, they also carry the problems of both. You may face technological difficulties and coordination issues; then there are the added power dynamics between in-office and remote workers.
Some practical challenges unique hybrid work include managing information and communication technologies for different classes of employees; different teams will need different setups—and different support for each. When a portion of the team money works remotely, they may find it difficult to build rapport with in-house personnel. Misunderstandings and information overload can occur due to the lack of non-verbal cues from face-to-face conversations.
4. SET UP THE RIGHT COMMUNICATION TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES
Modern workplaces depend on various communication systems to ensure efficient collaboration, such as audio devices for calls, cameras for video, and videoconferencing systems to hold larger meetings.
Consider what types of audio devices make the most sense for each part of the team. Headsets are essential for personnel who need to make and receive calls in loud environments, or to keep hands free while on a call—for example, technical support staff or customer service agents taking calls in busy rooms while typing notes. Noise-reduction headsets minimize external sounds to let employees do their duties without distraction.
For team members who do not need a quiet environment—but rather need to project—speakers can prove equally handy. You can make conference calls with high-quality audio or enhance the speaker’s voice and audio assets during presentations.
Webcams record live video for video meetings. It’s much easier to convey complex ideas and emotions with a video feed; you might also consider document cameras and other video devices that can contribute to specific business needs.
Making collaboration workspaces in meeting rooms or boardrooms or work-from-home environments takes a range of technologies. Full-fledged videoconferencing systems include both A/V hardware and software to power a seamless collaboration experience; tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams support virtual meetings, webinars, and other sessions, helping you turn any setup into an opportunity for productivity-boosting meetings. Vivo experts can help you deploy exceptional communication technologies for your exact needs.
IMPLEMENT YOUR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION STRATEGY WITH VIVO
The most effective communication strategy out there is useless without appropriate implementation. Vivo Technologies delivers industry-leading communication and collaboration technology. With a high-quality yet affordable audio-video solution, you can easily achieve your communication goals.
Vivo’s unified communication and collaboration (UCC) solutions ensure you can talk clearly with all your constituents, from your team to your customers. Talk to one of our experts today!