Building a marketing communication strategy is like creating a bridge between your brand and your audience. It’s not just about sending messages; it’s about creating meaningful connections that drive engagement and loyalty.

With 1.6 years of experience as a marketing communications associate, I’ve learned that building a strong communication strategy is crucial for success.

In this article, I’ll explain marketing communication theory with practical insights.

Understanding the Basics

Before diving into the nuts and bolts of building a strategy, it’s essential to understand what a marketing communication strategy is.

At its core, it’s a plan that outlines how your brand will communicate with its target audience to achieve specific marketing objectives. This involves defining your audience, crafting your message, choosing the right channels, and measuring success.

Here are the 8 steps I followed when creating a marketing communication strategy:

Step 1: First and foremost define your objectives

Every successful strategy starts with clear objectives. What do you want to achieve with your marketing communications? Are you looking to increase brand awareness, generate leads, boost sales, or improve customer retention? Your objectives should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Clear objectives provide direction and a way to measure your success.

Step 2: Nothing is important than knowing your audience

Understanding your audience is crucial. Who are they? What are their needs, preferences, and pain points? Conducting market research, creating buyer personas, and analyzing customer data can provide valuable insights. The more you know about your audience, the better you can tailor your messages to resonate with them.

Quick tip: Listen to your Audience by paying attention to their feedback. Their insights can be invaluable.

Step 3: Now it’s time to craft your message

Your message is the heart of your communication strategy. It should be clear, compelling, and consistent with your brand’s voice and values. Think about what makes your brand unique and how you can communicate that in a way that appeals to your audience. Your message should address your audience’s needs and show how your brand can provide value.

Step 4: Whether one or many, choose your channels wisely

Different messages and audiences require different channels. Whether it’s social media, email, content marketing, SEO, or traditional advertising, choosing the right channels is key to reaching your audience effectively. Understand where your audience spends their time and how they prefer to receive information. It’s often beneficial to use a mix of channels to ensure broad reach and engagement.

Step 5: Now the main part; develop your content

Once you’ve defined your message and chosen your channels, it’s time to develop your content. This could include blog posts, social media updates, videos, infographics, emails, and more. Your content should be engaging, informative, and aligned with your overall strategy. Consistency is key. Make sure your content reflects your brand’s voice and values across all channels.

Step 6: It’s time to implement and distribute

With your content ready, it’s time to implement and distribute it across your chosen channels. This involves scheduling posts, sending emails, publishing blog posts, and running ads. Tools like social media schedulers, email marketing platforms, and content management systems can help streamline this process.

Step 7: Open your excel and get ready to monitor and measure

Monitoring and measuring your efforts is crucial to understanding what’s working and what’s not. Use analytics tools to track key metrics such as engagement, reach, conversions, and ROI. This data can provide insights into the effectiveness of your strategy and highlight areas for improvement.

Quick tip: Measuring your KPI doesn’t always means data-driven results, it can also be human driven results.

Step 8: Last but not least adjust and improve

Marketing communication is not a set-it-and-forget-it process. It requires ongoing evaluation and adjustment. Based on your analytics, refine your messages, adjust your channels, and tweak your content to better meet your objectives.

Continuous improvement is key to staying relevant and effective in a market.

Building a marketing communication strategy is both an art and a science. It involves understanding your audience, crafting compelling messages, choosing the right channels, and continuously monitoring and adjusting your efforts.

By staying adaptable and creative, you can create a strategy that not only reaches your audience but also engages and converts them.