Communication between individuals is a two-way street, but communication between a business and its customers is a multi-lane highway. If you navigate this highway successfully, you can increase customer numbers, sales, and profits. Set out on this highway unaware, ill-prepared, or unconvinced of its importance, however, and you will lose ground to your competitors. In order to be successful, all businesses must have employees that are successful communicators.
Typically, effective communicators are able to:
- Define the essential pieces of communication
- Identify the processes and plans needed for clear communications
- Develop, maintain, and evolve effective content for their communications
To establish effective communication within your organization, it is essential to participate in functional communication training. All employees should take part in effective and functional communication training to ensure that all employees have a similar skillset and are well-versed in communication planning.
One of the best ways to establish strong communication within your business is to implement a communications plan. Your organization’s communications plan should be linked with your organization’s other key plans, such as marketing, expansion, and succession. In turn, these plans should be based on your company’s mission, vision, and values. When formulating a communications plan, there are three primary steps: selecting the destination, choosing a route, and establishing a vehicle. By utilizing these key steps, you will be able to create a customized and specific plan.
In addition, an effective message should be clear, concise, complete, correct, and compelling. This will ensure that your message is easy to understand and that you are able to successfully implement it and track its success. Moreover, it is vital to set goals and establish core messages that you want to convey. In order to share this message, it is important to use a variety of platforms including a media release, blogs, and social media.
After implementing a communications plan, it is important to track key metrics to determine how effective the message is. This will allow you to make the necessary changes or to continue what you are doing – conducting a SWOT analysis and tracking analytics are just two ways to do so.
