What is an advertising communication tool? Advertising communication tools are used by creativity experts in the development of ads, commercials, brochures, adverts, billboards, leaflets etc. The term “advertising communication tools” has been created recently to include all the necessary materials for the creation of advertisements.
Communication Tools are generally used to communicate with internal department within an organization. Marketing communication tools usually refers to tools that are used for the purpose of marketing purposes. What are your top Integrative Marketing Communication Tools?
Webinars
Webinars are ideal communication marketing tools. You can use them to establish your company or brand as a successful thought leader in the industry. It’s an outlet where potential customers learn more about your brand’s objectives, beliefs and values.
Personal Selling
Personal selling usually happens after promoting the product. The salesperson highlights the features and benefits of a product to probe the client and get them to purchase it. Personal selling is often hard work, but it bears positive results. To increase sales, the salesperson follows the dynamics of AIDAS to lead the customer towards purchasing the product.
Social Media
This popular communication tool has redefined marketing. It allows brands to reach a vast number of target audiences. One can promote products on social media using photos, ads, videos, or great content. For instance, Tiktok has become a popular platform for brands aiming to reach their consumers through video content. Most people prefer to connect to brands through social media platforms. Additionally, the testimonials on these media platforms attract even more customers.
Seminars
Seminars can make or break your brand in the industry. It is a great tool for you to engage with customers. but how? Well, you can invite a lot of customers so that they can learn about your brand or service. However, seminars are not hosted for product promotion. The main purpose is to give valuable knowledge to improve the brand’s loyalty.
Trade shows
Trade shows are becoming more and more popular. With the pandemic going on, online trade shows are becoming a thing now. Many brands are adopting and hosting trade shows to introduce a new product/service. A trade show is a great chance for the customers to meet the brand representative and give valuable feedback.
Catalogs
The primary use of catalogs is to announce the launch of a new product. However, the key to success lies in holding a true value proposition. Catalogs, when combined with email marketing are a great way to convey information to your potential and existing customers.
Email campaigns
Email marketing is another great tactic for marketing communication. Overall, it enables a brand to generate more leads and prospects while driving traffic to their official website. Moreover, this marketing tool is a self-lead-qualifying process.
Newsletter
Likewise, newsletters are a great way to nurture prospects and leads. If you have a strong list of recipients, you can send personalized content straight to their inboxes. This tactic enables you to drag them to sales funnel pages. Consequently, keeping them engaged with your brand.
Direct Mail Communication
While online marketing has become the go-to strategy for many companies in recent years, offline marketing still has a lot to offer. In an increasingly digital world, using direct mail comes with tremendous benefits.
Direct mail marketing can generate leads more effectively than online marketing. Most consumers find direct mail easier to understand. Additionally, these types of communication tools are proven to generate higher average response rates compared to digital marketing.
Forum Communication
Forums are an effective way of communicating with consumers. One can use a forum to address various topics and ongoing issues about a product. These types of of communication tools in the market can translate into increased sales, as well as enhanced customer loyalty.
Interactive Marketing
Interactive marketing is an excellent way of increasing conversions, which ultimately leads to more sales. This communication tool tends to generate a lot of engagement and feedback from the audience. A successful interactive marketing campaign can make your brand go viral on social media, which leads to increased sales.
Sales promotion
Sale! 50% off selected lines!
Using various online and offline outlets, sales promotion creates limited time deals or promotions on products or services in order to increase short-term sales. It can include sales, coupons, contests, freebies, prizes and product samples.
When conducting a sales promotion, it’s important to consider:
- how much it costs and whether the volume of sales will make up for the lost revenue
- whether it will build loyalty or just attract one-off purchasers
- if the promotion fits with the brand’s image
Loyalty cards are a more recent addition to the sales promotion sphere, adding important elements such as customer retention and brand loyalty. Discounts or special offers reward loyal and repeat purchasers. It’s also a great way to gather valuable customer data on purchasing habits and behaviour.
TV, radio, press, PPC)
Advertising covers all avenues where a business pays for their message to be broadcast.
In 1922, the first radio advertisement was aired in New York, promoting apartments in Jackson Heights. Video came next, but luckily, it didn’t quite kill the radio star. Instead, it became its own highly effective advertising tool, working harmoniously alongside radio.
Television has mostly been confined to brands with deep pockets. However, with the digital age came more affordable online tools such as PPC and social media advertising.
Successful advertising campaigns can be emotive, creative, eye-catching, catchy, musical, or even intentionally annoying (anything to grab attention!)
Sponsorship
Just about anything can be sponsored. Sponsorship is something you see a lot of with major brands and especially in sports. It is often used to get the attention of new communities and align with them.
Effective sponsorship as a marketing and communications tool requires detailed target audience research and setting clear objectives.
Product packaging
Packaging is an element which can be considered as part of the marketing mix as well as the communications mix. It’s the last point of sale for the company, and the impact of packaging could set brands apart from their competitors.
Communicating effectively through packaging can include the visual design, what’s written on the product, size and shape of the packaging, materials it’s made from etc. All of these aspects could sway a customer to buy or not buy the item.
Public relations (PR)
Companies rely on maintaining their positive brand image to their consumers in order to successfully build relationships.It’s not unusual for them to pay big money to a branding agency just to keep their public relations (PR) model aligned to their audience. Whether it be by community engagement, transparency, or addressing pressing issues, establishing credibility is PR’s sole purpose. When done correctly PR can also turn into “free” publicity, as publicity doesn’t run as an identified sponsor, making it non paid advertising. Thus we have another integrated marketing communication method that focuses on molding the brand into consumer lifestyles and social norms.
A great example of modern day PR is American brewery company, Anheuser-Busch. Whilst manufacturing their branded products, they are also using part of their factory and resources to produce hand sanitizers. They are then actively distributing and donating them to community areas and voting booths across the United States. Their use of brand personality and community relationship has led to a positive PR campaign, one that also gave them the opportunity to gain free news network publicity.
Direct Marketing
Direct Marketing is a type of integrated marketing communication that focuses on presenting brand information to only those with similar interests. Although direct marketing has features of mass advertising, its use of the target market makes it more susceptible to achieving brand goals. The methods of communication focus on a greater need for customer communication. This is why direct marketing methods include telemarketing, EDM marketing, brochures, and online targeted display ads.
Web design and digital marketing company, Spark Interact, uses direct marketing as a form of brand conversation for both their clients and their clients’ customers. The effectiveness of targeting pre-committed audiences means that there is a higher chance of return in sales, an enquiry, or expression of interest. Spark Interact’s use of EDM’s is a practical method of direct marketing in a sales driven conversation. Email marketing is a widely accessible resource, with the ability to converse and show their clients directly about Spark’s brand personality and product features.
Advertising communication tools are commonly used in marketing communications for advertising. They are mainly used in small to large scale firms for planning, control, evaluation, monitoring, and guidance on the basis of advertisements.
We hope this blog post has helped you understand the communications mix and given a valuable insight into how these tools can complement your marketing campaigns.