We would like to share with you the tools of marketing communication. Marketing can be defined as a process of exchange transactions which include all participants such as seller, buyer, manufacturer and etc.
Marketing communication aims to inform and reach out to the audience through a channel. It is important to understand what channel you should use and also the tools of marketing communication.
Advertising
This is one of the biggest communication tools that marketing teams have. The greatest advantage of this mode is that it can be paid and unpaid, both. Advertising has a wide reach and great for small-scale companies or start-ups that are going low on the marketing budget. Advertising is based on above the line marketing. So, it is ideal for brands that do not have much exposure or a target audience.
Social Media
Social media allows brands to engage with their audience while also providing information on its products, services, and values. From Twitter to TikTok, social media has rapidly become a valuable method for consumers to research a brand before the organization is even aware of the buyer’s interest. Potential customers are able to find social proof through other customers who have interacted with brands on social media channels. Additionally, brands have the opportunity to make themselves more human as they engage with their audience.
Direct Mail & Catalogs
While online marketing has taken the world by storm over the years, there is still great value in an offline marketing plan. In an increasingly digital world, direct mail and print catalogs can help generate leads and offer benefits that online marketing cannot thanks to localization and personalization. Many consumers find direct mail and catalogs easier to understand, as one study found that it takes 21% less cognitive effort to process.
Additionally, direct mail has also been proven to yield a higher average response rate when compared to digital. Finally, print ads won’t actively disrupt your viewer’s activity to get their attention, granting them the freedom to choose when they’ll receive your marketing message and thus allowing it to hit at the optimal time.
Email Campaigns & Newsletters
Email marketing is another tried and true tactic for lead generation. What’s more, it allows a brand to identify better quality leads. Since email marketing itself is a lead qualifying system, you can see a prospect’s interest based on the fact that they signed up for your list, whether or not they open your emails, and if they click on any of the links within your emails.
Likewise, email newsletters are a powerful way to nurture leads by providing recipients with targeted and personalized content straight to their inbox. This helps push them further down the funnel and keeps them engaged with your brand.
Trade Shows, Webinars, & Seminars
Trade shows, seminars, and webinars are great tools to address issues, generate leads, and introduce a new product or service. Trade shows give consumers the opportunity to meet with brand representatives face-to-face, providing a more personable experience. Seminars and webinars can also establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry, giving consumers a convenient outlet to learn about your product or service.
Publicity
This is generally a free communication tool and the firm generally does not pay for it. This kind of marketing campaign includes product reviews, free surveys, newspaper articles, etc. However, with the rising marketplace competition, even such free communication tools have become paid platforms to promote products.
Personal Selling
Personal selling is a communication tool wherein a sales person gets directly in touch with the potential consumer making him/her understand the pro’s and con’s of the product. While doing so, the sales person has to go through the key aspects of AIDAS (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action and Satisfaction) cycle, which are primary requirements for a sale to be considered as complete. Though this process is a bit time consuming and costly, the outcome is generally positive, often leading to a loyal customer.
Public Relations
This communication tool primarily concentrates on increasing the brand image of a business. Maintaining public relations with influential persons across various industries, scholars, and celebrities forms important part of this tool. However, making use of these relations at the right time and in the right way is where the success of this marketing technique lies in.
Note: Publicity is not an integral part of public relations; however, certain PR campaigns may involve publicity.
Direct Marketing
Direct marketing enables organizations to communicate directly with the end-users. Various tools for direct marketing are emails, text messages, catalogues, brochures, promotional letters and so on. Through direct marketing, messages reach end-users directly.
Personal Selling
Personal selling is also one of the most effective tools for integrated marketing communication. Personal selling takes place when marketer or sales representative sells products or services to clients. Personal selling goes a long way in strengthening the relationship between the organization and the end-users.
Personal selling involves the following steps:
- Prospecting – Prospecting helps you find the right and potential contact.
- Making first contact – Marketers need to establish first contact with their prospective clients through emails, telephone calls etc.An appointment is essential and make sure you reach on time for the meeting.
- The sales call – Never ever lie to your customers. Share what all unique your brand has to offer to customers. As a marketer, you yourself should be convinced with your products and services if you expect your customers to invest in your brand.
- Objection handling – Be ready to answer any of the client’s queries.
- Closing the sale – Do not leave unless and until you successfully close the deal. There is no harm in giving customers some time to think and decide accordingly. Do not be after their life.
Conclusion
Marketing communication is a systematic arrangement of the marketing functions to attain a specific objective in a target market. It is a set of systematic activities involving creation, transmission, and reception of messages intended to create awareness, knowledge, liking or behavioral response in regard to a particular firm’s products or services in the minds of the target markets. It includes various tools such as PR activities, personal selling activity, advertising activity, sales promotion activity and direct marketing activity. In fact it is the organizational effort that involves organizing all activities required for creating awareness about the product among potential customers in order to persuade them to buy.
Marketing tools allow you to increase your visibility in the marketplace. By using marketing tactics you can make yourself more accessible to your customers. Essentially, these techniques are used to influence the behavior of either your target market or your potential customers.