“I wish I was more successful with my communications.”
“I wish I could get my message across better.”
PR, marketing and communications are not dark arts. Successful communications is a goal … and it is within your reach.
What you need is a logical approach and a plan. And an idea of what success looks like.
Because what is wrong with the wishful regrets above is that they’re too vague.
It needs a methodical – and dare I say granular – approach to setting goals and targets.
Successful communications
You might say it is everyone knowing all about you. Or having more sales or clients. You know I’m going to say those are too generic.
So what does success look like for your business?
But if your goal is reaching 5,000 followers on LinkedIn, I am still going to challenge that.
I would ask you why.
Successful communications start with a good understanding of what you’re trying to achieve. An idea of what success looks like.
Do you want to sell 50% more of a certain product or service? Or do you want to get 25% more people over the physical threshold of your business?
The first step is having your communication goals so closely aligned with your business goals you can’t get a spreadsheet between them.
So you work out who your audience is. And, as I never tire of saying, it’s not “everyone”. If you target “everyone”, you tend to reach “no one”.
Then think about where you find them lurking. Where do they live, where do they shop, what do they read, what do they do in their spare time?
How do you get in front of their eyeballs? That will identify your ideal channels to reach them.
Think like them – work out your message that will appeal to them.
Set those metrics
And then work out how you’re going to measure your success. If it’s selling 50% more of a product or service, then where does your target audience do that? And get your communication channels to nudge that into happening.
If it’s online, and you want 100 sales, work out what the conversion rate is when potential customers get to your website. If it’s 10%, then you need to get 1,000 people to the website.
If you know how many people are going to the right page on your website, you know how many more you need and then you can work out staging points along the way to check the success of your campaign.
If it’s a physical service, you want enquiries and leads to follow up. So is that a phone call or an email, or a contact form on your website? How many do you convert?
Hopefully this has inspired you to set some goals that set you on the path to create successful communications.
We know that sometimes you just need a listening ear and a little bit of advice.
We offer our free discovery call, as well as one-off workshops that help you get your thoughts – and house – in order.
Hoolet is here to help, just take the first step by getting in touch and soon you will be soaring.
Hoolet is a strategic communications consultancy. Come say hello on Twitter at @hoolet_hoots, or follow us on LinkedIn. You can read more blogs here.