fbpx
Connect with us

Business

The Effect of Good Communication Skills on Your Business Marketing and Advertising Approaches

Brian Kazungu

Published

on

Brian Kazungu, 13/05/2023

In order for you to capture the attention and interest of these customers and to arouse them into action through your advertising and marketing campaigns, you must consider using properly designed Effective Communication approaches that are based on the following attributes:

  1. Information packaging – language, tone, gestures
  2. Product/ Service packaging – size, ingredients, shape, colour
  3. Approach design – premise layout, transaction facilities

Let us get into detail with the above issues in order for us to understand the subject better.

Age, beliefs, background and aspirations of your target audience determines Effective Communication (language, tone and gestures) tools that you use when interacting with them.

Please note that Effective Communication is the intentional and purposeful exchange of mutually beneficial data using common or easily agreeable symbols.

As such, when you communicate, you must use the right language (signs and symbols) in a way that makes the client to quickly understand the benefits of engaging you as well as the disadvantages of not engaging you or your products and services.

Using the wrong language, tone and gestures can interfere with the appeal of an otherwise good product or service.

There is always a language that is unique to people in a given geographical area. The tone and gestures that you use when interacting with such people can be interpreted differently when compared to what happens when it’s used on people from other communities.

Thus, when packaging your marketing information, you must come up with what I call a Message Header, which is divided into three components namely;

  1. The intention – why do you want to share the information with the client?
  2. The specific benefit – What do the parties involved benefit after the transaction?
  3. Common or easily agreeable symbols – do the signs and symbols that you are using to communicate with them have the same meaning on both ends?

The above mentioned message header approach helps you to come up with a brief but effective promotional or advertising material.

This is because you are going to use a mutually understandable language to:

  1. Express your awareness of what the customer needs and wants.
  2. Tell or inform them of the product or service that you have crafted to address that.
  3. Enlighten them on the benefits to be achieved from using your product or service.

The same applies with the size, ingredients, shape and colour of the product since they all have an element of relative appeal to people of different ages, beliefs, background and aspirations as well.

Some communities may not tolerate a certain production process or ingredient in your products and yet they still need that product when their concern is addressed, for example, we can include the issue of Halal on meat products and even allergens on some food items.

More so, age and religion are some factors that influence people when they are buying your products and services, and so, you must consider such in your communication material.

Having talked about the intention and benefits of your message in crafting the promotional material, we now need to look at the approach or unique way of presenting your products.

This is what seals the deal, since after you have captured the customer’s attention and developed in them an interest and desire to experience reality, the transaction must be done.

By approach, we mean the actual ways of engaging the customers towards transactions i.e. how does the products and money end up changing hands between buyers and sellers.

The approach that you use to engage customers is a serious determinant on the long term sales volumes since it also influences continued patronage and traffic levels to your business.

Some of these approaches includes the location of your premises, the design and layout of your shop as well as the available transaction facilities, since these are what ultimately determine who will come for engagement.

For example, customers consider if there is a reserved place to park their cars and whether there is enough and secure space to do the transactions without undue disturbances.

They also consider the available facilities for transactions to see if they suit their preferred mode of payment i.e. cash, bank cards or online payments.

All these fall within the context of an effective approach that inspire customers into engagement and thus must be given due attention.

By now, you should have realized that marketing in itself determines the attention, interest and desire while selling determines the sale (action).

Marketing entails the various ways and mechanisms of getting people to know about your company and its products while selling entails the presentation of these products to the customers in way that confirms what you said in your promotional (advertising) material.

So basically put, selling covers issues to do with the real shopping experience.

Your marketing approach should encourage an increase in traffic and activity to your business site. As such, you must be familiar with the various ways of communication that people use in their day to day interaction in order to effectively draw them towards engagement.

When you get familiar with the methods and channels of communication, you must then correctly and accurately package information to effectively reach your target audience.

As such, you must be able to observe how people share information as determined by their professions, culture, religion, tradition and even the law.

People’s professions, their culture, tradition, religion and the law determines the way how they exchange information in a given environment, and such, you must be able to identify the impact of each of these in relation to your marketing campaign.

This knowledge will determine how you will effectively package your information in order for it to move smoothly, efficiently and quickly to and from your targeted customers.

Misinterpretation of this information will have an effect on the response (sales) that you get, and as such, you must consider having a clear understanding of the market firstly and then come up with a message header that appeals to that community or market segment.

Generally speaking, marketing helps you to capture the hearts and minds of your customers in order for them to visit the business site while selling creates a shopping experience that excites them to transact with you and which also motivates them to pay you another visit.

When the promotional material and the shopping experience guarantees an increase in traffic and activity in your business, it results in high sales turnover which brings about economies of scale that translate into profitability, continuity and further expansion.

As such, you must therefore not look down on the importance of marketing in your business.

However, you also have to understand that the selling or shopping experience must be in line with the promotional (advertising) material since people will come to the business site with a preconceived perception that was put in them by your marketing techniques.

When customers realize that the shopping experience is below the picture painted by your advertising, they feel cheated and thus can go somewhere else when there is an alternative.

It is therefore better that your customers can find the shopping experience to be more appealing when compared to the advert than vice versa.

When it comes to entrepreneurship, you must understand that business is not only about having the right product at the right time but it also entails having an appealing communication about that product or service in a way that arouses customer engagement.

Your marketing approach thus determines the first engagement and relationship that you create with your customers and it also creates a reminder and a conviction in them to revisit.

The selling or shopping experience on the other hand establishes the relationship, solidifies the engagement and creates memories which when they are ignited by an advert again, it can then spur the customer to come once more.

This relationship is good for your business reputation and thus it must be promoted.

A good business reputation determines the kind of stakeholders that you will engage with since good suppliers, exceptional employees and loyal customers need to be associated with a good name.

In any industry, it is highly critical to consider creating, establishing and maintaining a long lasting relationship with your customers through devising a good marketing approach which helps clients to quickly and efficiently access effective solutions to their needs and wants.

When designing your marketing approach, you must ask the following questions and then beautifully craft and package your information and products in a way that addresses these questions for the mutual good of your business and its stakeholders:

  1. Does the market know about my business and the related products and services that I am offering?
  2. Is the market convinced enough that the products and services that my business offers can satisfy their needs and help them to succeed?
  3. Does the market have any concerns about the quality of my products and the ability of my business to continue offering products and services?

Such questions are very necessary, because if people are constantly subject to negative information or doubts about the reality to be experienced when they engage you, there is likely to be a very limited inflow of clients to your business.

It is therefore the duty of every entrepreneur and the related sales and marketing personnel to ensure that the market is properly furnished with the correct and appealing information about your products and services.

One acid test that you can do is to make random surveys on your target market in order find out how much information do people have about your business and the related products and services that you are offering.

If they have some information about your products, you also still need to find out, if the same market has confidence in your business or in your products and services.

Your marketing material must then be crafted with all these issues in mind in order to create, maintain and promote continued engagement with your clientele.

When you fully and clearly understand the issues to do with marketing and then devise a properly engaging and effective marketing approach, you will create for your business, a unique customer service signature and a commercial identity that defines your company.

Customer Service Signature or Identity – is a company’s unique way of interacting with its clients as determined by the duties, responsibility and accountability assigned to the individuals in an organisation.

There is a certain unique and almost indescribable feeling that customers get when they engage a business that values them.

When you value your clients across all the spectrum of your business, they get tickled when they see your advert, they get excited when they consume your product and they get passionate when they refer others to engage in your products and services.

Such a feeling makes them want to continue patronising your business and it makes them want to visit your premises or regularly browse your website. This is because the experience that they get when they engage your services is a unique signature that you imprint in their hearts and minds.

It is important to also understand that imprinting your customer service signature in the hearts and minds of your clients does not happen on its own but it takes an understanding of what marketing is, what it does and how it is done especially as explained in this pocket book.

Commercial Identity – is a company’s image/reputation to its stakeholders based on its unique and independent trading practises and characteristics that comes from exposure and adherence to a defined Policy and Mission Statement.

Just as like what we do with people when we describe them especially according to how they are perceived by our senses, we can also do the same with businesses.

This is because, from how we see and perceive a certain business based on its operations, we get an identity or we can give it an identity that reflects whether or not, that business attracts or repels us.

As such, when designing a marketing approach, it’s important to understand that it has an effect on your business identity and that such an identity reflects to your various stakeholders who in turn make an engagement decision based on your marketing material.

The mentioned identity must strike awe in the hearts and minds of your clientele, whether actual or targeted, so that they feel like missing out on something when they are not engaging you as a product or service provider.

Critical Attributes of an Advertisement

Generally, a typical advertisement has the attributes of communication (information dissemination), corporate responsibility, marketing and public relations, among others in the sense that when you read, listen to or even watch an advert you can see that there is:

  1.  An element of profitable selling (commerce) through use of good communication mechanisms.
  2. An element of passing helpful community information (corporate social responsibility)
  3. An element of initiating, establishing or even restoring commercial relationship (public relations) through good communication practices.

One of the most important issues to consider in designing and implementing an effective advertising campaign is to understand that advertising is a form of business communication which must have the following attributes:

  1. It must be easy to process and understand (the message must be quickly decoded and must prompt or bring about informed action)
  2. It must create an interest in the product or service in a way that quickly and clearly convey a sense of benefit or achievement to the consumer (satisfaction) and commercial gain to the entrepreneur (profit).
  3. It must promote responsibility and uphold morality (pursuit of profit must not directly or secretly tear the social fabric)
  4. It must enhance the community ambience or mood (must excite and create positive expectations among stakeholders).
  5. It must enhance community knowledge about a certain issue, must inform and educate (whether they buy or not, the message must leave the targeted audience better informed about a certain issue)
  6. showcase talent, promote creativity and encourage excellence in a given field (whether print, audio or visual, an advert must be a platform for the gifted creatives (artists) to thrive and shine)

When the above mentioned attributes are incorporated in an advertisement, the advert will have an emotional appeal that creates a bond between and among the organisation and its targeted audience.

On the contrary, failure to consider the above attributes will result in an advertising campaign that fails to achieve the intended results, thus creating unnecessary but avoidable expenses to the organisation.

It is therefore important to understand that an advertisement must touch the hearts and minds of the targeted audience and influence them towards expenditure in a manner that is sustainable to both the respective individuals and the community at large while at the same time bringing viability and profits to the organisation.

Adapted from The SME HANDBOOK written by Brian Kazungu

Amazon Book Link: https://amzn.to/3geP4ux

Author Profile: https://www.amazon.com/author/briankazungu

Brian Kazungu is an Author, Poet, Journalist, and Technology Enthusiast whose writing covers issues to do with Business, Travelling, Motivation and Inspiration, Religion, Politics, and Communication among others. https://www.amazon.com/author/briankazungu https://muckrack.com/brian-kazungu http://www.modernghana.com/author/BrianKazungu [email protected] @BKazungu-Twitter He has written and published several books covering various aspects of human life including leadership, entrepreneurship, politics, personal development as well as poetry and travel. These books are found on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/author/briankazungu

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Warning: Undefined variable $user_ID in /home/iniafrica/public_html/wp-content/themes/zox-news/comments.php on line 49

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply