6 steps to a communication strategy that reaches your target audience

How do you define a communications strategy for your company? We don't always know where to start or how to go about it.

Yet it is an essential marketing tool for attracting new customers in the age of digital communication, when consumers have never been so much in demand. A communication strategy brings together all the communication decisions you have made for your company, and the action plan for achieving your objectives.

So how do you draw up a communications strategy? Follow the 6 steps step-by-step, get inspired by our example and download our communication strategy template to help you draw it up successfully. Finally, we suggest a selection of tools to help you manage all your communication activities successfully.

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How do you draw up a communication strategy? 6 steps to follow

Step 1: define your company's identity and positioning

Your company's identity is characterised in particular by its why, i.e. its reason for existing.

Here are three simple questions to help you define it:

• what is your added value, your positioning in relation to your competitors?
• What values does your company hold dear?
• do you have a story to tell?

💡Why is it so important to know your raison d'être? The answers to these questions make up your identity, and your brand image. These are the characteristics that make your business unique and give it a good reason to exist.

Step 2: Know your target

Ideal customer and marketing communication strategy

Because you don't address an expectant mother in the same way as a gardening enthusiast, you need to know your target customer well, ideally better than they know themselves.

Beyond the demographic characteristics of your ideal customer (buyer persona or persona marketing in Inbound Marketing), you need to understand what drives them, the problems they think about before going to sleep, the emotions they go through and how they express themselves.

This in-depth work will enable you to gather valuable information that will simplify all your future communication and even marketing, sales and customer relations activities. You will know how best to respond to their needs, and will be more accurate in defining and delivering your message.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of the information you can gather:

• their profile (age, gender, profession, salary),
• their interests, passions, what they do in their spare time,
• their problems, obstacles and frustrations,
• what their life will be like once the problem has been solved,
• their deepest motivations,
• the emotions they go through,
• the vocabulary, words and expressions they use.

How can you get to know your ideal customer?

Where can you find this information?

• by consulting existing marketing studies
• by gathering feedback from discussions with your customers
• using tools like Google or Facebook ads,
• by reading forums, comments and reviews.

Step 3: Set your objectives

The different types of communication objectives

There are four main types of communication objective:

🗣Develop your brand awareness. Be visible, publicise your brand, your product or a new feature;

😍Work on your brand image. Even if not everyone will be a customer of yours, you still want people to like your products, and for your brand to be associated with something positive. In the long run, a good brand image can positively influence the act of buying ;

💰 Get your ideal customer to take action, whether that means encouraging them to leave their details on your website, go to a physical or virtual point of sale to buy, ask for documentation, go to a point of sale, buy, buy again ;

🤝Loyalise your customers. By retaining your best customers, you can expect a 25% to 55% increase in your sales (source: Cabinet Bain & Company). What's more, a happy customer can become an ambassador for your brand, and thus have an impact on the above objectives.

How do you set achievable targets?

The SMART method indicates that for an objective to be fair, it must be :

• specific
• measurable
• attainable
• realistic
• time-bound.

© Reinventing your work

💡Have you just set up your business? The first objective of your communications strategy will be your brand awareness, so that as many people as possible know about your business. You can then spread your efforts over the other objectives.

Step 4: Choose the message you want to communicate

Now that you've explored the different facets of your business and your ideal customer in depth, you need to make sure that they understand your business and how it can help them solve their problems.

What makes a good message?

• short and clear
• Appropriate vocabulary,
• focused on the benefits (not the features),
• subtly mentioning the differentiating factor.

Step 5: Carry out communication actions

Choose the right communication channels to get your message across

Now that you know your customer better, you know which channels to use to get your message across.

Questions to ask yourself :

• Which social networks do they spend the most time on?
• Which physical locations do they frequent?
• Do they like to receive emails?
• Do they watch TV? If so, when?
• which trade shows do they attend?

💡 Tip: opting for a multi-channel strategy maximises your chances of reaching your target.

Carrying out concrete communication actions

Here is a non-exhaustive list of the different communication actions you can take, depending on the channels you use.

For a digital communication strategy:

• Social networks: publications (photos, product videos), sponsored publications, partnerships with influencers, interaction through comments, organisation of live events;
• Emailing: promotional emails, content sharing;
• Blogging, content marketing: writing articles, publishing infographics.

For a conventional communication strategy:

• Events: taking part in trade fairs, organising conferences ;
• Media: commercials, radio advertising, articles in the press, etc.

Your company is unique, and so should your strategy!

Build a tailor-made communication strategy for your ideal client, with your personal touch so that you're recognisable at first glance.

💡Think about assessing the cost of the actions you want to put in place, so you can allocate a sufficient budget to them.

Step 6: draw up a communication plan

The communication plan is a document that acts as an action plan. It communicates the strategy to the teams involved, so that everyone is moving in the right direction: it sets the course.

You can set out your communication strategy in this document, based on the various considerations you have made in advance (communication objectives, target audience, budget).

Next, list the actions to be taken. Detail them, estimate the budget allocated to carrying them out and the recurrence of the actions (for example, writing a blog article every week).

Ideally, plan the actions in a back-planner, so that you can see at a glance what is planned for the coming weeks or even months.

To make it easier to create your communication plan and manage the project, we recommend that you use project management software. This will give you a better overview (budget, expenses, stakeholders, deadlines, etc.) and enable you to coordinate all the players involved.

Example of a company communications strategy

Background

After the birth of her first child and faced with the difficulties of decorating her baby's bedroom, a young mum launched her business selling objects dedicated to decorating children's bedrooms, on her e-commerce site Baby Déco.

▶ The company's raison d'être

To offer young parents objects that are modern, cute and made in France to decorate their child's bedroom.

▶ Its values

• Made in France,
• quality products,
• aesthetic objects.

Objective and target

Develop awareness of Baby déco by reaching 1,000 followers on Instagram, 400 likes on the Facebook page and 100 newsletter subscribers.

👤Ideal target profile

• Future or young parents,
• Between the ages of 25 and 35,
• Ideally for a first child,
• Professionally active, comfortable standard of living,
• Very active on social networks,
• Modern, they like to follow trends,
• Sensitive to the aesthetics of beautiful objects in general.

🤯Problems encountered

• We don't know where to start or what to buy?
• How can we have a safe room for baby?
• We're not homeowners: how do we decorate without painting, making holes or major work?
• We're keeping the sex of the baby a surprise: how do we decorate the bedroom accordingly?
• We live in a studio: how can we create a cosy corner for him?
• We have lots of ideas for themes to decorate the bedroom, how do we decide?

💭Description of their ideal daily life

Baby is calm and soothed when he's in his room. It's a safe and secure environment in which nothing bad can happen to him. This cosy, warm cocoon allows him to wake up, and to play alone or with his parents. The people around him find the room pretty and well decorated.

💪Motivations of young parents

• To give their child the best, to be good parents and to be seen as such,
• Wanting a trendy, original bedroom that's different from the classic decor they may have known as a child,
• Decorating is a pleasure, a way of looking ahead and waiting for the long-awaited arrival of the baby,
• Spend quality time together as a family in the bedroom,
• Having a room that is unlike any other in their environment (desire to stand out, to be unique).

✨Emotions felt

• Hesitation between practicality and aesthetics,
• Disappointment (with current decor),
• Lack of inspiration,
• An idea, but already seen around,
• Excitement,
• Joy,
• Impatience.

🗣Vocabulary used

• List the words and adjectives used to describe the bedroom.
• List words and adjectives to describe their child

💌The message

Baby déco is an online shop specialising in items to fully decorate baby's room. When you buy from this site, you can be sure that the room will be both trendy and cute, and that the products are made in France.

Communication channels to reach the ideal customer

• Social networks (Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest),
• Blog,
• Email.

Communication plan: action plan and budget

Social networks

• Post product photos,
• post tutorials on trendy topics (how to wear baby in a sling, positive parenting, etc.),
• partner with mum influencers who share the same values,
• do live interviews to answer questions,
• sponsored posts thanks to advertising.

Estimated monthly budget :

• 200 € for advertising,
• 100 worth of items to send to influencers.

Blog

• Writing articles on parenting, decoration and childhood,
• create infographics,
• make selections of objects from the site for a complete bedroom decoration.

Estimated monthly budget :

• 300 € graphic designer budget for infographics

Emailing:

• newsletter sharing news, new products and new blog posts,
• email sequences triggered by the harvesting of an email thanks to marketing automation,
• promotional emails with exclusive discounts.

Estimated monthly budget :

• 19 € emailing software subscription

Communication strategy template [PDF example to download]

Now it's your turn! We've provided a template for you to fill in to draw up your communication strategy:

The toolbox for your communication strategy

Here is our selection of the different types of software that can help you throughout your communication strategy.

• To plan your communication strategy: project management software;

• To monitor your e-reputation: reputation management software;
• To manage your social networks and plan your publications: social network management software;
• To launch your blog: CMS software;
• For your email campaigns: emailing software;
• To create and edit your images: image editing and retouching software.

See all software Communications

Opt for a communication strategy that suits you

Communication is essential for your business, whether it's to raise awareness, enhance your brand image or encourage your target audience to make a purchase.

Ultimately, your communication activities are the only things the outside world sees about you, and they need to reflect your identity and values.

So be careful not to "sell the dream" through your communications: the quality of your service or products must be at least equal to the value perceived by your future customers, or you risk disappointment.

If your communication is honest, sincere and like you, then it will be successful.

So, are you ready to start planning your communications strategy?