Communicating to sell: the benefits of automation
To turn your prospects into customers, you can use a variety of communication channels. It's up to you to assess the relevance and benefits of each one, so that you can activate them wisely. Read all our advice on using marketing automation.
The different types of communication
The nature of the communication to be deployed is determined by the objective pursued. Grouped into typologies, we find :
- external communication. These are all the messages sent to your zone of influence and your network, whether customers, prospects, partners or even competitors.
- internal communication: on the other hand, this is what circulates within your organisation itself. It is aimed at employees and the various departments at different sites. It is also known as corporate or institutional communication.
- marketing communication: this is a form of external communication, and is more specifically concerned with your offering, brand image and customer benefits.
- sales communication: part of marketing, this focuses on prospects and customers, encompassing canvassing on the one hand and customer relations on the other.
- events communication: when you host a reception or organise a special event. It's an opportunity to say thank you, to call on your network, to present something new or to make an announcement. Your invitations, like any teasers - such as D - x days - are a very specific kind of communication effort.
The different communication channels
There are many channels. It's up to you to identify the most appropriate one for each situation.
Old school communication
These are the traditional means, which have become classic without necessarily being obsolete, such as the fixed telephone, post and fax.
Media communication
These are channels with advertising space: television, radio, websites with advertiser banners, print (paper press, magazines, etc.).
Non-media communication
This involves more two-way interaction, with more personal media such as mobile phones and e-mail addresses.
Which one should you choose?
Variable impact
Which channel is the right one? There are no rules. And in the end, that's all to the good, otherwise we'd see an impoverishing homogenisation of approaches across the board. The fact remains, however, that not all approaches are created equal: more or less judiciously carried out on one channel or another, the results will be less than satisfactory or, on the contrary, very positive.
A cost to be optimised
Communicating remains a source of expenditure: you allocate internal resources to it or call on external service providers. You may also spend money on advertising or search engine optimisation. So you want to optimise its impact. How do you identify the right channel?
A few points of reference
The best way to find out is, of course, to test. However, you can start by clearing the way beforehand. Starting with a benchmark: what are your competitors doing? What are the practices in the sector? In industry, paper, for example, will sometimes hit the bull's eye, while it will be forgotten elsewhere.
Marketing automation
No more mass approaches
Whatever the channel and type of communication you use, there's one thing you've got to get rid of: the mass approach. Of course, the challenge is to address as many people as possible, so as to generate as many interesting contacts as possible. Converting your leads into customers is a priority. But quantity should not be at the expense of quality.
Recipients are more demanding
With the increase in spam-type messages, you have no room for error. Now is the time to personalise your message. Because your contacts are increasingly demanding. They want to receive the right offer at the right time. An ill-focused or overly general message will bore them and cost you image capital.
Setting up automation
In practical terms, how do you go about it? Marketing automation is today's way of personalising campaigns while systematising them. The principle is to segment your database finely and then assign automatic actions to it. With a solution like Plezi, you specify your profiling criteria upstream, then programme the sending of specific content to recipients with specific characteristics.
A multi-channel approach
This type of mechanism can also be used for multi-channel campaigns. With a tool like Send-Up, all the channels are covered. In this way, you can orchestrate your campaigns by making the most of each one: one part of your campaign may focus on direct mail, while another completes the picture with paper mailings. The two most commonly used levers are email and SMS. Solutions such as ActiveTrail have specialised in this area.
Marketing automation has revolutionised the communication challenges associated with sales. Today, you can refine your targeting while personalising your content: a decisive way of standing out from the crowd.
Article translated from French