WHAT DO WE MEAN BY

COMMUNICATION?
Communication is the process of transmitting
ideas and information. For a grass roots
initiative or community-based organization,
that means conveying the true nature of your
organization, the issues it deals with, and its
accomplishments to the community.
Communication can take many forms,
including:
 Word of mouth
 News stories in both print and broadcast
media
 Press releases and press conferences
 Posters, brochures, and fliers
 Outreach and presentations to other health
and community service providers,
community groups, and organizations
 Special events and open houses that your
organization holds
To communicate effectively, it helps to plan
out what you want from your communication,
and what you need to do to get it.
WHAT IS A PLAN FOR
COMMUNICATION?
Planning is a way to organize actions that will
lead to the fulfilment of a goal.
Your goal, in this case, is to raise awareness
about your initiative's long-term benefits to
your community.
To develop a plan for communication, you
have to consider some basic questions:
 Why do you want to communicate with the
community?  (What’s your purpose?)
 To whom do you want to communicate
it?  (Who’s your audience?)
 What do you want to
communicate?  (What’s your message?)
 How do you want to communicate
it?  (What communication channels will
you use?)
  Whom should you contact, and what
should you do to use those
channels?  (How will you distribute your
message?)
The answers to these questions constitute your
action plan, what you need to do to
successfully communicate with your
audience. The remainder of your
communication plan, involves three steps:
 Implement your action plan. Design
your message and distribute it to your
intended audience.
 Evaluate your communication
efforts and adjust your plan
accordingly.
 Keep at it.
Communication is an ongoing activity for any
organization that serves, depends upon, or is in
any way connected with the community. The
purpose, audience, message, and channels may
change, but the need to maintain relationships
with the media and with key people in the
community remain.  As a result, an essential
part of any communication plan is to continue
using and revising your plan, based on your
experience, throughout the existence of your
organization.
WHY SHOULD YOU
DEVELOP A PLAN FOR
COMMUNICATION?
 A plan will make it possible to target your
communication accurately. It gives you a
structure to determine whom you need to
reach and how.
 A plan can be long-term, helping you map
out how to raise your profile and refine
your image in the community over time.
 A plan will make your communication
efforts more efficient, effective, and
lasting.
 A plan makes everything easier. If you
spend some time planning at the beginning
of an effort, you can save a great deal of
time later on, because you know what you
should be doing at any point in the
process.
WHEN SHOULD YOU
DEVELOP A PLAN FOR
COMMUNICATION?
As soon as your organization begins planning
its objectives and activities, you should also
start planning ways to communicate them;
successful communication is an ongoing
process, not a one-time event.
Communication is useful at all points in your
organization's development - it can help get
the word out about a new organization, renew
interest in a long-standing program, or help
attract new funding sources.
HOW DO YOU
DEVELOP A PLAN FOR
COMMUNICATION?
Planning for communication is an eight-step
process. The steps are:
1. Identify the purpose of your
communication
 2. Identify your audience
3. Plan and design your message
4. Consider your resources
5. Plan for obstacles and emergencies
6. Strategize how you will connect with
the media and others who can help you
spread your message
7. Create an action plan
8. Decide how you will evaluate your
plan and adjust it, based on the results of
carrying it out
IDENTIFY YOUR PURPOSE
What you might want to say depends on what
you’re trying to accomplish with your
communication strategy. You might be
concerned with one or a combination of the
following:
 Becoming known, or better known, in the
community
 Educating the public about the issue your
organization addresses
 Recruiting program participants or
beneficiaries
  Recruiting volunteers to help with your
work
 Rallying supporters or the general public
to action for your cause
 Announcing events
 Celebrating honors or victories
 Raising money to fund your work
 Countering the arguments, mistakes, or,
occasionally, the lies or misrepresentations
of those opposed to your work.
 Dealing with an organizational crisis that’s
public knowledge – a staff member who
commits a crime, for example, or a lawsuit
aimed at the organization.
2.  IDENTIFY YOUR AUDIENCE
Who are you trying to reach? Knowing your
audience makes it possible to plan your
communication logically. You'll need different
messages for different groups, and you'll need
different channels and methods to reach each
of those groups.
There are many different ways to think about
your audience and the best ways to contact
them. First, there’s the question of what
group(s) you’ll focus on. You can group
people according to several characteristics:
 Demographics. Demographics are simply
basic statistical information about people,
such as gender, age, ethnic and racial
background, income, etc.
 Geography. You might want to focus on a
whole town or region, on one or more
neighborhoods, or on people who live near
a particular geographic or man-made
feature.
 Employment. You may be interested in
people in a particular line of work or in
unemployed people.
 Health. Your concern might be with
people at risk for or experiencing a
particular condition – high blood pressure,
perhaps, or diabetes – or you might be
leveling a health promotion effort – “Eat
healthy, exercise regularly” – at the whole
community.
 Behavior. You may be targeting your
message to smokers, for example, or to
youth engaged in violence.
  Attitudes. Are you trying to change
people’s minds or bring them to the next
level of understanding?
Another aspect of the audience to consider is
whether you should direct your
communication to those whose behavior,
knowledge, or condition you hope to affect, or
whether your communication needs to be
indirect. Sometimes, to influence a population,
you have to aim your message at those to
whom they listen – clergy, community leaders,
politicians, etc.
For instance, in the 1970s, advocates wanted
to stop Nestle from selling baby formula and
paying doctors and nurses to recommend it to
parents in the developing world. Most parents
couldn’t afford formula after the free samples
ran out, and many didn’t have clean water to
mix with it, so the practice led to large
numbers of unnecessary infant deaths. Rather
than target Nestle or the medical professionals
who were selling the formula, advocates
aimed at Nestle’s customers around the world,
instituting a boycott of Nestle products that
lasted for over ten years. Ultimately, the
company agreed to change its practices.

THE MESSAGE
When creating your message, consider
content, mood, language, and design.
Content
In the course of a national adult literacy
campaign in the 1980s, educators learned that
TV ads that profiled proud, excited, successful
adult learners attracted new learners to literacy
programs. Ads that described the difficulties
of adults with poor reading, writing, and math
skills attracted potential volunteers. Both ads
were designed to make the same points – the
importance of basic skills and the need for
literacy efforts – but they spoke to different
groups.
You should craft your message with your
audience in mind; planning the content of your
message is necessary to make it effective.
Mood
Consider what emotions you want to appeal
to.
The mood of your message will do a good deal
to determine how people react to it. In general,
if the mood is too extreme – too negative, too
frightening, trying to make your audience feel
too guilty – people won’t pay much attention
to it. It may take some experience to learn how
to strike the right balance. Keeping your tone
positive will usually reach more people than
evoking negative feelings such as fear or
anger.
Language
There are two aspects to language here. One is
the actual language – English, Spanish,
Korean, Arabic – that your intended audience
speaks. The other is the style of language you
use – formal or informal, simple or complex,
referring to popular figures and ideas or
obscure ones.
You can address the language people speak by
presenting any printed material in both the
official language and the language(s) of the
population(s) you’re hoping to reach, and by
providing translation for spoken or broadcast
messages.
The second language issue is more
complicated. If your message is too informal,
your audience might feel you’re talking down
to them, or, worse, that you’re making an
insincere attempt to get close to them by
communicating in a way that’s clearly not
normal for you.  If your message is too formal,
your audience might feel you’re not really
talking to them at all. You should use plain,
straightforward language that expresses what
you want to say simply and clearly.
Channels of communication
What does your intended audience read, listen
to, watch, or engage in? You have to reach
them by placing your message where they’ll
see it.
 Posters
 Fliers and brochures - These can be more
compelling in places where the issue is
already in people’s minds (doctors’ offices
 for health issues, supermarkets for
nutrition, etc.).
 Newsletters
 Promotional materials - Items such as
caps, T-shirts, and mugs can serve as
effective channels for your message.
 Comic books or other reading material -
Reading material that is interesting to the
target audience can be used to deliver a
message through a story that readers are
eager to follow, or through the compelling
nature of the medium and its design.
 Internet sites - In addition to your
organization's website, interactive sites
like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are
effective mediums for communication
 Letters to the Editor
 News stories, columns, and reports
 Press releases and press conferences
 Presentations or presence at local events
and local and national conferences, fairs,
and other gatherings
 Community outreach
 Community or national events - The Great
American Smokeout, National Literacy
 Day, a community “Take Back the Night”
evening against violence, and other
community events can serve to convey a
message and highlight an issue.
 Public demonstrations
 Word of mouth
 Music
 Exhibits and public art - The AIDS quilt, a
huge quilt with squares made by thousands
of people, commemorating victims of the
HIV epidemic, is a prime example.
 Movies - Since the beginnings of the film
industry, movies have carried messages
about race, the status of women, adult
literacy, homosexuality, mental illness,
AIDS, and numerous other social issues.
 TV - TV can both carry straightforward
messages – ads and Public Service
Announcements (PSAs) – and present
news and entertainment programs that deal
with your issue or profile your
organization.
 Theatre and interactive theatre - A play or
skit, especially one written by people who
have experienced what it illustrates, can be
 a powerful way to present an issue or to
underline the need for services or change.
Several interactive theatre groups in New
England, by stopping the action and inviting
questions and comments, draw audiences into
performances dramatizing real incidents in the
lives of the actors, all of whom are staff
members and learners in adult literacy
programs. They have helped change attitudes
about adult learners and bring information
about adult literacy and learning into the
community
RESOURCES
What do you have the money to do? Do you
have the people to make it possible? If you’re
going to spend money, what are the chances
that the results will be worth the expense?
Who will lose what, and who will gain what
by your use of financial and human resources?
Your plan should include careful
determinations of how much you can spend
and how much staff and volunteer time it’s
reasonable to use. You may also be able
to share materials, air time, and other goods
and services with individuals, businesses,
other organizations, and institutions.
5.  ANTICIPATE OBSTACLES AND
EMERGENCIES
Any number of things can happen in the
course of a communication effort. Someone
can forget to e-mail a press release or forget to
include a phone number or e-mail address. A
crucial word on your posters or in your
brochure can be misspelled, or a reporter
might get important information wrong.
Worse, you might have to deal with a real
disaster involving the organization that has the
potential to discredit everything you do.
It’s important to try to anticipate these kinds
of problems, and to create a plan to deal with
them. Crisis planning should be part of any
communication plan, so you’ll know what to
do when a problem or crisis occurs. Crisis
plans should include who takes responsibility
for what – dealing with the media, correcting
errors, deciding when something has to be
redone rather than fixed, etc. It should cover
as many situations, and as many aspects of
each situation, as possible.
STRATEGIZE HOW YOU’LL
CONNECT WITH THE MEDIA AND
OTHERS TO SPREAD YOUR
MESSAGE
Establishing relationships with individual
media representatives and media outlets is an
essential part of a communication plan, as
is establishing relationships with influential
individuals and institutions in the community
and the population you’re trying to reach. You
have to make personal contacts, give the
media and others reasons to want to help you,
and follow through to sustain those
relationships to keep communication channels
open.
The individuals that can help you spread your
message can vary from formal community
leaders – elected officials, CEOs of prominent
local businesses, clergy, etc. – to community
activists and ordinary citizens.  Institutions
and organizations, such as colleges, hospitals,
service clubs, faith communities, and other
health and community organizations, all have
access to groups of community members who
might need to hear your message.
7.  CREATE AN ACTION PLAN
Now the task is to put it all together into a plan
that you can act on. By the time you reach this
point, your plan is already done, for the most
part. You know what your purpose is and
whom you need to reach to accomplish it,
what your message should contain and look
like, what you can afford, what problems you
might face, what channels can best be used to
reach your intended audience, and how to gain
access to those channels. Now it’s just a
matter of putting the details together –
composing and designing your message (or
messages, if using multiple channels), making
contact with the people who can help you, and
getting everything in place to start your
communication effort. And finally, you'll
evaluate your effort so that you can continue
to make it better.
8.  EVALUATION
If you evaluate your communication plan in
terms of both how well you carry it out and
how well it works, you’ll be able to make
changes to improve it. It will keep getting
more effective each time you implement it.
And there’s really a ninth step to developing a
communication plan; as with just about every
phase of health and community work, you
have to keep up the effort, adjusting your plan
and communicating with the community.

INTEGRATED MARKETING
Integrated marketing communication is an
approach to promote products and services
(brand promotion) where various modes of
marketing are integrated so that similar
message goes to the customers. According to
integrated marketing communication, all
aspects of marketing communication work
together to promote brands more effectively
among end-users and also for better results.
Brands are promoted through advertising,
sales promotions, banners, hoardings, public
relations, social networking sites and so on
simultaneously to increase brand awareness
among potential end-users.’
One of the most effective ways to promote
brands is through effective communication.
Organizations need to communicate well with
not only the potential customers but also
existing customers. Communicating
effectively not only strengthens relationship
with your clients but also gives organizations
an edge over competitors. Remember,
effective communication enables message and
relevant information to reach the recipients in
the desired manner. Why would a customer
invest in your brand if he/she is not aware of
the product’s features and benefits? The
unique selling points of brands need to be
communicated well to the end-users by
effectively integrating various brand
promotion tools.
Following are the various ways which enable
organizations to communicate effectively with
customers.

 Advertising
 Online Promotions

 Direct Marketing

 Hoardings, Banners

 PR Activities

 Internet, Emails and so on.

Marketers need to promote two way

communication with customers. The feedback
of customers is essential and should be
monitored regularly, if you really wish to
survive in the long run. Your customers must
be able to reach you conveniently for them to
develop a sense of attachment and loyalty
towards your brand.
Various modes of brand communication
need to be managed effectively so that
similar message reaches customers. For
Example if your advertisement says your
products are eco friendly, the bill boards, and
banners must also share the same message.
The integration needs to be done smartly and
effectively.
 The first step towards managing
integrated marketing communication
is to identify the target audience. You
need to understand who all are the
customers who would actually benefit
from your products. Understand their
needs and expectations.
 The second step is to know what you
intend to communicate. No brand
promotion tools would help unless and
until you are really sure of what you
want to share with your potential and
existing customers.
 Carefully design your message.
Check the content of the message,
message structure, format, spellings and
so on.
 The next step is to identify the
various channels of communication.
You need to be really careful while
selecting the channel of communication
so that the right message goes to the
right customer at the right place and
right time.
 Allocate right resources for brand
promotion. Decide how much can you
spend on various marketing and
promotional activities. A marketer
needs to wisely assign budgets for
various promotional activities such as
advertising, PR activities, banners and
so on.
 The most crucial step is to measure
the results of integrated marketing
communication. Find out whether the
combination of all marketing tools has
actually helped you reach a wider
 audience and promote your brands
more effectively.

Steps for Developing an

Advertisement Program |
Marketing Management
Marketers must make the following
important decisions while developing an
advertising program:
1. Setting Advertising Objectives
2. Setting the Advertising Budget
3. Determine the Key Advertising
Messages
4. Media Decisions
5. Evaluating Advertising Campaigns.
Step 1: To Set Advertising Objectives:

An advertising objective is a specific

communication task to be achieved with
a specific target audience during a
specified period of time.
Advertising objectives can be divided
into three main categories:
(a) To Inform:
Informative advertising aims to create
awareness and knowledge of new
products or new features of existing
products, e.g. tell customers about a
new product policies, promotional
schemes, availability of products etc.
(b) To Persuade:
Persuasive advertising aims to create
liking, preference, conviction, and
purchase of a product or service. Some
persuasive advertising uses
comparative advertising, which makes a
clear comparison of the attributes of
two or more brands. E.g. encourage
customers to switch to a different
brand.
(c) To Remind:
Reminder advertising aims to stimulate
repeat purchase of products and
services.
Secondary Objectives of Advertising:
(i) Stimulate an increase in sales
(ii) Remind customers of the existence
of a product
(iii) Inform customers
(iv) Build a brand image
(v) Build customer loyalty and
relationship
(vi) Change customer attitudes

Step 2: Decision on the Advertising Budget:

It is the estimation of expenditure on

various components of advertising. It
should match with the objectives of a
business firm. The amount spent on
advertising should be relevant to the
potential sales impact of the campaign.
Advertising budgets is finalized by
marketing manager and media agency.
Factors to be considered while
setting the advertising budget:
(i) Stage in the Product Life Cycle:
New products typically receive large
advertising budgets to build awareness
and to gain consumer trial. Advertising
budget for a new product may be
different from a product in maturity
stage, new products tend to need a
larger advertising budget to help build
awareness and to encourage
consumers to trial the product.
Established brands usually are
supported with lower advertising
budgets as a ratio to sales.
(ii) Market Share and Consumer Base:
High market share brands usually
require less advertising expenditure as
a percentage of sales to maintain share,
it is due to popularity and awareness of
customer about brand. It is less
expensive to reach consumers of a
widely used brand than to reach
consumers of low-share brands. If a
new company wants to increase its
market share it will need high
investments on advertising campaign.
(iii) Competition in Market:
Advertisement budget depends on level
of competition in market competition
can be seen more in the field of
automobile, electronic appliances,
telecommunication, banking etc.
products which are having close
substitutes in market needs more
expenditure on advertising. In a market
with a large number of competitors and
high advertising spending, a brand must
advertise more heavily to be heard.
(iv) Advertising Frequency:
The number of repetitions needed to
put across the brand’s message to
consumers has an important impact on
the advertising budget. Higher the
frequency higher would be budget.
(v) Product Substitutability:
Brands in a commodity class require
heavy advertising to establish a
differential image. Advertising is also
important when a brand can offer
unique physical benefits or features.

Stage 3: Determine the Key Advertising

Messages and Deciding the Copy:

Research suggests that the clarity of the

advertising message is often more
important than the amount spent. The
advertising message must be carefully
targeted to impact the target customer
audience.
A successful advertising message
should have the following
characteristics:
a. Meaningful:
Customers should find the message
relevant, easy to understand.
b. Distinctive:
Capture the customer’s attention.
c. Believable:
A difficult task, since research suggests
most consumers doubt the truth of
advertising in general.
Message evaluation and selection of a
good advertisement normally focuses
on one core selling proposition,
messages should be rated on
desirability, exclusiveness, and
believability. Message execution can be
decisive for highly similar products,
such as detergents, cigarettes, coffee,
and soft drinks. Advertising does not
overstep social and legal norms.
Copy writing is the next step of
advertisement programme it is a
specialized form of communicating
ideas that are meant to serve the
requirements of modern marketing. It
helps in establishing link between
advertising and their prospects. It may
also use to promote the acceptance of
idea and utilized words to convey
message having commercial
information.
The term copy includes every single
feature that appear in the body of
advertisement, copy – is an all-
embracing term covering all that
appears in an advertisement the written
matter, pictures, labels and design.
Developing copy is a creative process
copy development is mostly done by
professional advertising agencies.

Stage 4: Decide which Advertising Media to

Use:

There are a variety of advertising media

from which to choose. A campaign may
use one or more of the media
alternatives.
The key factors in choosing the right
media include:
(a) Reach:
What proportion of the target
customers will be exposed to the
advertising? It is the number of different
persons or households exposed to a
particular media schedule at least once
during a specified time period.
(b) Frequency:
How many times will the target
customer be exposed to the advertising
message? Frequency is the number of
times within the specified time period
that an average person or household is
exposed to the message.
(c) Media Impact:
Impact is the qualitative value of an
exposure through a given medium
where, if the target customer sees the
message – will it have most impact? For
example, does an advert promoting
holidays for elderly people have more
impact on Television if so, when and
which channels or in a national
newspaper or perhaps a-magazine
focused on this segment of the
population.
Another key decision in relation to
advertising media relates to the timing
of the campaign. Some products are
particularly suited to seasonal
campaigns on television like
advertisements of durables on Diwali
whereas for other products, a regular
advertising campaign throughout the
year in media such as newspapers and
television.
Stage 5: Evaluation of the Advertising
Campaign:

Success of advertising depends on

planning and control of advertising
campaign it should be evaluated by the
advertisers. Most measurement of
advertising effectiveness deals with
specific advertisement and campaigns.
A proposed campaign should be tested
in one or a few cities first and its impact
evaluated before rolling it out
nationally.
Most advertisers try to measure the
communication effect of an
advertisement that is, its potential effect
on awareness, knowledge, or
preference. They would also like to
measure the advertisement sales effect.
The evaluation of an advertising
campaign should focus on two key
areas:
1. The Communication Effects—is the
intended message being communicated
effectively and to the intended
audience?
2. The Sales Effects—has the campaign
generated the intended sales growth.
This second area is much more difficult
to measure.
Bases for the measurement of
advertisement success:
(i) Number of enquiries from
advertisement
(ii) Number of enquiries converted into
sales
(iii) Test customer awareness both
before and after the advertising
campaign
(iv) Number of enquiries
(v) Test customer awareness
(vi) Number of requests for further
information
(vii) Test customer awareness of brand
recognition and perceived values
(viii) Levels of repeat purchase
(ix) Levels of customer retention
(x) Measure demographic profile of
purchases
(xi) Measure type of goods ordered by
new purchasers
(xii) Increase in sales by comparing with
previous data.

Sales promotion:
Sales promotions allow companies short-
term revenue boosts through a wide
variety of customer benefits.

Sales promotion definition

A sales promotion is a marketing strategy
where a business will use short-term
campaigns to spark interest and create
demand for a product, service or other
offers.

Sales promotions can have many

objectives and ideal outcomes, which we
will explore in detail throughout this article.

Primarily, sales promotions are used to

motivate buying behaviour or trigger an
uptick in purchases in the short term, in
order to reach a benchmark or goal.
Although the immediate purpose of a
sales promotion is an uptick in sales,
there are plenty of other benefits to
building out a strategic sales promotion
technique with your marketing team.

Types of sales promotion

There are 12 main types of sales
promotions. Not all of them are suited for
every business, product, or service, but
each one offers unique ways of boosting
sales and connecting with customers
through different methods of sales
psychology. Each is also an interesting
take on spin selling and offers a look
into sales methodology comparison.X

1. Competitions and
challenges: Competitions or challenges
usually take place on social media, and
serve to increase customer engagement
as fans try to win a discounted or free
product. They usually also result in a large
amount of free publicity if the competition
or challenge involves sharing the brand on
a customer’s personal social media
account.
2. Product bundles: Product bundles
offer a collection of products for an overall
discounted rate, as opposed to buying the
products individually. Product bundles
give customers a reason to buy a larger
variety of products, which makes it more
likely they will find a product they like and
want to buy again.
3. Flash sales: Flash sales are extremely
short sales that offer extreme discounts
for a limited amount of time. These sales
work through creating a sense of urgency
and need around your sale.
4. Free trials: Free trials or demos are
one of the most common sales
promotions and one of the most promising
strategies to grow a customer base.
Businesses can offer either a limited time
with the product or a limited quantity of the
product to a first-time buyer at no charge
to see if they like it.
5. Free shipping and/or transfers: Free
shipping promotions attempt to curb
the 70% of customers who abandon their
carts when they see the shipping costs.
The small loss in shipping fees is usually
made up for in happy customer
purchases.
6. Free products: Free product
promotions work by offering a small free
product with the purchase of a larger,
mainstream product. This boosts
mainstream sales without costing the
company too much inventory or revenue.
7. Early-bird or first-purchaser
specials: These specials offer discounts
to first-time purchasers as a way of
welcoming them as customers.
Customers are more likely to buy at a
discount and because the discount only
works once, the company doesn’t lose a
great deal of revenue.
8. BOGO specials: BOGO, or “buy one,
get one free” promotions are primarily
used to spread product awareness.
Customers can give their extra product to
a friend or family member and build a
customer base through word of mouth.
9. Coupons and vouchers: Coupons and
vouchers reward current customers for
their brand loyalty and encourage future
purchases. This is especially effective in
companies who use punch cards which
incentivize customers to make multiple
purchases to earn a free product.
10. Upsell specials: Upsell
promotions are not as common as the
others, but they can still be extremely
effective. Upsells give first-time customers
a less expensive version of a product to
try, and then over time, the sales
department works to convince them to
purchase the more expensive and more
effective option.
11. Subscriptions: Subscriptions are not
always considered sales promotion, since
they tend to be long-term purchases, but
having different amounts of a product
available at a different price point is a
sales promotion tactic. With a
subscription, a customer pays a larger fee
upfront for a large amount of product that
eventually comes out to less than what
they would pay for buying smaller
amounts of product individually.
12. Donations: Donations are an
excellent way for a company to build
credibility and goodwill within the
customer base. Most donations work
when the company contributes a portion
of each sale during a given period to a
charitable cause.

Public relations is a valuable tool

in the promotional mix. Unlike paid
marketing programs such as advertising
your business, public relations is focused
on earned media and can take advantage
of unpaid communication channels.
Public relations is about managing
perceptions – how people think about
your business. It aims to:
 increase awareness
 improve business reputation
 attract customers
 strengthen relationships.
Public relations can be:
 proactive – for example, sharing
positive news stories to raise your
business profile
 reactive – for example, responding to
an event that can have a negative
impact on your business's reputation.

Benefits and risks of public

relations
Public relations can:
 shape the attitudes and behaviours of
existing and potential customers
 play an important role if
you're marketing on a small budget
 deliver the credibility that comes with
independent sources.
Businesses of all sizes can benefit from
well-planned PR initiatives. Some
examples are:
  A plumber operating in his local area
can get PR exposure through trade
networks and community groups and
news items in local media.
 A national procurement software
provider can get PR exposure through
specialised publications and industry
associations.
PR can be cost-effective compared to paid
marketing, but you'll have less control over
things like timing and content.

Public relations in 8 steps

Develop an effective public relations
campaign by following these 8 steps.

1. Define your objectives – your key

performance indicators (KPIs)
Before starting a public relations program:
  set targets for your program based on
your business goals and marketing
objectives
 decide how and when you'll check if
you met these targets.
The success of a PR activity can be
measured by the:
 amount of media coverage – how
many times your business appears in
the media and the number of people
you reach
 quality of media coverage – how
influential the media channels are and
how prominent and positive the
coverage about your business is.
You can also track changes in KPIs, for
example:
 unique website visits
 social media engagement
 number of inbound phone calls
  number of word-of-mouth referrals
 increase in product sales.
When setting your goals, make sure that
you'll be able to both run the PR activities
and manage all customer responses.
2. Decide how much to spend – your
budget
As with all marketing tactics, you'll need to
invest time and possibly some money in
your public relations.
Your budget will depend on the proposed
initiatives in your marketing action plan.
Make sure you budget for all elements,
including:X
 media kits (e.g. media releases and
samples sent to journalists)
 promotional items (e.g. branded pens
and cups as giveaways)
 event costs (e.g. venue hire and
catering for a product launch)
  sponsorships (e.g. supporting a
community group or sporting club)
 agency fees (e.g. hourly rate for
providing public relations services).
3. Decide who you'll target – your
audience

Knowing your ideal customers will help

you select the right channels, tools and
activities. Refer to the target
segments you prioritised in your marketing
plan. Think about your ideal customers
and consider:X
 how they live their lives
 where they get their information.
Use this information when designing your
public relations activities.

4. Know what you want to say

Think about the reputation you want to
build for your business. Ask
yourself: What do you want to be known
for?
Brainstorm the big ideas that will get
people talking about your business. These
are your best public relations
opportunities.
Identify events or happenings at your
business that could be newsworthy and
ensure you:
 make this a habit that's part of the way
you and your team think
 choose material that's up to date,
interesting and fits your audience.
To support your big ideas, draft the key
messages that can be used as part of your
PR material. Your key messages should be:
 accurate and honest
  no longer than a sentence – be short
and sharp.
These messages should explain the who,
what, where, when and why of your
business, for example:
"ABC Hardware is a family-owned
business that has supported DIY
enthusiasts in the Hills District with expert
advice and quality tools since 1982."
Make sure that your messages match
your brand positioning.
5. Choose your PR activities
Base the selection of your public relations
activities on:
 what you're trying to achieve
 what appeals to your audience.
To help you decide:
 consider the advantages and
disadvantages of the different types
of public relations tools and activities
  think about what channels (e.g.
newspapers, magazines or websites)
will best reach your customers
 find out who to contact and how to
deliver your material
 talk to people in your sector, such
as industry association contacts and
your business networks.
6. Schedule your delivery
Keeping track of the many aspects of
public relations requires good
organisation.
Once you have chosen an activity, create
and maintain a work in progress document
that includes:
 tasks – what needs to be done
 timing – when it must be done by
 talent – who is responsible.
Make sure your public relations initiatives
are included in your marketing plan.X
7. Carry out your plan
Based on your planning, the next stage will
be to deliver your public relations
activities. This implementation will be
based on your ideas, tools and contacts.
For example...
You might have recognised an opportunity
to generate publicity for your outdoor
adventure store – a staff member has
recently won an international rock-
climbing competition. To capitalise on this
news and reach young outdoor
adventurers, you:
 send a press release to local
newspapers and online community
groups
 distribute a media kit with video
footage to outdoor adventure
journalists
  provide the staff member with training
to be a spokesperson for your business
and do media interviews
 sponsor an 'active youth' project to
promote health and fitness
 run and fund a community event run to
raise awareness
 promote the news across all your
channels – websites, social media,
newsletters and again at the point of
sale.
In some instances, your public relations
efforts may be focused on crisis
communication in response to a risk to
your reputation. To provide a response
and clarify the facts, you may need to:
 write and issue a media release
 be interviewed by the media.
Remember that public relations is an
ongoing creative process that helps to
position your business and encourage
customers to trust, like and support your
business. You should:
 be persistent and stay positive
 continue to look for opportunities.
8. Monitor and analyse your results
As you're committing time and money to
your PR program, you need to know if it's
effective. This will help you identify tactics
that work and those that don't.
Your definition of effectiveness will
depend on the goals you identified during
your planning phase. This may, for
example, be changes in:
 awareness of your business
 attitudes towards your business
 behaviours of your target group.

Measuring your results

Look at your KPIs and what you were
trying to achieve. Keep in mind that you're
not just looking for outputs (e.g. quantity
of positive media) but also for outcomes
(e.g. impact on target audience).
Questions you can ask:
 Did we reach our target audience?
How many times?
 Which of our key messages were used
or reproduced by media outlets?
 Which of our tools and activities were
most successful?
Depending on your target audience and
KPIs, you can measure public relations
success with:
 surveys – ask questions to determine
changes in awareness, attitudes and
behaviours
 social media – track what customers
and journalists are saying about your
business
  website traffic – use website
analytics to find out how much traffic
was generated by your program
 media monitoring – use a media
monitoring service to track state and
national coverage of your business.
Keep a record of your public relations
activities and their outcomes. This can
help you when planning future activities.

PR tools and activities

To get the most out of your public
relations activities, make sure it works well
with your:
 paid media (e.g. print and online
advertising)
 owned media (e.g. websites, blogs, and
social media channels).
Media relations
Media relations is about managing the way
your business is portrayed in media
channels.
If you plan to do it yourself, you may want
to start small by reaching out to a local
community newspaper or website and
attempt more ambitious projects as you
become more confident and
knowledgeable.
Media relations can be done proactively or
reactively.
Proactive media management
To actively promote your business and get
positive media exposure, you could:
 pitch media releases, story ideas and
fact sheets to media channels
 offer journalists on-site tours and
experiences
  follow and interact with journalists on
social media channels to identify
opportunities and attract interest.
Reactive media management
Sometimes you may need to manage a risk
to your business.
This could include:
 addressing issues affecting your
business operations
 responding to bad (and good) online
reviews.
Advertorials
Advertorials are advertisements in the
form of new stories or reviews, often on
television and in print and online
publications.
The main benefits of a sponsored
advertorial are that:
 it communicates your story in a natural
and interesting way
  your brand is associated with the
credibility of the publication.
Paid advertorials should not be confused
with independent coverage. The media
publication will let the audience know that
the article is sponsored.
Some businesses engage external
professionals for TV advertorials. This is
a form of advertising and product
placement.X
Business events
Business events enable you to engage
with stakeholders in your industry,
including customers, partners, suppliers,
competitors and media.
You could sponsor or attend events to:
 get exposure for your business
 promote new products or services
 build confidence in your business
 share information.
To make the most of this investment,
make sure you:
 brush up on
your communication and networking s
kills
 find out how to leverage trade shows
and exhibitions.
Speaking engagements
Speaking engagements can:
 build your personal reputation as a
trusted expert
 position your business as a leader and
innovator in the field.
You can arrange speaking opportunities
by:
9. contacting a local community forum
10. sponsoring an industry event.
Remember that a speaking engagement is
not a direct sales pitch. Add value with
useful, interesting information and ideas.
If you're considering speaking
engagements, ask yourself:
 Who would be the best spokesperson
for my business?
 What training and skills are required?
initiatives that will:
 promote information sharing and team
relationships
 instil a sense of pride in business
achievement
 develop leadership skills
 represent the brand in a consistent
way.
The ongoing benefits of a strong culture
and an involved workforce include:
 better teamwork
 higher staff retention
 greater productivity.
Public relations laws and ethics
Public relations are public
communications. This means there are
legal and ethical considerations.
Strengthen your credibility and reduce the
risk to you reputation by:
 being clear on your PR principles
 staying true to your business ethics.
Be professional, honest and consistent.
Don't make false or negative comments.
Customers can easily spot double
standards, misleading information and
insincere statements.
Laws on defamation, privacy and copyright
apply when you distribute information or
express an opinion in the media. 

Types of Public Relations

Public relations is often divided into
different agencies or departments. Each
department is specifically suited to handle
a specific aspect below:
 Media relations is the emphasis of
forging a strong relationship with
public media organizations. A media
relations team often works directly with
external media by directly delivering
them company news, providing
validated content sources, and being
accessible for public comment on
other news stories.
 Production relations is closely
related to the direct operations of a
company. This department supports
broad marketing plans and is often
related to specific, one-time
endeavours such as the launch of a
new product, a special campaign, or
management of a major product
change.
 Investor relations is the oversight of
the relationship between the company
and its investors. This aspect of public
 relations handles investor events,
oversees the communication of the
release of financial reports, and
handles the complaints of investors.
 Internal relations is the public
relations branch between a company
and its employees. Internal relations
pertain to counselling employees,
ensuring all workers are satisfied with
their working conditions, and
mediating issues internally to avoid
public disclosure of dissatisfaction.
 Government relations is the
connection between a company and
related governing bodies. Some public
relations departments want to forge a
strong relationship to provide feedback
to politicians, sway decision-makers to
act in specific ways, and ensure fair
treatment of the company's clients.
 Community relations is public
relations focused on brand and
reputation within a specific community.
 The community could be physical (i.e.
a specific city) or non-physical (i.e. the
dog-owner community). This branch of
public relations keys in on the social
niche of the community to align itself
with its members.
 Customer relations is the bridge that
connects the company and
its customers. Public relations often
involves handling key relationships,
conducting market research,
understanding the priorities of its
customers, and addressing major
concerns.

Direct marketing is a type of

promotion that entails communicating
information on a product, service, or company
directly to the customers. All promotional
information is relayed without intermediaries
and any third parties.
Emails, online adverts, flyers, database
marketing, promotional letters, newspapers,
outdoor advertising, phone text messaging,
magazine adverts, coupons, phone calls,
postcards, websites, and catalog distribution
are some examples of direct marketing
strategies. Now, while other advertising
methods aim to educate prospects about a
brand’s services or products, direct marketing
solely intends to persuade the recipient to take
a specific action. This strategy achieves this
by providing calls to action (CTAs) that
prompt the customer to act.
Examples of CTAs used in direct marketing
include:
 Visit our website or store.
 Call us to get more info on our products or
services.
 Subscribe with your email address.
 Purchase from us.
The success of direct marketing strategies is
measured by tracking the achievement of the
goal. Note that when targeted lists of
prospects are used, direct marketing is more
effective. Also, picking the appropriate
communication channel for a specific business
is necessary for success.
Today, many companies that do direct
marketing practice permission marketing to
eliminate any friction with leads and
customers. Moreover, many businesses are
turning to services such as SendPulse to boost
their direct marketing campaigns. With this
service, a brand can effectively promote its
products via SMS marketing, email
marketing, and web push notifications.

Why is direct marketing

important?
 It helps marketers reach customers fast
 It is an efficient promotion strategy
 Direct marketing can be customized
 Direct marketing allows measuring its
efficiency
 It helps marketers reach customers
fast. A direct marketing campaign is sure
to reach the potential customer quickly.
For instance, a marketer can create
an email marketing campaign now, and
merely two hours later, it will be in the
recipients’ inbox.
 It is an efficient promotion
strategy. Unlike other strategies, direct
marketing allows companies to create
targeted campaigns that reach audiences
that are genuinely interested in their
products or services. This focused nature
of these campaigns ensures maximum
efficiency when sending out promotional
messages. With direct marketing,
marketers are saved from sending
advertising content to regular lists that are
not refined in any way.
 Direct marketing can be
customized. Direct marketing allows
businesses to create personalized messages
using customer data. For example, a
company can access useful information
such as age, income range, reading and
browsing habits, etc. and then use this data
to create tailored marketing content for
their prospects and existing customers.
 Direct marketing allows to measure its
efficiency. Companies and businesses that
implement direct marketing techniques can
track the success of their campaigns by
analysing things such as the number of
customers who have responded to their
ads, the revenue earned, and the
overall return on investment. Moreover,
direct marketing enables marketers to learn
how much their prospects are willing to
spend on particular products or services.
Features of Direct Marketing
Since direct marketing strategies are focused
on communicating a brand message directly to
customers, there are certain characteristics that
help us differentiate this type of promotion
from others.
 Targeting. Direct marketing is successful
only if it targets the right people. If you're
going to promote your offer to your entire
audience, you risk spending much money
in vain. For that reason, direct marketers
work with the most interested customers
and rely on segmentation tools.
 Database segmentation. Marketers divide
their customer base into small groups with
some common characteristics which
include age, gender, occupation, location,
interests, needs, income, etc. This allows
them to craft highly personalized offers
that will be relevant to each segment.
  Tracking responses. Without monitoring
customer responses, you will never know
which strategies perform best for your
brand. Online direct marketing
channels allow users to easily respond to
marketing campaigns as well as they let
brands to monitor the entire process. Users
can communicate with companies via
emails, social media channels, chatbots,
etc.

Advantages of Direct
Marketing
 Targeted advertising
 Budget marketing
 Boosts sales to existing and lapsed
customers
 Improves customer loyalty
 Helps in pushing new business
 Allows to measure product performance
Direct marketing comes with an array of
useful benefits for both businesses and
companies. Here are the most useful ones.

Targeted advertising
Direct advertising allows marketers to target
particular groups of customers with
customized promotional messages. In turn,
businesses are likely to achieve
high conversions since they focus their
messages on people who are most likely to
need their products or services.X

Budget marketing
Direct marketing that focuses on a particular
demographic can help businesses set plausible
sales goals and also improve sales results
when on a tight marketing budget. With direct
marketing, companies can run effective and
enterprising marketing campaigns at a small
fraction of the cost of mainstream broadcast
promotions.X
Boosts sales to existing and
lapsed customers
Customers are often ready to welcome
businesses that show that they understand
users’ needs and also those that are keen on
building personal relationships. Direct
marketing allows to increase sales to existing
customers by maintaining their customer
records and selecting simple, thought-out
marketing techniques for their audience.
Direct marketing also shines when it comes to
re-establishing relationships with all
customers who have not returned to a
company in a while. It helps businesses
understand why customers chose to move on
and what can rekindle these lapsed
relationships. When a business learns what
they need to do to improve sales from
previous customers, it can keep accurate
records to ensure that returned customers get
to stay.
Improves customer loyalty
Direct marketing is excellent for building and
maintaining relationships with customers and
prospects. It allows marketers
to personalize both advertising messages and
offers to create solid links with customers and
also strengthen existing personal connections.X
It is good practice to combine direct marketing
techniques with customer loyalty programs to
increase the bond. Examples of customer
loyalty strategies include giving discount
offers, sending birthday cards, and inviting
customers to upcoming sales events.X
Helps in pushing new business
Direct marketing gives business owners an
excellent launching pad for their companies. It
enables them to effectively communicate with
their target market, thus bringing their
businesses more sales. Moreover, when
marketers implement effective direct
marketing techniques for customer acquisition,
they can generate genuine fans of their brand
and thus grow sales. This strategy also helps
new businesses to adapt and respond to market
demands.
New businesses can also use direct marketing
to:X
 Improve sales of specific products.
 Clear discontinued stock.
 Renew sales.
 Increase customer retention and loyalty
 Follow up on promotional offers.
Allows to measure product performance
Direct marketing is an excellent way of
evaluating the appetite customers have for
particular products and services. Moreover,
this strategy enables marketers to try out new
markets, evaluate sales results, and gauge the
effectiveness of their sales and promotion
tactics. In turn, marketers can easily tweak
their campaigns to ensure success. Each time
marketers run advertising campaigns, they
should monitor and analyze their results so
that they can use this information to improve
subsequent campaigns.

Types of Direct Marketing

 Email marketing
 Mobile marketing
 Web push marketing
 Messenger marketing

Other Forms of Direct

Marketing
 Social media
 Telemarketing
 Direct selling
The list of direct marketing forms does not
end there. Some of the other marketing types
businesses can use include:
  Social media. Businesses promote and
grow their audiences via social media.
Social media also helps customers get
feedback regarding their products in the
form of comments.
 Telemarketing. This approach involves
reaching out to potential customers over
the phone in a bid to sell specific services
or products. It is an excellent tool for
finding prospects and following up on
marketing campaigns.
 Direct selling. It entails posting mail that
promotes brands, products, and services.
Direct mail includes catalogs, envelope
mailers, and postcards.

Direct Marketing Strategies

 Issuing loyalty cards
 Guerrilla marketing
 Branding of clothes
 Issuing coupons
 Promotional gadgets
 Issuing loyalty cards. It entails giving
loyal customers membership cards.
Customers can then use these cards to
access price discounts, free trials, and
other offers.
 Guerrilla marketing. Small businesses
with tight budgets often implement this
approach. It involves adopting
unconventional low-cost promotional
strategies that yield maximum results, for
example, outdoor installations,
stickers, contextual marketing, etc.
 Branding of clothes. Companies can
make customized clothes with marketing
messages. These clothes can then be gifted
to prospects, customers, or staff members.
 Issuing coupons. It involves a business
giving documents and tickets to targeted
customers. These cards are then redeemed
 for discounts or at times rebates when
purchasing a product or service.
 Promotional gadgets. In this strategy, a
business sets out to market its products by
giving specific devices to customers. By
doing so, the company provides its
customers with an opportunity to test out
their products and get an idea of how they
work, their benefits, and so forth.