Communication: It’s Good Business and Good Marketing

Communication is one of the most widely researched fields, especially in how it impacts people, organizations, and culture. Ultimately, it is crucial to any healthy relationship, whether in life or in business. But how often do we really discuss communication as it relates specifically to marketing?

Obviously, marketing is communication, but it is rarely defined that way. Most definitions talk about the process of promoting a product or service to a market. That can’t happen without some way of communicating - whether telling, writing, or showing - what you offer to your potential clients.

At Marketing to Mission, one of our main concepts is messaging. Your message is how you communicate what you do that helps your ideal client. The early steps of marketing communication are one-way. You are reaching out, inviting someone to get a closer look into your business. If you have done the foundational work of building a persona, people who are likely to be attracted to your communication style will accept that invitation.

Healthy Communication is Always Interactive

Your relationship with a potential client does begin when they start reading your marketing messages, but it really develops once communication becomes interactive. In service businesses, this means that someone has made some kind of decision to connect. Whether they book a discovery call, send an email or text, or walk into your office, now you are both participants.

And here is where the real engagement begins. Of course, you still have some work to do. Does the way you communicate your business proposal correspond to the style and tone of your marketing messaging? If not, that could raise a red flag and bring the relationship to a close before it gets started. Remember, your message needs to be a genuine and consistent reflection of the service you offer to your best clients. When your continued communication matches the prospect’s expectations based on what they have already seen in your marketing, you are more likely to bring them on as a client.

The key to your success is keeping up with communication as you deliver your service.

The same style of messaging and interaction that brought you the client is what will keep the client. Although the general business world doesn’t really identify it explicitly, marketing is an important aspect of your ongoing service to existing clients:

• Personally connect with your client so they know you are still there, providing your service. This is especially necessary if your service is relatively hands off, running in the background. 

• Make it easy for clients to provide feedback so you know whether you’re still on the right track or need to adapt your services to their changing needs.

• Remember that client input and the mutual exchange of ideas and knowledge is essential to any service.

• Provide additional value by keeping your client informed about industry news and advancements.

Everything you do in your business is seen, heard, and felt by a person. And people, whether they are individual clients or business clients, are happiest when their service providers consistently reach out to them on that personal level.

Valued Clients Communicate Your Value

Proactive communication with your clients is one of the best ways to show them, unambiguously, that you value their business. If your service is a commodity, one that they could easily find through another provider, then it is incredibly important to keep up your end of the relationship.

Marketing to Mission is one marketing agency out of thousands that our clients could choose. But they prefer to work with us for a variety of reasons. First, they connected with our messaging and accepted our invitation to learn more about what we provide. Once they engaged more with our process, they found that our services are the best fit for their marketing needs. As our clients, they depend on us to stay in touch and continually ensure that we reflect their values and expertise in their marketing activities.

As a result, our clients are the best resource we have for meeting new potential clients. We are not unique in this benefit; it’s applicable to every service business. Your interactive communication with clients produces healthy and productive relationships. This keeps you top of mind when it comes to referral introductions. Your own clients will fill the very bottom of your sales funnel because they know your business well enough to share your messaging with others who fit your persona profile.

Furthermore, you never want to take for granted that your clients will stick with you. If left unattended for too long, your clients might forget the reasons why they chose you in the first place. When that happens, there’s the danger that they will either proactively look for a new service provider or be picked off by someone else who’s being more attentive to them.

Build Your Marketing on Excellent Communication

This idea - that effective on-going communication with your clients is a significant element of your marketing strategy - may not be relatively novel. Hopefully, it is simply putting concrete words to something you already instinctively do in your business. By bringing this abstract concept into focus, though, we can develop intentional marketing activities around it. Your communication methods and habits become part of your overall marketing strategy, which brings in new clients and keeps your current clients happy. Your sales funnel can become a streamlined process for qualified leads to become long-term clients.

If you would like to explore your communication style and consistency as it relates to marketing to both potential and existing clients, let’s connect.

Marketing to Mission helps small businesses clarify their messaging so that communication is effective and productive in all aspects of their service relationships.