Marketing Communications: An Introduction

Marketing Commmunications

An Introduction

You’ve probably heard of the 4 P’s of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion.

However, for many of us marketing professionals in the animal welfare industry, the first 3 P’s are often outside of our control: Most of our products (or services) are typically determined by the board and senior team, as are their prices and the locations from which we offer them.

But promotion? That’s our domain, and we can be as innovative and creative as we want. So, why are we talking about marketing communications (MC)? Well, it’s the subset of marketing that focuses on the “promotion” aspect.

Technically speaking, MC encompasses all communication tools that a company employs to connect with current/potential customers.

In simple terms, it’s how you tell the right people the right messages through the right media in order to complete specific objectives.

I personally love learning about MC strategies and best practices is because its methods apply to both traditional marketing goals (like generating revenue through products and services) and soliciting for donations (and achieving other fundraising goals). So, whether you’re soliciting for year end donations or trying to get more people to book vaccine appointments at your clinic, the strategies and tactics listed below can help.

So, in this post I’m going to quickly go over the different steps of marketing communication. But, stay tuned! In the upcoming weeks, we’ll dive into each step and discuss some best practices and go through some examples to help you apply this knowledge to your own organization.

Steps for Effective Marketing Communication

Okay, so we already touched upon the 4 P’s of marketing. Now we’re going to talk the steps for effective MC, which are loosely based on the 5 W’s and H. (And then we’re done talking about letters - I promise!)

We all have a basic understanding of the 5W’s and H (Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How), but unless you’ve studied marketing in a formal setting, you may not be familiar with the steps for effective MC:

1. Identify Target Audience

2. Determine Objectives

3. Design Message

4. Choose Media

5. Select Message Source

We’ll go more into each individual step in a later posts, but for now, I personally find it helpful to think of these steps in this way:

1. Identify Target Audience: WHO are you talking to?

2. Determine Objectives: WHY are you talking to them?

3. Design Message: WHAT are you trying to tell them?

4. Choose Media: HOW are you delivering that message?

5. Selecting the Message Source: WHEN and from WHERE is the message being delivered?

Now, you may be reading this and thinking: This seems like a lot of extra work.

I get it. It may seem like a waste of energy to go through these steps everytime you create a marketing campaign, but I assure you the benefits are worth the effort. We all are so busy, but I promise that the time you spend now is time you’ll save in the long-run.

By going through these steps, we’re making sure that all of our efforts are focused, intentional, strategic, and work effectively. (Plus, as you do this process a couple of times, some of these steps will become second-nature. I promise!)

That’s all we’ll talk about today! Tune in next time fo

r when we dive into Identifying our Target Audiences. Follow me on Instagram so you see when the next post goes live - @brittany_barketing.