Maximizing Sales Through Integrated Marketing and Communication Efforts
Building a successful construction business requires a detailed marketing strategy integrated with strategic communication efforts.
This approach helps you to develop an attractive brand image that entices new customers and boosts your sales.
If your sales are lagging, the problem could be ineffective internal communication. Marketing teams can only optimize campaigns if they can access analytics easily, while sales staff rely on data to successfully generate conversions. Key performance indicators (KPIs) like clickthrough rates and conversion costs are only useful when departments can access them. Moreover, clients may request data on return on investment, cost per acquisition, and more to ensure they’re getting what they pay for.
Only with solid internal communication can sales and account managers relay important metrics to keep clients informed and in-pocket. Let’s dive into how to create effective internal communication to build customer relationships.
The Impact of Internal Communications on Customers
It may not seem intuitive, but developing an effective internal communication system can enhance customer experience. Streamlining communication helps employees understand essential aspects of the company and act on them. This allows them to deliver a better client experience and combat corporate misinformation, making customers more likely to trust your organization.
However, not every company has such a system. How can you improve communication between your staff for the good of all stakeholders? It all begins with laying a foundation to encourage positive communication within your company. Everyone in marketing relies on reliable data sharing on KPIs, from SEO professionals to ad managers. If the content team can’t get the right data from the SEO team, for instance, they won’t be able to optimize calendars and keywords to create effective content.
Internal communication is crucial for preserving client relationships in the face of delays. You must effectively communicate your challenges to clients without explaining your business in depth. These efforts are hampered when teams are shut off from each other.
For example, people tend to work in their own organizational silos, where they stick solely to their roles and departmental procedures. All too often, teams get “siloed” and have difficulty connecting with the broader company, be it through overly complex leadership protocol or inefficient software. By connecting these silos through CMS and optimized workflows, employees can share information more easily. Through more data sharing, it allows customer-facing employees access to the information they need to communicate with clients. If account managers want to share campaign data with a client, it shouldn’t take much more than email.
Use technology to simplify communication by creating different channels for employees and clients across various topics. Customers can reach out through an app or online form, while employees can access internal information databases. You can separate customer feedback, construction project information, and strategic goals so each team member can access the information that they need. Your staff should also understand corporate goals, mission, and vision to effectively convey your brand when addressing customers. This helps your staff communicate in an organized and professional way.
To bring this all together, you need to provide training, webinars, or live events to get all staff members on the same page. Technology can help you create logs or track data and communications. Tools include:
- Project management software for construction, sales, and marketing.
- Video conference tools to bring everyone together in meetings.
- Wireless communication gateways for easy data access.
These and other technologies, like blockchain and IoT, increase data accuracy in the construction industry, reducing errors and misinformation. Technology also eliminates cumbersome paperwork from construction projects, improving workflow and efficiency.
However, technology also brings security challenges because systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks. Your employees should be trained on data safety measures, especially when working with critical information, like client or financial data.
Seamless internal communication builds a stronger team and is necessary for helping customers through a crisis.
Building a Crisis Communication Plan
Even when your company does everything possible to avoid problems, unexpected events, like natural disasters or supply chain disruptions, can arise. When this happens, communication with your staff and customers is critical. Savvy business owners develop crisis communication plans before disaster strikes.
Your first objective is to create a crisis communication team to develop and implement the plan. Members should include the owner, department managers, and construction site safety team members. They should also select a spokesperson to address the public. These plans should include:
- In-house notification systems to quickly alert team members and stakeholders
- Media policies for discussing the crisis
- A template from which your team can rapidly prepare a statement
- Official materials to distribute to the press and other outlets to combat misinformation
In an emergency, the crisis communication team must carefully craft messaging for affected stakeholders and the general public, if necessary. They should also monitor social media and other channels to see how the messaging is received and if more must be done to address the problem.
Helping customers through challenges is a priority, but collaboration allows you to build successful marketing plans to attract and engage them.
Improve Marketing with Collaborations
Collaborations breed success when you partner with people with expertise in the areas you need. Improving internal communications allows you to assign the right teams to the right project to support your marketing efforts. But if your marketing department could use support, it may be time to seek outside help.
Partnering with a strong B2B marketing agency can help you close more business contracts and generate leads to improve revenue. How can you find a good B2B agency? Top contenders design research-based marketing plans, including content strategy and messaging about your unique selling position. Ideally, they have a proven track record of results as well. Look for companies with positive testimonials, detailed case studies, and a results-oriented portfolio. The importance of finding the right fit can’t be understated: An excellent B2B agency can give you immense returns; a shoddy agency can ruin your reputation.
Marketing agencies are skilled at analyzing quantitative and qualitative data to derive insights that become the framework of your marketing strategy. This helps you:
- Develop a unique brand story to stand out from your competitors.
- Determine marketing goals, or (KPIs), like the number of leads and closings your business needs to thrive.
- Measure success and refine your approach over time.
Collaborating with an experienced marketing agency allows you to focus attention on corporate priorities while they build your customer base.
Your company can maximize sales by focusing on effective communication. By improving internal communications, you can better serve customers when they contact or engage with your firm and during a crisis. Investing time in developing these capabilities will help you rise above your competition.
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