Communication is essential for businesses to cut through the noise and connect with their target audience. Integrated communications, or 360°communication, is one strategy to gain traction, where multiple communication methods are used to push your message consistently across various channels, ensuring your presence is heard, seen, felt.
Imagine a billboard placed at the end of a barred, dead-end street. Then imagine you are hearing the same message on your TV, your laptop, your social media feeds, and even from your neighbors. Two opposite scenarios highlighting one simple principle — communicate wisely.
Effective: it is about creating a seamless and integrated experience for your audience to maximize exposure and reinforce your message repeatedly, making it more memorable and impactful.
Efficient: it is also about understanding where your audiences are and reaching them there to avoid speaking into the void, wasting your time, money and energy with no return.
”Making sure that your communication is used at a 360 degree level is a sustainable investment. It means that you leverage all appropriate means of communication; your website, social media, event and PR; and use them efficiently to push one single piece of information.
Barbara Mahe Communications Director, Co-founder of Consultancy32
The scale of success requires one clear initial step: defining a key message or objective that is concise, and aligned with the brand’s mission, vision and values. Once the message is defined, it’s crucial to leverage all available communication channels, including the website, social media, events, PR, and traditional advertising, to amplify it.
”Communicating at a 360 degree level is understanding where and how your target audience is currently engaging with your brand. A successful 360° communications campaign activates the right channels with the right audience at the right time, multiple times.
Stephanie HerrmannCommunications Director, Consultancy32
When coordinating such a communication campaign, careful planning and coordination is crucial. Each communication tool should complement the others, creating a cohesive and unified brand experience for the audience. This may involve synchronizing content calendars, aligning messaging, and coordinating promotional activities.
A last, but not less important tip: measurement and evaluation. Tracking performance indicators such as reach, mentions in the press or social media, and conversion rates will serve to steer and reinforce the success of your communication campaign.
