Communication is at the core of everything we do, and businesses are no exception. Businesses constantly juggle many different communication channels, from internal to external communication.
While many companies are maintaining all of these different communication forms, there is often not enough emphasis placed on how effective these channels are. Many businesses do not often prioritize communication, but that may not be wise.
This article covers what external business communication is, why it is an essential focus for all businesses, and how your business can level up its communication skills.
What is external business communication?
External business communication is every interaction your company has with the public. This type of communication can include any verbal communication, print, broadcast, and electronic channels in which your business shares information with anyone outside the company.
External communication spans marketing, PR, sales, customer support, and success. Nearly every person within your company will likely participate in some form of external communication at some point, whether its something as significant as creating company ads or as small as telling a friend about your company products.
What is the importance of external business communication?
External communication spans every interaction your business has with anyone outside of your company. How your company communicates with the public is essential to brand promotion, recognition, and perception, and is ultimately what helps your company drive more sales. Having strong external communication is what helps your company grow and succeed.
How to improve external business communication
1. Be open and honest
Creating a brand your customers can trust is a long-term investment in your company’s success. Building trust with your audience helps increase loyalty, deliver better customer experiences, and retain more customers.
Developing a trustworthy brand isn’t a quick fix. Trust is a long-term project that requires your company communications to be transparent and honest in every communication.
2. Keep it consistent
Your brand's voice can have an immense impact on how your company is perceived. And ensuring that your brand voice fits who your company is and stays consistent across all mediums is essential to positive brand perception.
While our minds may jump to Wendy’s snarky Tweets or Duolingo’s quick wit, the brand voice doesn’t have to go viral. From friendly to informative, your brand voice should be designed to resonate with your audience.
3. Make it simple
Don’t make your audience jump through hoops to find the information they want. Keep communication simple and easy to find. Never overcomplicate the message, and ensure that it is easy for every audience member to understand.
4. Grow your audience
Does your brand have excellent external communication if no one is there to hear it? Every business has to start somewhere, and sometimes that’s an audience of just a few people, but the goal is to grow, requiring a larger audience.
How you grow your business heavily depends on the industry, budget, and many other factors, but there’s one method that holds true for every company. We all use business cards, so make sure your brand’s business cards make each touch point with customers an opportunity to impact business results.
We recommend HiHello digital business cards because it’s more than a business card. The HiHello business card platform includes virtual backgrounds and email signatures to create a consistent and compelling brand experience designed to engage and convert business contacts. The connections you make with HiHello can be directed to your website, social media, or landing pages and synced with your CRM, turning each interaction into a lead-generation opportunity. Unlike traditional business cards, HiHello’s cards have deeper functionality, are more cost-effective, and are better for the environment.
5. Know your audience
Every communication should be carefully crafted to resonate with your target audience, but you can’t do that without knowing who they are. Take time to study your audience and determine how they like to receive communications, what tone resonates with them, and how your company can best interact with them.
6. Communicate through multiple channels
It’s unlikely that your entire target audience prefers the exact same communication channel. Some will prefer text or email, while others flock to social media. Use your audience research to learn your top communication channels, and start there. Once you’ve mastered the basics, then you can expand communication across all channels.
7. Don’t forget to listen
Communication should never be one-way. Your audience wants to be heard, so make sure they have a way to give feedback and let them know you are listening.
From customer support to reviews, customers love to be heard, and potential customers want to hear what they have to say.
Want to learn more about business communication? See our post on perfecting internal business communication.
Main photo by Parabol | The Agile Meeting Toolbox on Unsplash
