Maybe at some point you have heard a famous phrase that says “what is not exhibited is not sold”, one of those that our grandparents used to say. And despite the passing of the years, this phrase is still a reality. It is the same with companies, we can have extremely winning proposals, but if we do not go out to communicate them, people will hardly buy them.

We know that for many companies that have never carried out actions to communicate in digital or traditional media or that at some point did, but their experience was not the best, the idea of investing time or resources to do so, can be a great challenge; that is why in this article we will provide 5 recommendations that may sound simple, but are extremely valuable, that you can apply and thus, use communication as a strategy to achieve your business goals:

1. Allocate a budget. The money factor has been one of the main reasons why many companies do not venture into having a communication strategy; however, this work should not be seen as another expense of the company, but as an investment tactic that will provide a return in some cases at the level of reputation and others at the economic level.
2. Establish the indicators you would like to achieve with your investment. We could have the motivation, money and desire to be visible in the media, but this is not enough to be successful. Not having indicators or KPI’s, can make you invest a budget in communication, but at the end of the campaign it is considered as “a bad idea or action”, because nothing “relevant” for the company or a tangible return was achieved.
   That is why it is extremely important to set a goal before executing the campaign and to be aware of whether the expectation is feasible or achievable, taking into account the knowledge or lack of knowledge that people have about the brand or services.Let’s look at an example: let’s think of a brand that does not exist in the media; it is known by the people in the neighborhood and perhaps by other companies in the industry. One day it decides to appear in the media and expects that, with one communication, the next day its business will be full. While your competition has been generating a community on digital channels and building loyalty to your content for some time, you launch a promotion and have great success.Is it the “fault” of the communication actions or should the first brand simply understand that it is in a positioning stage that the second company had already passed?It is important to be clear if the expectation is achievable according to the brand positioning and if it is linked to a purely commercial objective or a communication one; for this we must sit down and think: with these actions we want to obtain X amount of leads or we want to position X amount of key messages and become a source of information. By establishing this, we can then measure the effectiveness of the actions and, over time, build a history of achievements, in order to define future projections.
3. A company’s communication starts with its employees. Virtuality has undoubtedly generated a before and after in the way workers relate to each other; however, maintaining and developing different information channels, in which employees are the first ones, not only to be informed but also the main spokespersons of the brand, is a key action that will give greater credibility to everything that is communicated externally.You may have heard expressions from employees such as “I read something in the press that I myself did not know about the company”; “how come we are moving offices and we did not know, I saw it in the media”; “look what it says here in the networks, it is a lie, the company does not do this in practice”. These and other phrases can affect the credibility of a brand and lead to a communication or reputation crisis.
   Hence the relevance of integrating strategies and making them run in parallel, starting from the inside.
4. Define the main messages you would like to make known. It is not about talking for the sake of talking; aligning the commercial plan with the communication plan will allow you to unify the actions of the sales and marketing department with the digital and traditional communication channels.
5. Look for an agency or strategically to help you accomplish this. Whether you have had a bad experience, you are looking for different results than those you are achieving or you have never done it before, in this integration process it is essential to have an ally – who has great experience in the industry – to meet your communication achievement indicators. A good option is to look for agencies that have been recognized as the “Best Public Relations Agency” or that have won awards for some of the campaigns they have developed.

   Both locally and internationally (which, by the way, more and more companies are deciding to communicate beyond their borders), the ideal is to have a communications/public relations agency that, knowing the media, the industry and the best tactics to position key messages, can create the strategy both internally and externally of the company.

   The important thing is to give the communication strategy the correct use of each channel, to deliver the most relevant messages and align each of the actions strategically so that each integrated action points to the same objective and/or goal.