An important part of launching a successful startup is building authentic
connection with users through the various communication points you
have with them like social media, email, blog posts, phone calls, etc.These are all opportunities for setting the foundation of a long and
happy relationship. A lot of companies get their communication strategies wrong because think an authoritative voice is believable and miss the fact that a human voice is so much more desirable. Today we will discuss how to communicate with consumers in a way that
will allow an authentic voice to shine through so you can begin
developing a strong connection with them.
1-Set the guidelines for your communication strategies.
Communicating with the right voice and tone will help you produce a connection with your consumers.The first thing you need to do is create a Voice and Tone Style Guide for your startup. Some of the best startups doing this flawlessly are MailChimp and Buffer.
The Buffer team follows some guidelines and uses communication that is:
- Friendly and yet unassuming
- Inviting and not bossy
- Grateful and not dismissive of customer’s time
- Personal and not formal
- Respectful and not degrading
- Open and not final
You should do a research on well established communication strategies and then select the one that best suits your customers.
2-Use the right influencers to start the conversation.
Launching a startup and building a brand takes time. When you first dive
into marketing (especially social media marketing) it can feel really
frustrating to speak with little or no audience or perhaps worse, a mix
audience of your mom, your uncle and your friends. While support from friends and family is nice, not all of them will fall
into your target market. There are several ways you can start building your brand and
reaching the right audience in an authentic way. You can start spending hours upon hours seeking out and then engaging
members of your audience on your own. This may certainly work, but it
can feel awkward and intrusive to people who have never heard of you
before, especially if you’re trying to do this by all means.
If you have some money to spend from an early round of financing or from
your own savings you could start running an ad campaign. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social networks have really advanced
targeting options that will ensure your ads are shown to the right
people as long as you setup the targeting correctly. However, Instead of time consuming outreach on social media or
spending a lot of money on an ad campaign I suggest that you reach out
to influencers. These are people who fit your target market profile and
have a large following that also fits your target market profile. There alot of them out there on all social media. You can get them for a reasonable price, you can even negotiate with them to help you position your products or service.
3-Use all communication channel.
Once your influencer campaign has launched and awareness for your brand
is growing, it’s important to stay committed to your brand voice. Make sure all of your communication channels from social media to
your website copy to your email marketing and product packaging, all should communicate in a cohesive way. In addition to your marketing communication channels, your PR strategy
should also be informed by your brand voice, and most importantly your
customer service language needs to take on the brand voice as well.
How are you feeling? I hope you’re feeling ready to create a strong
connection with your consumers. If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed
though, that’s okay. In fact it is totally normal. Remember, you don’t
need to write your communication style guide and launch your influencer
campaign tonight. If you’re looking for a place to get started, I
suggest you read through the MailChimp and Buffer guides linked above.
You’ll find that they will help you immensely when it comes to writing a
guide for your own startup. Don’t reinvent the wheel, improve upon it.
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