How are errors in marketing communication formed?

Whatever business you run, good PR is essential to growing your business. Unfortunately, many business owners still consider PR to be an expensive and unprofitable form of supporting marketing activities. However, nothing could be more wrong! Properly planned and conducted PR campaign can have a huge impact on the company's results. But how do you do it well and avoid failure? In the further part of the article you will learn the most common mistakes in marketing communication that can be made during PR activities.

Before we discuss the most common mistakes in marketing communication, let's start with some explanation. Well, the first and most serious mistake is underestimating strength PR. This department is usually linked to marketing and is the first to come under fire during budget cuts. Unfortunately, this is a very big mistake. If we want to increase the long-term results of our company, we must take care of the brand image.

Thanks to it, customers will be more willing to buy products. Audiences will also be more likely to forgive the mistake of a brand with a strong and consistent image. A strong image can also be very useful in many other situations, so taking care of it should be an absolute basis.

Marketing communication mistakes and bad strategy planning

Marketing communication errors can appear at the concept stage, and a colossal mistake is not planning communication strategy or making a lot of mistakes when planning it. Unfortunately, many people believe that PR will "work" on its own if the company develops. But even in this case, nothing could be further from the truth. Every campaign Public Relations requires a solid and detailed action plan.

Designing the plan should be preceded by in-depth analyzes of the market, competition, previous successes and failures. PR people groping in the dark or with a bad plan will eventually make a blunder that could cost the entire company dearly. Mistakes in marketing communication are the easiest way to disaster.

Budget planned "by eye" and poor communication between departments

Even experienced specialists very often make mistakes when creating a marketing campaign budget. Guided by their own experience, stereotypes, and trust in a given subcontractor, they create highly overestimated budgets. Meanwhile, the reality may differ significantly from our beliefs. For example, competition from existing subcontractors may have much better offers. Comparing offers from different companies, negotiating, collecting information can help a lot in planning reasonable expenses.

Another pain in many companies is weakness internal communication between departments. And yet, mistakes in marketing communication have their source somewhere. Particular teams very often do not know what are the overarching goals of the company. Therefore, communication between management and individual departments must be smooth and clear. Thanks to the knowledge of the company's action plans and goals, the Public Relations department can plan its campaign well and use the appropriate ones instruments PR.

What mistakes does PR make in marketing communication?

Interestingly, a lot of experienced PR people forget to follow trends and news on a regular basis. Specialists pay more attention to organizing conferences for journalists than to commenting on current events. Employees of PR departments often cease to educate themselves and learn about new trends in the world of Public Relation. Unfortunately, the lack of development, failure to follow trends and events may result in ineffective actions. It doesn't take much for the next result to become errors in marketing communication.

Another important part of any PR campaign is dialogue with the client. The department responsible for this area must be vigilant and adequately respond to any feedback from their actions. Social media is a phenomenal way to connect with your audience. It is there that the recipients of the PR department's activities show their satisfaction or dissatisfaction. There is no room for errors in marketing communication here! Unfortunately, a common sin, especially among novice PR specialists, is to run away from responses in social media. And this is a mistake, because constant contact with recipients determines the company's image to a large extent.

Another mistake is neglecting the optimization of your Public Relations campaign plan. Often, once a plan is established, it is consistently implemented, regardless of emerging new factors. This is a big mistake because a good campaign plan should be flexible and optimized depending on the events that occur.

Otherwise, you have to take into account that sooner or later errors in marketing communication will appear. It may turn out that our goal is not in line with current trends. Or suddenly it turns out that the brand we want to work with has a big image crisis. Quick reactions and updating your action plan are absolutely essential!

Whether Are Marketing Communication Mistakes Avoidable?

Unfortunately, human nature very often makes us admire our achievements. It is not uncommon if a campaign is successful it is difficult to indulge in criticism. Meanwhile, constructive criticism can open your eyes to certain issues. Thanks to the comments, you can take a second look at our plan and think about how to improve it. Meanwhile, the practice of many employees of the PR department is to remove unfavorable comments and continue to implement the assumptions adopted in the project. In the long run, this form of response to criticism will not bring good results, and mistakes in marketing communication will be unavoidable.

As you can see, a PR specialist must have extensive knowledge and experience to effectively build the company's image. However, such experts value their services, and cutting budgets and selecting newbies or low-cost PR people can be pointless. Okay PR agency He is aware of his skills and values his services highly. Therefore, it is not worth saving and choosing those specialists who can boast of real successes. Thanks to this, building a positive image of the company will not be that difficult, and mistakes in marketing communication will not apply to it.

How to fix errors in marketing communication?

Let's summarize the most common marketing communication mistakes:

• lack of or inadequate planning of the communication strategy,
• badly estimated budget,
• weak internal communication between departments,
• not following trends, news and market and PR news,
• poor dialogue with clients,
• neglecting optimization of the PR campaign plan.

How do I fix these errors? In the case of the first (no strategy), a detailed action plan should be established to avoid negative consequences in the future. Communication must be relevant to the audience. Therefore, an obligatory step in planning a strategy is the analysis of the recipient group - who is the recipient, what are his needs, desires, fears and problems, in which communication channels he or she moves, how we can reach him (ideal recipient profile). Another important issue is the analysis of the environment in which the company operates.

Competition audit is particularly important - what is communicated by the market, what tools it uses, and what language it uses. The purpose of such action is to find individual communication characteristics that will distinguish the brand from the competition and allow it to reach a wide audience. In creating a strategy, it is necessary to analyze the activities, successes and failures to date. Thanks to it, you can personalize your marketing communication plan as much as possible. We should not forget to establish methods for measuring the effectiveness of the strategy - the possibility of showing the strengths and weaknesses of the plan and a chance to modify it if necessary.

Rational budget planning is an important element communication strategy marketing. Money spent on marketing is an investment in the future of the brand, its development. The budget must be realistic, based on the means at our disposal. It should include an annual and project plan - preferably with the division of communication into online and offline. Thoughtful steps will allow you to check which ones communication channels work best and generate the most profit, and which should be invested. This will allow you to modify the budget accordingly in the future.

The way to improve internal communication is to conduct a decent diagnosis covering communication problems in the company, the needs and expectations of employees, and an analysis of the communication tools used. The first thing to do is to establish the purpose of your communication. Then, it is worth organizing the channels and roles in the company (who, what, when and what communicates with what), and also determine in which areas communication is of the greatest importance.

The problem of being up-to-date can be solved by constant monitoring of the market and the PR industry. Important factors are openness to changes, flexibility and adjusting communication to trends.

In case of ineffective dialogue with clients, it may be helpful media monitoring. Monitoring tools instantly detect any mention of the company, which enables quick feedback from the company.

Which mistakes in marketing communication cause the greatest losses?

Any mistake can lead to losses. Even the smallest mishap, which we do not react to in time, can lead to many unpleasant consequences that will have a negative impact on the company - inhibit its development, lower profits or cause the loss of loyal customers.

In order to consciously build external communication, you must first take care of communication inside the company. Without it, it is impossible to conduct effective marketing activities. A poorly functioning internal communication will leave a mark on the company's image - which is particularly important in the perspective of attracting new employees. Highly qualified people will not want to cooperate with a company that does not take its subordinates seriously - it does not communicate all changes to them, there is an unfriendly atmosphere at work, there are clear divisions between individual levels, and individual members of the company's team are not oriented towards one goal. Consistent internal communication is one of the components of employer branding, which is an important element in creating the profile of the desired employer. Thoughtful internal and external employer branding increases the chances of hiring talents - people who can do a lot of good to the company.

A team that cannot communicate will not achieve spectacular success on the market. In such a situation, it is impossible to create a coherent, effective plan of marketing communication and PR activities.

Staying with the planning of marketing communication and PR activities, one cannot fail to mention the importance of a decent strategy. The strategy should include long-term development. Jump actions will not work in the long run. The key to success is deliberate, rational taking of the next steps and constant monitoring of the effectiveness of the strategy - this will enable its modification if necessary. It is extremely important to immediately react to all negative and positive mentions about the company, maintain constant contact with the recipient group (provide them with the feedback they expect) and fully engage in building long-term relationships with customers.

Media monitoring as a way to correct errors in communication with the recipient group

Lack of feedback, inept communication with clients and lack of control over what others say and write about the company in various media is the easiest way to undermine brand image. A negative image has a negative impact on the development of the brand - people lose their trust in it, its market position decreases. It is important to constantly monitor the situation, keep track of all mentions of the company and react to them in time - be there where discussions about the brand are taking place, give your recipients continuous feedback, maintain dialogue and build strong communication.

Due to the number of transmission channels it would be difficult to monitor the media manually. Special tools are used for this, which analyze in detail all sources (including radio, TV and the Internet) and provide information about mentions about the company.

A popular tool for monitoring traditional and social media is IMM, i.e. the Institute of Media Monitoring. The program analyzes information, creates and makes available data in the form of charts, summaries and reports, and examines the activities of competitors. It allows you to react immediately to every mention. Newspoint works similarly. The tool additionally monitors trends and news, and allows you to compare the opinions about the brand with the opinions about the competition.

Brand24 is an effective tool for monitoring the Internet. It is an intuitive, readable platform that offers quick access to information about the company in the form of a stream of mentions. The tool sends e-mail alerts about new mentions, and also provides a graph of the intensity of discussions - how much is said about the brand, what reach it generates, how many interactions are triggered by individual entries. With Brand24 you can monitor social media - which is very important when it comes to building conscious marketing communication on the Internet. Social media is the fastest and easiest way to reach your audience. This allows you to create a committed community, build strong relationships with customers, and thus contribute to the development of the brand.