Authored by; Rosa-Mari Le Roux, Content Manager at At that Point
 
They say, “If it wasn’t for the last minute, nothing would get done.” However, with an effective communication and marketing strategy in place, nothing would be left until the last minute.

Your strategy should serve as a road map for your business to effectively communicate a tailored message via the right channels to reach your desired audience.

My article will feature important elements to keep in mind when creating a marketing and communication strategy for your business.

Bull’s eye
What is the point of doing business if you don’t have a clear idea of who your customers are and what they want?
Consumer insights are crucial for creating a targeted message and this valuable information can be gathered through surveys, questionnaires or interviews.   

Get to know your audience’s characteristics and familiarise yourself with what they read, listen to and watch. This will help you formulate your communication plan and customise your products so that it caters specifically to their desires, which should lead to better sales and happy customers.

Don’t beat around the bush
It is crucial to define your message, ensure that it is clear, consistent and recognisable. Keep these key points in mind when formulating your message:

- Brand Identity: Your customers should be familiar with your brand identity, which must be noticeable in all marketing material and platforms. Your reader should always know it is your message.
- Consistency is key: All communication and messaging should be consistent. Your company message should be communicated throughout every department within the business.
- King of creativity: Be creative and unique with your ideas and messages. This will set you apart from the rest.

Choose the right channels
The easiest way to reach your existing audience, is to use channels where your consumers are already active, such as social media.

The message that you intend to communicate should be the driving force to determine which channels you use. For instance, using video content on social media platforms rather than emails. 

Fortunately, there are many platforms that you can use to get in contact with your potential customer. If you know your audience, as suggested earlier, you will have a better idea on which channels you will have the most success in reaching customers.

Importantly, whatever marketing channel you choose should have the same brand perception as yours. Remember “consistency is key”

Keep your enemies close
Lastly, know who your competitors are and what they are up to. They are probably keeping an eye on you too. The harder it is for other to duplicate what sets you apart, the better. Keep your competitors in mind when creating your strategy. This will always keep you one step ahead.

To communicate without a strategy, is like walking in total darkness. You never know what might be lurking around the corner. Your strategy is your road map, your source of light, if you will.

Authored by: Idéle Prinsloo, Agency Lead, At That Point

Determining your business’ marketing and communications objectives for 2020 is central to any success you might achieve, however you run an extremely high risk of failing if your execution plan does not make provision for the important consumer and marketing trends predicted for the year ahead.

Rather than taking a “head-in-the-sand” approach, use these trends as your starting point to plan your products, services, campaigns etc. This enables you to devise an effective approach that actually “speaks to the people”. According to Trend Watching there are five main consumer trends that companies need to pay serious attention to in 2020, to ensure their relevance in an increasingly competitive environment.

Instead of feeling threatened, these should be regarded as promising business opportunities.

• Sustainable consumption: In the coming year, it is predicted that consumers will seek to alleviate their rising eco-shame by opting for products, services and experiences that will enable them to do so.
• Human brands: Brands that employ virtual characters and avatars will capture the attention of consumers. Reason being that this will enable a more human way of immersing yourself into digital channels. One such example is Chinese state news agency, Xinhau’s virtual news anchors. 
• Relevant service: Consumers will want services and experiences that constantly adapts according their ever-changing needs.
• Beating burnout: Continuous professional and personal pressures are leading to consumers seeking out the brands that can help them battle burnout, this lay bare an enormous opportunity for innovation.
• Non-toxic social media: Trend Watching states that “the benefits of social are being overwhelmed by bad actors and toxicity.” They anticipate this to result in consumers turning to smaller digital spaces that allow for meaningful connections.

With the above in mind, set up your next internal brainstorming meeting and discuss how you can get onto the proverbial “wagon” to reap the benefits of being in sync with your customers.

Marketing Trends in 2020
To give your company a further advantage, supplement your customer trend-focussed communication and marketing approach by ensuring you consider the below marketing trends that Forbes has identified for 2020:

• Conversational marketing: This refers to engaging with customers in real time, as opposed to them having to wait for a response. Historically this was executed telephonically or live chat support. However, the experts foresee artificial intelligence taking a more prominent seat in conversational marketing in 2020. 
• Voice search optimisation: Consumers are increasingly using voice search assistants like Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa and Bixby to answer their questions. Therefore, it will be critical to optimise your website for voice search in the year ahead.
• More Facebook ads: Those in the know say that considering Facebook’s maturing status as an advertising platform, they foresee the trend of budgets shifting from existing digital campaigns to Facebook continuing.
• Technical fluency: The importance of technical fluency will grow, and digital marketers will have to arm themselves with knowledge on things like search engine results pages, natural language processing, neural networks and machine learning. The important takeaway here is to make sure your content is optimised to answer searchers' most important questions.
• Data-driven storytelling: Using big data to help understand trends and hot topics to create engaging content, will accelerate going forward.

No more head in the sand, get in the know and ensure that all your communication and marketing objectives are realised in 2020.

Authored by: Stephné du Toit, Content Manager, At That Point

Do your marketing meetings usually include a discussion around how you should be doing more video on your social media platforms? Then a month goes by and you still haven’t managed to get a single video done? Like they say, procrastination is the thief of all things.

This is usually because the process of making a video seems like a daunting task to the average person. However, it does not have to be a difficult or expensive exercise, you can therefor stop hesitating and get started.  The easiest way to do this is to start at the beginning and methodically work your way through the production process.

Here are some simple steps to get you going, and before you know it, it will become second nature.

Planning
Get your team around the table, and if you do not have a team, get some of your creative employees to form part of your brainstorming session.

Ask yourselves, what do we want to achieve? What are the actions we want to stem from this video? Who do we want to reach with our message? Here you must set a definitive aim, if you shoot too broadly, you are going to miss your target.

Now you can start writing, plan your setting and create a storyboard to plot the scenes or message points of you video.

Type of video
Depending on your message, you have to decide if you will be using an articulate person to convey the message, or if you would just like to use text to elevate your main points of your message. Either way, there are a lot of free stock image and video sites on the internet where you can source great visuals to support your message

Also make sure your speaker is prepped, relaxed and as natural as possible. Remember, the whole video does not have to be done in one shot. Keep your segments short, this will make it easy to cut and edit.

​1…2…3 Action!
Plan your video set well in advance. Make sure to focus on the small things – those that can make or break your video, such as:

• Background: Be cautious of a busy background, as this will easily take the focus away from your message.
• Lighting: Avoid those double chins and dark-circled eyes by testing various spots to film your subject.
• Audio: Try to get a quiet room to film, if an airplane or car passes rather stop and re-do the scene.
• Composition: Position your camera so that you follow the rule of thirds by leaving some “breathing” space around your subject’s body.

Round off with some editing
No, you do not have to be a professional to edit your video. There are a lot of free and easy movie editing software online. Make sure to cut the unwanted content, use transitions to switch between scenes and add a bit of background music to create your desired mood.

Do not forget to add your company logo and have a call to action at the end, even if you are just inviting your audience to visit your website for more information.

Go live!
The most important thing to remember when you create and post social media video, is to keep it sweet and short. Your aim is not to make a blockbuster movie, but rather to give a targeted message to a specific audience regarding your services, product or business. You therefor best keep to a one- to two-minute video, at the most.

Then upload your video to your website or YouTube channel that you created for your business. From there, you can link back to your video by posting a short description and link onto your various social media platforms.

​Remember practice makes perfect! If you just start and keep going you will soon wonder how you ever communicated to your audience without video.

By Idéle Prinsloo, Agency Lead at At That Point

Audiences are becoming ever more suspicious of any communication that come their way. This can be attributed to several factors including; fake news, corruption, hidden motives or a general overdose of information.

When doing communication planning, it is therefore cardinal to gain and keep the trust of your audience, whether they be your colleagues, clients or those who influence your industry. In this day and age, the best route to take is the one of complete authenticity.

The first step is to undertake a communication audit to determine where your business currently stands in terms of its communication. What were the messages? How were they delivered? And what were the responses? Once you have a clear picture with regards to your current standing, you can move on to create your new improved communication plan.

Listen First
Following your communication audit, the next step is to listen to your audience, as this will allow you to truly gain their trust and respect. Make sure you know their true opinion about everything that is relevant to your business. When you communicate from an informed and involved point of view, you are authentic and much more likely to catch the attention of your audience.

You can achieve this by tapping into your audience’s dialogues on social media, staying abreast of news and trends, as well as actually talking with colleagues, clients and influencers during lunches, meetings or discussion forums.

Be Real
The importance of real and honest communication cannot be overstated, especially when taking into account the daily information overload we are exposed to, much of which is fake, inaccurate or based on hidden agendas.

The idea here is not to lay bare all the mistakes you have ever made or all the challenges you have encountered, but to be honest about the ones that are relevant to the message that you are trying to convey. Position your company as being approachable, while also being respectable.

Taking responsibility for your mistakes and being open about your challenges will go a long way in positioning you as authentic and instilling trust in your brand, as your audience will be able to associate with you more.

​A further step could be taken by opening the floor for a discussion on these mistakes or challenges to hear your audience’s take on how to avoid similar situations in future. This makes them feel valued and involves them in the improvement of the business as a whole.

Speak Your Truth
It is a fine balancing act between being truthful and being so blunt that you offend others. The winning approach here is to speak ‘your’ truth when communicating with your audience. However, do not force your truth upon others, make it clear that although this is your conviction, you do not expect them to believe the same.

Rather invite them to have a discussion with you where they can share their views, during which you attentively take in and consider what they are saying. This can be achieved through physical or online forums, as well as social media platforms.

As author Mike Robbins rightly states, “Truth is not about being right, it's about expressing what we think and feel in an authentic, vulnerable, and transparent way.”

Own Your Message
Whatever your message is, make sure that you have done your homework, in order to back it up if you receive negative feedback. Own your message, take responsibility for it by making sure you communicate it clearly so that your audience fully understands it.

Another way of owning your message is by literally making it your own by including your personal experiences that are relevant. For example, if your message is about employee remuneration solutions, talk about your company’s internal remuneration struggles and eventual resolution thereof.

​If you have checked all the facts and carried over the message properly, you will be able to defend it should criticism arise.

The bottom line therefor is, be authentic and real, it really is the only way to build a solid, sustainable and long-term line of communication with all audiences.