Business communication is the process by which a company shares information with multiple sources including employees, shareholders, and consumers. Effective business communication is essential to the continued growth and success of a company because it is involved in nearly every project a business tackle. Business communication should always be goal-oriented and aligned with a company’s core values. Its primary function is to ensure everyone is on the same page and understands the desired outcomes of a process. There are two categories of business communication: internal communication, and external communication.
Internal communication concerns information that is shared within a business. This includes employees and workers at every level of the organization. An all-staff meeting that covers a business’s operations would be an example of internal communication.
External business communication is the process by which information is shared with anyone who is not directly involved with a business’s operations. This includes consumers, shareholders, and clients. A company’s marketing efforts are only just a part of its external communications. Another example of external communications would be meetings with clients and shareholders or communication that occurs during an industry event.
Tips For Effective Business Communication
External Communication Tips
- Communicate Through Multiple Avenues
There are more ways now than ever for businesses to engage with potential consumers and partners and it would be wise to take advantage of a few of them. Social media, press releases, and content marketing are three of the most common ways businesses communicate with the outside world.
Social media offers businesses an absolutely enormous audience to engage with, and these platforms are only growing. What’s more, you can begin building an audience on social media for free. The true power of social media though is that it allows for two-way communication. A business can deliver a message to the world, and anyone can publicly respond to the business.
Press releases are a tried-and-true method of delivering updates about your business to outside sources like influencers or journalists. It may be one of the older forms of external communications, but press releases are still prevalent because of how effective they can be. Press releases that get covered by reputable sources add credibility to your brand and improve its public perception.
Content marketing is a method of external communication that also organically increases traffic to your business’s website. The most common example of content marketing is a regularly updated blog. By creating content that external sources find entertaining, informative, or interesting you can generate buzz around your business.
- Have a unique voice
With so many different companies fighting for attention it can be difficult to set yourself apart from the competition. This is why having a unique and consistent voice is so important. Your business’s voice can be high-class and professional, or it can be casual and informal, but what’s important is that it is consistent. If properly executed, people should be able to recognize your company without seeing a logo or company name.
An excellent example of a business with a unique and consistent voice is Apple. Apple’s products are known for being innovative, sleek, and simple to use. Everything Apple does from marketing to product design, and even down to packaging reflects this personality. It is very likely that you’ll recognize an iPhone even if the logos were scrubbed from Apple’s products.
Internal Communication Tips
- Develop a Strong Workplace Culture
One of the most effective ways to improve your business’s internal communications is to focus on building a good workplace culture. Creating a workplace where your employees feel welcome, comfortable, and appreciated is key to good internal communication. Employees will do a better job of communicating with their team if they feel that the other team members genuinely care about their thoughts and opinions.
Additionally, a strong workplace culture will improve worker productivity. The logic here is fairly simple, if a business takes good care of its workers, then the workers will strive to take good care of the business. Employees will work harder for a company that they feel cares for them.
- Improve your Human Resources Management
Human resources can sometimes get a poor reputation because they are responsible for handling employee misconduct, but the truth is that human resources do a great deal to support a company’s employees. After all, it is meant to act as a resource for the employees of a company when they feel unsatisfied with something in the workplace.
An effective human resources department can improve employee engagement and help build a strong workplace culture. Employee engagement is vital to a business’s continued success and growth. Human resources management can improve employee engagement by showing employees that they are appreciated and that their opinions are being considered when implementing workplace policies. Furthermore, decent human resources managers are capable of nurturing teamwork which will improve internal communications between peers.
- APIS
In this new era of technology every business is run based on applications, and for an optimal communication between them an Application Program Interface will help your organization to easily connect each other. They are going to provide information within your company allowing your employees to complete their task in a more effective way, giving more curated analytics, by building an internal messaging service, or by having a detailed control over their eCommerce using shipping apis.
Nonetheless, other important APIs used by companies are used for external communication. For example, embedding YouTube videos into their webpages, allowing payments through platforms like PayPal, in their social media accounts applying bots, through weather snippets, or log-in functionality.
Conclusion
It is really important to be aware how is your business speaking not only to the outside world, but also to every person that is part of it. Bear in mind that a smooth communication will transfer your customers, employees, partners, and everyone that is part of your community a feeling of trustworthiness, reliability, and assurance. So, speak up and connect!
