Find out the 7 most used Communication Channels

There are many ways to communicate and also different ways of establishing this communication. When we think of customers, this becomes even more evident, since your audience can look you up in several different communication channels.

For this reason, it’s important to know how to identify the best way of getting your message across to each person on each channel.

With this in mind, take a look at the 7 main online channels and we’ll show you how they can help your business.

What are communication channels?

Communication channels are tools used by companies to establish a relationship and communicate with their audience.

They enhance the experience between the customer and the brand, boosting relationship marketing, generating recognition for the company and impacting sales.

It’s through them that you can:

• Present a new product or service to your customers;
• Keep people informed about everything regarding your area of operation;
• Answer your audience’s questions and reply to their comments;
• Share material that can bring your audience closer to your brand.

Therefore, when choosing the channel you’ll be using, choose the one in which it’s possible to provide information that adds value to your audience by helping them and offering solutions.

Get to know your consumers’ pains, doubts, desires, and goals. This way, you’ll be able to create useful content to establish a relationship with them.

What Communication Channels are used for?

Communication channels help you build and establish your brand with your consumer by increasing sales and contribute to helping you understand your audience’s behavior.

They create a bridge between you and your audience.

Therefore, knowing what they are and how to work with each channel is as essential as choosing your persona, because this will be the foundation for your digital marketing strategy.

There is no specific channel that will bring you greater and bigger results. It will all depend on your business and your customers’ profile.

But since there are several communication channels, it’s recommended that you have more than one channel.

This way, your audience will have more than one customer service option and you’ll have more opportunities to strengthen your relationship with them.

Ideally, you should choose a form of communication that’s related to your company’s culture and that is able to easily and adequately dialog on each channel.

You are probably wondering which channels are used the most, aren’t you? So, let’s find out.

1. Social media

Social media is widely used as a strategy to strengthen the relationship with customers, because it allows direct interaction with the audience, in addition to increasing its engagement with the brand.

In social media, you can reply to comments and offer relevant content in various formats, such as photos, videos, and texts.

It’s worth remembering that the audience on each network behaves differently. Therefore, it’s necessary to create content related to each media.

In order to learn more about this, read our post on types of content for social media.

2. Blogs

This is the most widely used means of providing educational information on various subjects.

With blogs you can build a cycle of posts and create new ways of getting closer to your audience.

The idea of a blog is to expose your knowledge by showing that not only you’re an expert in a given subject, but also cover general topics of your audience’s interest.

When you offer educational content, you create a relationship with your audience, since you answer their questions about various subjects related to your market.

This also makes it more likely for you to be seen as an authority in your market.

It’s important to keep your blog always updated. This way you create a schedule which allows your audience to know when you’ll post texts. That way, you increase your visibility, create visitor loyalty and gain your customer’s trust.

In addition, there are several other blog strategies, from inserting a banner with sponsored links to the inclusion of a space for questions and suggestions related to your business.

It is worth exploring all of these opportunities.

3. Email marketing

Email marketing is a communication channel that allows the message to be delivered in a customized manner to a lead and customer lead.

This channel is widely used because it has a low cost and speaks directly to an audience who has already demonstrated an interest in your business.

You can use it both to talk about your brand, as well as to send a promotion, give notices or offer rich content to your customer.

There are currently several automated email tools that automate the entire process, from their creation to measuring results. One of them is MailChimp, make sure you get to know it.

4. Support

This sector, which is often the gateway for users, goes beyond customer service to answer questions and solve problems.

Quality support transforms customers’ pain into solutions and can convert these users into a brand advocate.

In addition to being able to anticipate possible difficulties, through customer support it’s possible to identify bottlenecks and find out what the main customer questions and needs are.

This service can be offered via email, phone or by chat.

The important thing is to have a qualified team, with a high level of knowledge about your business and that provides good service for your customers.

5. Videos

This format of promotion that has grown significantly in recent times is among a consumer favorite among the Brazilian audience.

Nowadays, videos aren’t only used to entertain or promote products and services. They are produced and also used for didactical and educational purposes.

This type of content, in addition to being fast and attractive, facilitates the understanding of the message.

As with the communication channels we’ve mentioned, it’s important to create a content marketing strategy for your video.

Your audience needs to have a real experience that is interesting in order to guide them to the video’s main objective, which is either selling or informing something.

6. Discussion forums

Widely used by online course students, discussion forums are digital channels focused on collective interaction.

In them, all users are able to communicate and exchange experiences, either good or bad.

This is exactly why it’s interesting to be present in these communication channels, especially if there’s a forum about your market or business.

When you become aware of this, you can mediate discussions about a given subject, answer questions to increase understanding about the content, or even understand the problems of an unhappy customer.

7. External complaint channels

Since not everything is a bed of roses, it’s common to have unhappy customers that complain about your product or service on communication channels, which aren’t necessarily controlled by you.

Websites such as Yelp and Google reviews are used to show this dissatisfaction and it’s important that you not only know everything that is being posted on them, but also answer them.

This way you can understand your customers and can also take action to change their perception of your business.

Why should I use more than one communication channel?

Choosing the correct communication channels for each situation is crucial for the success of your business.

And believe me, you’ll have to use more than one channel. After all, your audience might be on all of them and you’ll never know if you don’t use them.

But if you work alone or still don’t have a team to help you on each channel, don’t try to use them all.

It’s important to be able to answer your customers’ questions and receive their suggestions, and when you have many communication channels, this can become an arduous task that’s hard to control.

Therefore:

Outline strategies

Keep an eye on all communication channels used in order to always keep them updated.

It’s important to add new content at least once a week and have an editorial calendar to help you with this.

Research

Stay up to date!

Create a daily reading routine to stay informed about the main events of your digital market. This will help you when it’s time to produce content.

Manage all of your communication channels

It’s very easy to forget about a communication channel, which will make your customers’ messages accumulate.

To keep this from happening, create a management routine and check all comments that your business receives.

Identify your persona

A persona is a fictional character that represents your ideal customer.

It’s the sum of all characteristics of the people to whom you intend to direct your product or service.

Unlike a target audience, when we create a persona, we are looking for more detailed characteristics, such as habits, personality, desires, and needs.

The creation of the persona will direct your product to the right people, in addition to showing which communication channels your audience uses the most.

Thus, you’ll be able to really understand where you need to be present in order to talk to your audience.

Do you still have questions about how to do this?

Well then, read our post with tips on how to create your persona.