Choosing the right communication channels for your company is not that simple. Before you start looking for different communication channels, it is important that you identify your target group. When you have identified your target group, it is important that you research them how they use and obtain information. When you have gathered all the right information, you can start choosing the right communication channels. When you are choosing the right communication channels, it is important that you consider the complexity of the message that you want to communicate, you also should calculate the cost of the communication and decide whether you want to be interactive with your customers. 

• Find your target group: First you need to find out who you target group is. Find out the job titles of the people who have influences on the decision of to purchase or not to purchase for the product you supply.  Review the media platforms that claim to reach your target audience. Make a short list of the publications you could use for advertising. Ask your sales team if they meet the key decision makers’ face- to- face, if they do, you can use the sales team to communicate the information with the customers.  You should consider how you could use your website to communicate with your audience. 

- What is the age? 

- Is the product for male of female?

- What is the residence?

- In which region do they live?

- What is their level of education?

- What is their profession?

- What for function do they have? 

- In what are they specialised? 

- How many employees? 

- Where are they located?

- What is their revenue? 

- What for company is it?

• Analyse: Analyse the message that you want to communicate. It is important that you use channels that have advertisements, emails or short messages such as Twitter to communicate simple messages, for example, price changes or announcements of new products. You also need to select a channel that allows you to treat a topic more in depth, for example, when you want to explain the benefits of a new product or strategic change in your company. You can also consider feature articles in magazines that are read by your target audience, but before you consider magazines it is important that the growth of social media is getting bigger every year, a lot of magazines have struggles competing with social media websites. 

• Calculating the costs: The next step after identifying your target group and analysing the message is calculating the cost of the communicating through the channels that you want to use. If you are working together with a third party, for the graphic designs, it is smart to ask for quotes. 

• Feedback: If you want to obtain feedback or monitor opinions of your company and products it is important that you choose channels that are interactive.  You can set up a poll on Facebook, or a product review page on your own website, this to encourage visitors to share their views. What is also wise to do is to monitor your social media platforms that are related to your company.

So for example, there is an SME that has trouble with choosing the right communication channels, the first step that they have to do, is finding their target group, because most of the products are not suitable for everyone.  After they have identified their target group, they start thinking and analysing the message that they want to communicate, it is important that they know what the message should mean because not all messages are suitable for all communication channels. One other thing that they have done, is calculating the costs of the message because on Facebook and Twitter you can place paid posts, you can compare it to an advertisement.  After all, they have all the things above, they are going to obtain feedback from the message, feedback is an important part, because with the feedback they can adjust the message and make it more appealing for their target group.  

Branding and communication are a big part of your marketing, so it is important that you know the do and don’t. With good branding and communication, you can form a positive image for you as a company. A customer with a positive image of the company is willing to buy more and tells is faster further, about the experience that he/she has had. 

As an SME you probably don’t have a big budget, so you can hire somebody, so it is important that you are aware of the do and don’t of branding and communication. 

• Do: Understand your brand’s power:  Branding is a way of defining your identity which expresses the values of your business. The first step that you need to take is defining your brand. There are benefits of a defined brand, it encourage the customer to emotionally connect to the same values and that leads to customer loyalty.  

• Do:  Establish brand guidelines: An essential value for a small business brand is that it is familiar. Without defined guidelines for different aspects of brand branding, your brand will lack consistency and direction. Guidelines that are carefully crafted can help to reinforce and maintain your branding characteristics as you roll them across your company marketing materials.

• Do: Design to impress and engage:  When brands have a unique style and designs that could raise emotions and relevancy are instantly recognizable. A graphic designer with good qualities is something that you should have in your marketing materials, the design should exude professionalism and trigger feelings of reassurance to reinforce the value of the brand. 

• Do: Create a thorough and brand- friendly profile:  Just like your own website, your social media pages should describe the services and products that you offer in detail. It is important that you fill in all the information fields on the pages of your profile, this so that visitors know what you do and what they can expect from your business.  When you are creating a profile, you should add the link on your own website to the information, so it makes is easier for them to find your website. 

• Do: Think outside the box:  Nowadays it is not enough to have a cleverly crafted content that tells people about your products.  A lot of companies have created a loyalty program, to keep the customer from going to the competitor. You can think of ways to use your social media pages as an extension of your loyalty program if you created one. 

• Don’t: Create a vague brand or over- complicate it:  The first impression set the standard of every interaction with your brand. The efficiency of your brand communication can have an impact on your success and that of the product. It is important that you avoid vague statements, your brand should be an enthusiastic reflection of what it stands for. 

• Don’t: Forget to police your brand’s usage:  After you have defined your brand guidelines, you need to be proactive monitor how your branded elements are being used. Keep in mind that every time you drift away from your brand guidelines, you weaken the power and association with a more unified branding campaign. With consistency you give your company the opportunity to become sustainable, build trust and grow profits. 

• Don’t: Try to mimic the look of chains or big brands:  As a small business, you should slice out your own identity and leverage. Your independent status could be something that attracts future customers that are looking for more original offerings, which are authentic and align with how they feel about themselves.

• Don’t: Sign up for every social media site:  With so many social media platforms out there, it would be a waste of your time and resources if you are trying to learn and participate in all of them. You should choose the one that your target audience uses the most, this information is easy to find if you do a market research. 

• Don’t: Go overboard:  Advertising your loyalty program on social media, can be resourceful but don’t clutter your customers’ feeds with an overwhelming amount of information. Be mindful of the content that you want to share and when you want to share it.