Marketing communications is a branch of marketing that is responsible for managing a company’s marketing materials and promotional strategies. The marketing communications team decides how to best communicate the company’s marketing messages (i.e., the company’s mission, vision, values, products, and services) to the target audience(s) using various marketing channels.
Marketing communications is a very broad department in and of itself. The marketing communications mix includes:
- Branding
- Digital Marketing
- Advertising
- Public Relations & Publicity
- Sales Promotion
- Event Marketing
- Direct Marketing
- Personal Selling
Branding
The marketing communications team ensures that all marketing materials and promotional messages are aligned with the company’s (or product’s) brand. This includes appropriate use of the logo, communicating the company’s mission and values, and creating a unique brand identity using consistent colors, fonts, designs, patterns, and imagery.
Digital Marketing
Social media marketing, email marketing, display advertising, paid search advertising, and website management all fall under digital marketing. Digital marketing is the newest branch of marketing communications and is the most rapidly growing. We are living in an era of technological innovation, where reaching prospective customers via digital channels is more important than ever.
Advertising
Paid promotion is considered advertising. This can include social media ads, paid display ads, paid search ads, TV commercials, radio commercials, billboards, sponsored posts, etc.
Public Relations & Publicity
Public relations (PR) involves monitoring people’s perception of the company and its products and performing outreach. Outreach can include distributing press releases, partnering with other organizations, and giving public statements. PR professionals also work with upper management on crisis management when something comes up that threatens the company’s public image. The goal of public relations is to make sure customers and the public view a company and its offerings positively.
Sales Promotion
Sales promotion involves promoting sales! This can include social media posts, emails, coupons, store signs, etc.
Event Marketing
Event marketers help come up with events that will help promote the company and its products or services and are in charge of promoting those events.
Direct Marketing
Communicating a specific message to a pre-selected customer is considered direct marketing. This usually takes the form of texts, emails, or snail-mail. A social media post, a billboard, or a TV commercial would not be considered direct marketing because those communications are targeting a broad audience with the same messages.
Personal Selling
Personal selling involves selling directly to a customer via phone, email, or face-to-face. The marketing team works with the sales team to determine the messaging the sales team should use in order to sell the customer on the product or service.
