You know who you want to reach, and you’ve got clear goals for your business—now it’s time to connect the dots! The key is figuring out the right communication channels to make it all happen.

What are communication channels?

They’re simply the ways you connect with your audience. For businesses and organizations, this means the strategies you use to promote, engage, and build brand awareness. These usually fall into three categories: verbal, written, and non-verbal.

• Verbal: What you say

• Written: What you write

• Non-verbal: Body language, tone, or the "vibe" (as the kids say)

These methods shape your marketing and PR efforts, both online and offline.

How to reach your ideal audience:

1. Make a list of options.
   Brainstorm all the ways you could connect: word of mouth, paid ads, social media, blogs, videos, emails, podcasts—the list goes on. Get creative!

2. Evaluate what’s working.
   Which channels are already bringing in leads? Are your emails getting responses? Is your social media active? Not sure? Move to step 3.

3. Just ask.
   Survey your customers to see how they found you, or add a “how did you find us?” field to your inquiry form. Better yet, talk directly with people who fit your target audience.

4. Use common sense.
   Think about what you know. For example, if you’re targeting older adults, they’re more likely to watch cable TV. A TV commercial could be perfect. We did this with a local IT company, and it grew their business 5x—no joke!

5. Do some digging.
   Still stuck? If you don’t have time to figure it all out, bringing in an expert (like IvyHill!) can make the process a whole lot easier.

As for our brand reset at IvyHill, we’ve found that a mix of social media marketing (especially videos), webinars, word of mouth, email, and blogs works best for us. We’re also exploring paid ads and stepping up our PR efforts with podcast interviews and articles to boost our reputation.

Now it’s your turn—what’s your strategy for reaching your target audience?

Psst… Need a little help with this? Let’s chat! Set up a time to review this together.