The first step of every business is a detailed plan, which indicates the company's position on the market in terms of its revenue within three to five years and touches on how this position will be reached.  A well thought-out communications strategy is of great importance in meeting the goals of the business plan.  Any communications strategy includes marketing and public relations and fulfills the function of building the awareness and credibility.

Any successful communications program consists of three basic components: positioning, awareness and third-party credibility. Communications programs are to ensure that the right messages reach the right audiences. In order to implement this they should be strategically aligned with business goals. The recipients of broad messages are the so-called "macro-targets" and those of narrow messages are the "micro-targets".

Macro-Targeting is the approach to business communications, which enables the generation of a high level of awareness for your company. The media, analysts, all those market influencers who maintain your business model are macro-targets. People do business with those whom they trust, so the aim of macro-targeting is to assure confidence in your company. Your positive reputation in the market is basic in generating the sales.

You do micro-targeting when you focus on specific audience, organizations or companies. This level of business communication is more sophisticated and gives an opportunity to provide important information to target audiences.  The main components that drive revenues are capital, customers and partners. Here micro-targeted messages are significant and answer the "why" questions: Why invest in us? Why buy from us? Why work together?

Using macro-targeted and micro-targeted communications together is an important thing you should never forget. Work with public relations agencies may be helpful in macro-targeted messaging. They know exactly what kind of messages correspond best the goals of those companies you would like to work with.

Pay much attention to the context. Always contextualize your propositions with whatever you have learned about your prospect's business. You get general credibility when you reach the media with your macro-targeted messages. When you direct your PR results to your sales prospects, it gives weight to your micro-level messages.

So, establish your communications program with both macro- and micro-targeting components. It will be most successful when relating your messages to your target audience.