What is External Communication? Objective of External Communication

The communication that occurs within organisations is called external communication. Every organisation is required to maintain a relation with other organizations, people, or potential customers with a view to achieving goals. So, when a business organization exchanges information with other business organizations, government offices, banks, insurance companies, customers, suppliers, leaders and general people, and so on, it is known as external communication. External communication covers how a provider interacts with external audiences or public audience outside the organization.

The goals of external communication are to facilitate cooperation with groups such as suppliers, investors and stockholders and to present a favorable image of an organization and its products or services to potential and actual customers and to society at large. A variety of channels may be used for external communication, including face-to-face meetings, print or broadcast media such as radio channels and electronic communication technologies such as the social media platforms and internet to maintain a long-term relationship with them.

So, this type of communication is an informal exchange of information and consistent message between an organization and other organizations, potential partners, groups or individuals outside its formal structure. It aims to understand the target and external audiences better and attain the peak which is business success.

The Objective of External Communication

External comms such as customer communication, business communication, etc. occurring in any form outside the boundary of a business organization is called “external communication.” The objectives of an ideal external comms are as follows::

1. Community relations: Every business organization has to maintain a positive relationship with the common people of the society so as to achieve the organizational goals. Their goals could be to improve corporate image, increase loyal customers, or aid company image. External communications strategy helps to keep a link with the people on a wide range.
2. Collection of information: Another objective is to collect essential information from outside the organization to develop a strong business strategy and build a successful business.
3. Keeping contact with customers: Every organization should know the taste, liking, and disliking of its customers to improve marketing campaigns and increase sales. So, external communication is necessary to maintain personal contact with customers. Also, paying close attention to industry trends is a good strategy for success mostly in the private sector. Organizations should also work alongside business partners to improve their external communication channels.
4. Relations with suppliers: Every organization has many suppliers from which it collects raw material or finished goods to run the business. So there must be a good relationship between the firm and its suppliers to ensure long-term success.
5. Relation with financial institutions: One of the most important objectives of external communication is to keep a link with banks, insurance, and other financial institutions. Organizations can hire comms professionals to help provide strategic alignment to build and maintain external network.
6. Shareholder relation: Shareholders are the owners of the company. The board of directors is liable to inform all the business affairs to the shareholders. External communication is a must in this regard.

Some of the other ways businesses or organizations keep external contact or business contacts with the public (external people) and audience segment are as follows:

• To keep the relation with regulatory bodies
• To keep the images of the company
• To promote international relations etc.

Therefore, communication in business go far and beyond to add to the success of the business. To grow as an organization, developing good internal communication strategies and maintaining consistent communication strategy through external mediums will improve business performance significantly.