Business success hinges on a lot of moving parts—a strong external communication strategy is one of them. According to 2025 data by Zendesk, 79% of customers would switch to a competitor based on customer service interactions. The takeaway? Effective communication, personalized to the consumer, can be the difference between whether they stay or go.
In this article, we’ll share what external communication is, key external communication touch points, the benefits, and how it interplays with your internal communications strategy.
What is external communication, exactly?
External communication is messaging that occurs between an organization and the outside world. Essentially, it facilitates the exchange of information between a company and various external entities, helping to maintain relationships and a positive brand image.
It’s like a satellite, broadcasting a signal that says, “We’re here…and this is what we’re all about!” The stronger your external communication strategy, the stronger the signal, and the more likely you are to get your message across.
It’s important to note that external communication is not only information relayed to anyone outside of the organization. It also encompasses feedback received from external stakeholders. Let’s explore the three main types:
1. Sales and marketing
Sales and marketing communications embodies the external messages used to promote products and services. This includes advertising, public relations, direct marketing, and packaging, just to name a few. The goal is to attract new customers and generate leads and sales. Whether it’s a catchy advertisement on social media, a well-crafted email campaign, or eye-catching product packaging, these communications are designed to capture attention and drive conversions.
2. Public relations
Public relations (PR) focuses on managing the public image of a company and building beneficial relationships with stakeholders like the media, investors, partners, and consumers. PR teams may communicate through press releases, media interviews, event planning, sponsorships, and other efforts. Effective PR can enhance a company’s reputation, manage crises, and ensure that the public perceives the brand positively. By maintaining a strong PR strategy, businesses can build trust and credibility with their external audiences.
3. Investor relations
Though not public-facing, investor relations are a step beyond internal communications. They typically involve providing information about financial performance, business strategy, leadership changes, and other details relevant to investors through reports, presentations, and events. These regular updates help investors make informed decisions and, if conducted successfully, win loyalty toward the company.
Differences between internal vs external communications
While internal and external communication fall under the general umbrella of corporate communications, they target different audiences and serve different purposes.
Internal communication is information distributed within an organization. It can be anything from emailing colleagues all the way to company-wide communications sent from leadership to the entire workforce via an intranet platform.
External communication, on the other hand, is more about the way that the organization outwardly presents itself to clients, partner businesses, and the general public. This encompasses brand image, advertising campaigns, and customer relations.
Internal and external communications are like the salt and pepper of your organization; you need to balance them perfectly to keep your consumers happy.
What are the purposes of external communication?
No business exists in a vacuum. It’s all good and well having an amazing product or service, but if no one has ever heard of it, who will buy it? And, more often than not, you need to rely on external parties to secure funding, ensure the smooth running of operations, and drive conversions. With an external communication strategy, you can do just that.
Here’s an overview of entities your business may need to communicate with, along with their corresponding external communication aims:
What are the key benefits of external communication?
Optimizing your business’s external communication is a surefire way to secure the following benefits:
1. Stronger brand awareness
Maintaining consistent messaging and brand image across public channels establishes a sense of recognizability and reliability, which builds trust with external stakeholders.
2. Increased customer engagement
It takes about 8 touch points to get a prospective customer to buy: that’s 8 points of communication contact! Providing avenues for current and potential customers to regularly interact with your business will help keep your products/services at the front of their minds, and make them more likely to choose your brand when making purchase decisions.
3. Improved customer relationships
Customer loyalty is at risk when customers fall out of the loop with what is going on in your business. Strong two-way communication, like providing social media customer support, is an effective way to address customer concerns and, in doing so, increase customer satisfaction.
4. Better supplier relationships
External communication isn’t all about marketing! Suppliers are a key external group that your business relies on for a steady source of business necessities. Having a good system for both internal and external communication guarantees that you get what you need when you need it.
5. Greater awareness of industry standards
By engaging with trade associations and participating in industry events, you can gain insights into emerging trends and regulatory changes. This kind of in-person external communication enables organizations to align operations with industry benchmarks and helps them maintain a competitive edge.
6. Increased sales and business growth
Having used external communication to showcase a positive image, garner strong investor support, and build robust customer relationships, you can look forward to increased profitability and business success.
What are external communication channels and tools?
The benefits of external communication are clear. But with so many different communication channels through which to interact with external audiences, you may be wondering where to begin.
As of 2025, there are hundreds of social media platforms to choose from. Even when that figure is honed down to bigger, brand-friendly options, we’re still talking around 20-30 platforms. And this is only one small corner of external communication!
If that isn’t enough, you also need to make sure you don’t neglect more traditional external communication avenues. Don’t stress. We’re going to break them down.
Digital media external communication tools
- Social media: Text, photo, and video posts can be shared on social media channels, tailored to the preference of your target audience. This will allow your business to interact with your target audience in real time, respond to customer concerns, and provide valuable insights into new developments.
- Podcasts: 2024 research shows that podcast advertisements are 34% more cost-effective than traditional advertising. Whether your business sponsors a pre-existing podcast or hosts its own, it’s worth considering incorporating it into your external communication strategy.
- Live webinars: What better way to demonstrate your organization’s thought leadership and create space for two-way communication than to host a live webinar? Content from live webinars can be made available afterward, either as long-form content or cut up for use on short-form video-sharing platforms.
- Website content: Search engine optimized webpages and thought leadership articles are a strong way to communicate with both internal and external audiences.
- Email: Email marketing boasts a 2.8% conversion rate for B2C brands and 2.4% for B2B companies, making it one of the most powerful channels for driving conversions.
Traditional media external communication tools
Traditional media includes television, radio, newspapers, and magazines. Basically, the most popular media prior to the internet.
- Press releases: You can capitalize on the reach of traditional media by sending press releases about upcoming news and events. Note that the most effective way to secure regular column space is not to send arbitrary press releases into the abyss of busy editors’ inboxes, but to build direct relationships with journalists.
- Advertisements: Whether billboards, television, radio, or a plethora of online options, advertisements have always formed a key part of a business marketing strategy. In fact, it is one of the earliest forms of effective external communication for businesses, though we don’t recommend papyrus for modern-day adverts.
- Print materials: Brochures, pamphlets, posters, and flyers are just a few examples of ways you can communicate with external stakeholders. These can be posted via direct mail or distributed in local areas.
Whether posting brochures online or inserting QR codes into your billboard designs, most of these traditional options have the potential to intersect with the online world. But some external connections? They need something a little more human.
The human element
While it’s tempting to put all the focus on the shiny, media side of things, in-person communication is one of the most powerful mediums for building industry relationships.
- Conferences/trade fairs: Attending trade fairs and conferences will connect you directly with industry experts and potential suppliers. There’s nothing quite like meeting in person to build genuine rapport, for suppliers in particular, you want to be sure your communication styles align before signing up to work together.
- Booths/Pop-ups: Whether exhibiting at a trade show or in a public arena, creating a mini representation of your organization through a booth or pop-up helps to infuse your brand image with humanity. In our digital era, the human element is key to building customer trust and may even give you a competitive edge.
Note that for effective external communication, internal communication tools are also essential. Behind-the-scenes software like Axero’s intranet platform can help employees stay on the same page with external communication efforts and serve as a powerful way to organize multi-tier communication campaigns.
Real-life examples of external communication strategy
Innocent Drink
Innocent Drinks is a UK-based smoothie company with an out-of-the-box style of marketing communication. Their tone of voice is the opposite of corporate, infused with a medley of sweetness and zest. Knowing that their audience is health conscious, ethically minded, and “with the times,” they tailor their external communications to match.
Grammarly
Grammarly knows what they’re doing with messaging. You’d hope they would, being a writing tool and all. Their external communication style takes a human approach, targeting specific everyday problems people have with written communication before swooping in to save the day with their AI writing suggestions. Through the use of a variety of communication tools, from slick adverts to down-to-earth TikTok videos, the relatability of their brand voice cuts through all the noises.
Starbucks
It seems like Starbucks was made for Instagram. Their captions keep it light and cozy, written alongside aesthetic images of hands hugging coffee cups and user-generated content (UGC).
With the White Cup Campaign for example, Starbucks encouraged their target audience to decorate white Starbucks takeaway cups and post the images online. Today, Starbucks’ social media posts are often made up of UGC, typically videos of everyday Starbucks trips. This reflects the move towards authenticity, which is a key value for younger audiences online.s reflects the move towards authenticity, which is a key value for younger audiences online.
Tips for Creating Awesome External Communication Strategies
So, you’ve got a handle on what external communications are, the benefits, and the different communication channels available. But how do you implement an excellent external communication strategy? And more importantly, how do you know whether you’re on track?
Maybe you post to LinkedIn now and then or have dipped your toes in the oh-so-relatable TikTok waters. Unfortunately, the “posting and praying” approach just isn’t going to cut it. Sure, you might have an accidental viral post here and there, but you want a tangible return on investment (ROI), not just vanity metrics. Here’s how.
1. Get clear on your audience
Do you talk to your grandma the same way you talk to your boss? Didn’t think so. As internal and external communications differ, so too do external communications across different audience types.
Are you trying to reach potential customers, investors, media, or industry partners?
Begin by listing all the external entities you communicate with on a regular basis, then create audience profiles (or buyer’s persona) to determine the tone of voice that you use.
2. Decide communication channels
Tailoring your communication channels to your audience ensures that your message is delivered effectively and resonates with the right people. So, based on your audience profiles, decide what communication channels you want to use.
Understanding your audience will inform you of what platform(s) make the most sense. For example, if your target audience is primarily young adults, social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok may be more effective than traditional print advertising. On the other hand, if your target audience is primarily business professionals, LinkedIn may be a better choice.
3. Maintain consistent messaging
Yes, we know we just said to adapt your tone depending on who you’re talking to. So what’s this about consistency? Here’s the deal: the values of your company culture should serve as a foundation for what you say, even if how you say it differs depending on the audience.
4. Provide values
Whether communicating on social media or via email newsletters, you want to be sure that you’re providing value. As handy as attention-grabbing hacks might be in the short term, it’s quality that will engage external audiences in the long term.
5. Be authentic
Authenticity is king in today’s social media world. In a backlash against overly “perfect” and unrealistic social media standards, apps like BeReal have come to the fore. With BeReal, users are given a 2-minute timer at a random point in the day in which they can share an uncurated moment from their real lives.
Scan social media platforms today, and you may notice a diminishing of “shiny,” overly scripted posts in exchange for more relatable content. This is definitely a bandwagon you want to jump on, particularly if you want to engage with Gen Z audiences.
6. Incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI)
With AI you can plan and draft communications, and even incorporate AI chat-boxes into websites to ensure that stakeholders get answers to their questions as soon as possible. While we don’t recommend making AI the cornerstone of your communication strategy, it is a valuable tool that can save you a ton of time.
7. Implement strong internal communications
Ineffective internal communication? You can forget about a cohesive external communication plan. That’s right, everything you’ve learned in this article will be obsolete. This is because without a robust internal communication strategy, external comms will be impossible to implement.
The press release you need to send out? Too bad, you missed the deadline.
The snappy slogan the comms team thinks will be perfect for your new campaign? Not going to happen if your departments are stuck in siloes, and marketing refuses to authorize it.
Given how complex a multi-tiered external communication strategy can be, your internal communication plan needs to go beyond email chains. In the long run, you want to be able to measure success and store metrics information in an easily accessible way. Axero’s intranet platform can help with this.
How a Modern Intranet Can Strengthen Your External Communication
A modern intranet platform is like the command center out of which your external communication strategy flows. With everything in one place, it’s easy to connect the dots between different projects and departments and make a strategic plan for success.
Remember: you don’t only have an external audience to convince about new developments; you also have an internal one. Your internal audience is the company’s workforce, which, with Axero, you can segment and target based on department. That’s not all. With Axero’s extranet features, you can also create spaces to streamline communication, collaboration, and information sharing with outside parties.
Where before, your external communication was fraught with inconsistencies, obstacles, and discord, it will now be free-flowing, transparent, and cohesively aligned with company culture. Get a demo today to check it out for yourself!
