The multiplication of contact points has completely changed the way in which organizations communicate internally with their employees, as well as externally with their customers. Digital communication tools are redesigning the landscape of information transmission methods, offering speed and efficiency. Allowing to gain visibility, facilitating the measurement of the performance of the actions undertaken, they also make it possible to reduce costs, while responding to new digital uses.
This article focuses exclusively on digital tools used for external and internal communication within a digital environment. For an approach dedicated to purely internal communication (HR, teams, organization), consult our guide on Internal communication.
Digital communication: definition and strategy
Digital communication covers all the devices that make it possible to centralize, share and enhance information by exploiting digital technologies. It includes both the digitization of digital media and the application of digital multi-channel strategies, aimed at effectively reach an increasingly connected audience.
Concretely, It relies on means of communication designed to create, plan, disseminate, measure and optimize communication actions, whether internally or for external audiences.
Today, it has become essential for all companies to introduce digital communication actions into their practices. This digital transition offers the opportunity toExtend the reach of your messages, to increase the responsiveness of teams, to stimulate engagement of customers, but also of strengthen your brand image through innovation and proximity.
The effectiveness of your communications depends on choice and control digital tools.
Internal digital communication tools
Internal digital communication tools, whether digital, digitized or cloud, make it possible to support collaboration, streamline the flow of information and secure exchanges. This digital workplace, open and accessible to all, promotes exchanges and is an essential foundation for collective performance.
- Instant messengers
Instant messaging is now essential in business. They allow immediate, centralized, contextual and democratic communication, facilitating both the exchange of ideas and the rapid sending of documents. Thanks to the creation of thematic channels, your teams gain in efficiency by limiting the clutter of email boxes and by promoting transversal work, whether carried out remotely or in person.
A few examples:
- Slack
Slack's flexibility makes it a real internal communication hub. Thanks to the creation of thematic channels, you can organize exchanges by team, project or area of interest. Its integration with countless third-party applications (Drive, Trello, Zoom...) centralizes your information flows.
- Microsoft Teams
Built on the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, Teams makes it easy to simultaneously email, share files, and organize meetings in a single environment. It integrates natively with Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint and benefits from strong data security.
- Google Chat
Designed for Google Workspace users, Google Chat offers a simple and effective approach to messaging, perfectly synchronized with the other office tools in the Google suite.
- Collaborative tools
Project management and collaboration are also facilitated by digital collaborative tools. These digital platforms offer a range of functionalities: real-time document sharing, co-editing, co-editing, secure storage, checklist, task tracking, etc. They are positioned as real organizational hubs allowing you to aggregate all useful information, coordinate efforts, and plan the stages of your projects in a fluid and structured way.
A few examples:
- Google Workspace
A complete set of cloud productivity applications (Gmail, Drive, Drive, Docs, Meet), at the heart of numerous internal digital communication strategies. Google Workspace enables collaboration, communication, and secure file storage for professionals and businesses, all accessible from any Internet-connected device.
- Notion
Notion has established itself as a flexible digital tool, ideal for documenting internal processes and structuring a collaborative knowledge base.
- Editorial management tools
To effectively manage an editorial strategy and the publication of content, editorial planning is among the most essential digital communication tools. In addition to helping to anticipate the highlights and off-peak periods of the year by offering an overview of communication actions, it also makes it possible to be better organized on a daily basis and to remain in line with its editorial line.
Its form can be more or less elaborate: a simple Excel document may suffice, while others will prefer to use digital tools offering advanced options and an interface adapted to collaboration and project management.
A few examples:
- Trello
Visual project management platform, structured in tables, lists and maps. Ideal for an editorial digital communication strategy in order to organize tasks, monitor collaborative progress and simply manage workflows, ideas or projects as a team thanks to an intuitive and flexible interface.
- Asana
Task and project management tool that promotes team collaboration. Allows you to create, plan, organize and monitor projects and deadlines with lists, tables, calendars and automations, to improve organizational productivity.
- Corporate Intranets and Platforms
The intranet, which is often personalized, remains the nerve center of corporate culture, bringing together announcements, documents, resources, procedures, and collaborative spaces. A true internal digital portal, it adapts to hybrid work and centralizes all the resources that each employee needs to stay informed and involved at the heart of the organization.
External communication tools
External digital communication tools make it possible to strengthen digital marketing or direct marketing actions. They aim to increase the visibility of the company and to better manage interactions with its audience on digital channels.
- Email marketing platforms
Although traditional, email marketing remains one of the most powerful digital levers for interacting with its target audience thanks to communications that arrive directly in their inbox. Newsletter sending platforms offer advanced functions for segmentation, automation, personalization and analysis of your campaigns, allowing you to reach your targets in a relevant way while measuring return and commitments.
A few examples:
- Mailchimp
Recognized email marketing platform for the creation, automation and analysis of digital campaigns. It offers customizable templates, contact list management, and reporting tools to optimize email marketing performance.
- Mailjet
French emailing solution for digital communication. Mailjet allows you to design, send and monitor email marketing campaigns. Real-time email collaboration, advanced list management and comprehensive customizable performance analyses are on the agenda.
- Brevo (ex-Sendinblue)
All-in-one platform dedicated to digital communication: emailing, SMS, marketing automation and customer relationship management. It allows you to design, deliver and analyze personalized campaigns across multiple channels, while centralizing customer interactions.
- CRM tools
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools allow you to manage all your customer relationships from a single platform. This software brings together data relating to its prospects and customers, the key performance indicators of its digital communication strategies in the service of a personalized, coherent and efficient relationship.
A few examples:
- HubSpot
All-in-one software suite for marketing, sales, and customer service. HubSpot combines marketing automation, CRM, data analytics, and content management to drive growth and retain customers.
- Salesforce
Global leader in CRM platforms. Salesforce unifies sales, marketing, customer service, and data analytics, making it easy to track prospects, customers, and opportunities to accelerate sales performance.
- Zendesk
Zendesk is a multi-channel customer support software. It centralizes requests and automates their processing, improving satisfaction through seamless support via email, chat, social networks and knowledge base.
- Social networks and management platforms
Social networks have become essential levers in any digital communication strategy. Animating, managing and optimizing social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Instagram, LinkedIn, LinkedIn, TikTok or even X (ex-Twitter) is a key challenge, but also an opportunity to strengthen commitment and reputation. To effectively manage your Social Media strategy, tools make it possible to identify the best publishing niches, to centralize content and interactions, and to analyze performance via dedicated dashboards.
A few examples:
- Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a comprehensive social media management platform. It allows content to be planned, published and analyzed across multiple channels, while facilitating monitoring, engagement monitoring and Social Media reporting.
- Buffer
Buffer is an intuitive social media management tool. It allows you to schedule and publish content, track performance, and analyze engagement across various channels. It is distinguished by its ease of use and its team collaboration functions.
- Chatbots and customer support tools
To offer responsive customer service that is available at any time, the automation of exchanges via chatbots has largely been democratized. These digital tools make it possible to quickly qualify and process user requests, to direct them to the right resources or to collect useful data to enrich the customer experience.
A few examples:
- Intercom
Customer communication platform combining real-time messaging, intelligent bots and CRM. Intercom facilitates support, engagement, and conversion through integrated chat and targeted campaigns, to optimize each touchpoint on the site.
- Drift
Conversational tool for marketing and sales, based on real-time chat and automation. Drift helps qualify leads, engage in personalized exchanges, and accelerate conversion on B2B sites.
Digital signage: a hybrid digital tool at the service of communication
Digital signage is a powerful tool for engaging your audiences, by broadcasting multimedia content (videos, photos, infographics) in real time on a fleet of connected screens. It strengthens internal communication by uniting teams, while optimizing external communication at points of sale or in public spaces. A true image accelerator, it captures attention and reinforces the company's visibility.
The power of attraction of screens arouses the interest of your targets, stimulates engagement, and reinforces the visibility of your brand. A true image accelerator, dynamic signage acts on both attention and memory.
The Cenareo solution makes it possible to remotely control digital signage, segment content by screen, and measure its impact using advanced indicators — all from a simple and intuitive interface.
How to choose the right digital communication tools?
The diversity of the offer requires a methodical approach to select digital communication tools that will effectively integrate into your ecosystem and support your operational goals.
1. Intuitiveness and user experience
Choose solutions with an ergonomic, intuitive and flexible interface, which allow teams to get started quickly, without complex training. This criterion is essential, especially in SMEs or when users have little experience with digital tools.
2. Cost and return on investment
Evaluate your budget not only at the time of purchase, but also over the long term: maintenance costs, technical support, scalability of functionalities.
Some free solutions may be enough to get you started, but they are limited as your needs change. On the other hand, premium SaaS tools offer a rapid increase in power, adapted to your growth.
VSEs and SMEs will prefer solutions that are simple, economical and quick to deploy. Large organizations, with more complex needs and internal validation processes, will move towards customizable tools with advanced features.
Systematically compare cost to added value: increased productivity, better customer satisfaction or more accurate insights can justify a larger investment.
3. Integration with existing tools
A good digital communication tool should be easily integrated into your current ecosystem. Interoperability — that is, its ability to connect with your other software — is a key criterion.
This compatibility prevents the multiplication of solutions, limits information silos and promotes the smooth flow of data, essential for coherent and effective communication across the organization.
4. Scalability and adaptability
Communication needs evolve with the development of your business or the emergence of new challenges. Choose tools that can keep up with these changes: support for a larger number of users, addition of new functionalities, adaptation to new channels or use cases.
5. Safety and regulatory compliance
The confidentiality of data, internal or customer, is an imperative. Choose solutions that are GDPR-compliant and have recognized security certifications.
Also check the presence of key functions: fine access management, regular backups, data encryption, and proactive maintenance policy.
Trends and evolutions of digital communication tools
Artificial intelligence and flow automation
Artificial intelligence is increasingly integrated with digital communication tools, both to automate processes and to refine personalization. It is involved in monitoring, moderation, customer service chatbots, or even the generation of content adapted to user profiles and behaviors. Email marketing platforms now use algorithms capable of optimizing the sending of messages based on interaction histories (opening rates, clicks, conversion), while social media management tools automate publication at the most appropriate times. These developments improve the relevance of communications while freeing up operational time.
Advanced personalization and segmentation
Digital communication tools integrate functionalities more and more advanced segmentation. The objective: to broadcast the right message, at the right time, on the right channel, according to the profile and behaviors of each audience. Some tools integrate sensors (IoT, weather, attendance) to adapt the content broadcast in real time, thus creating an ultra-personalized and dynamic experience.
The rise of omnichannel communications
La Consistency of messages is now a key issue throughout the digital journey. Whether it's social networks, emailing, online advertising, online advertising, video content, video content, chatbots or digital signage, omnichannel platforms unify all of your communication actions to offer a seamless experience, regardless of the channel or terminal used.
