Marketing isn’t just about finding who will buy your products. It’s about where you’re searching for that audience.
In the age of the internet, that’s become even more important. A generation ago, you could find leads via direct mail, billboards, referrals, door-to-door sales, or advertising (newspapers, television, radio). Now, those possibilities are compounded even further, with email marketing, search engine optimization strategy, organic social media (and all its various channels), social media ads, video marketing, and more. Where to focus your attention?
There are a few easy steps to determine the best channels for your company’s marketing strategy:
Figure outreach and repetition
How large of an audience will you reach with a designated channel? And how often will they see that piece of marketing? For example, sending out one direct mailer to a wide radius might reach a lot of people. But a billboard on a street usually slammed by rush-hour traffic means repetition: people drive by your advertisement every single day.
The same principles can apply to digital marketing, of course. If you start an Instagram influencer campaign, for instance, you’ll want to partner with someone who has a large reach, but who also is okay with posting endorsements for your product multiple times.
Know your channel’s audience
You’ve already established your company’s ideal audience for your products and services. Now, meet those ideal clients where they already are. It’s important before launching into a campaign on a new social channel that you evaluate what kind of audience lives on that platform. If your primary target market is men between the ages of 55 and 70, do you think a robust TikTok strategy is the best way to go? And if you’re trying to reach young college students, reaching out via a direct mail piece will probably not be effective either.
Monitor your budget and return
What kind of money are you spending on an individual campaign? If it’s a ton of money to enact a long-term Facebook Ads strategy, but you’re seeing hundreds of leads pour in, and thousands of dollars in sales… maybe that investment is worth it. But if you’re pouring the same amount of money into a new SEO strategy, and you’re failing to see a strong return on investment, then maybe it’s time to put that money elsewhere.
Choose your channels wisely: where you launch a campaign is sometimes even more important than what’s in the campaign.
