From word-of-mouth referrals to snazzy new websites, there are plenty of ways to spread the word about your business.
And in 2021, with new social media channels popping up every year, you may find yourself spoiled for choice when it comes to marketing channels.
Choosing the right marketing channels and steering clear of the wrong ones helps you avoid wasting time and money by shouting into a void.
With the right marketing channels, you can bring in more new customers and get the old ones coming back for more.
In this blog, we show you how to choose the right channels to reach your customers.
If you’re choosing your channels for the first time or you’re revising existing ones, here are some tips to help.
Tip #1 Create a marketing strategy
Whether you’re a sole trader or a marketing manager at a firm, strategy is your friend.
A strategy can be simple or it can be comprehensive. If you’re new to strategising, start small and build later.
Anyone can see why thinking ahead before pouring money into marketing is the right thing to do, but let’s look at the proof.
A CoSchedule survey found that marketers who set goals, were organised, and documented their strategy were over 300% more successful than the rest.
Now, over to you to join them. J
Create a marketing strategy with these four steps:
- Set goals
Work out what you want to achieve. for example: to gain one new customer per week or to increase sales by 10% in 2022.
- Research your ideal customers
Collect demographics and understand why those groups of people do (or don’t) buy your product.
- Create a plan
Decide what marketing you will do and when, and make time in your calendar.
- Measure and analyse results
This helps you work out if your efforts are working, and how to continuously improve.
As you can see, these steps help you make smarter choices with your channels.
Tip#2 Know thy channels
Get to know the main marketing channels that are available to you.
Each channel is good for achieving certain goals or reaching certain audiences.
Once you understand how each channel works and what you can use them for, you’ll be better able to choose the right ones for you.
Different channels also vary in time and budget demands, so it’s important to weight this up when deciding.
Sometimes two or more can channels can or should be used together. For example, if blogging is something that would work for your audience, you almost always need social media to promote those blogs.
Here are some popular channels you might use.
Content
What it is
- Blogs
- Case studies
- Articles
- Ebooks
- Guides
- Infographics
- Videos
What it’s good for
- Building brand awareness
- Making people like and trust you
- Informing and educating people about your product
- Can increase traffic to your site
What it is
- Weekly or monthly newsletters
- New product announcements
- Promotions
What it’s good for
- Generating leads through email sign ups
- Targeting people who abandoned their carts
- Building relationships with your audience
Social media
What it is
- TikTok
- Snapchat
- YouTube
- Quora
- Tumblr
What it’s good for
- Creating brand awareness
- Growing and connecting with your audience
- Learning about your audience
- Sharing business updates
- Campaigns to promote products or services
Pay-per-click advertising
What it is
- Google ads
- Facebook & Instagram sponsored content
- Ads
- Instagram ads
What it’s good for
- Re-targeting audiences who browsed on your site or abandoned a cart
- Making sales
- Can generate clicks to your site and boost your position in a Google search
Search engine optimisation
What it is
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a means of getting your website at the top of Google searches so that your business is more discoverable.
What it’s good for
- Being discoverable
- Getting new customers
- Establishing credibility
- Getting more visitors to your website
Tip # 3 Create audience personas
As you can see from the range of marketing channels that are available, it’s essential that you narrow down your options.
One of the best ways to do this is by getting to know your audience better.
If you’re still unsure of the best channels to use, this could be a sign that you need to do more audience research.
Start with basic demographics to help you strike a few off the list.
For example, if your customers are mostly over 50, you probably won’t reach them using the social media platform TikTok, which appeals to younger viewers.
The next thing to do is to turn your statistics into a customer persona that feels real.
Build on this character by giving her a name and a face.
With a persona to work with, you can figure out which channels would be most effective at engaging her.
Tip #4 Competitor research
One of the fastest and cheapest ways to see which marketing channels might work best for you is by doing competitor research.
Create a list of your main competitors, ranging from big chains to small local businesses in your area.
Next, look into which marketing channels they’re using and how effective each one is.
Look also at their methods within each channel to see if you can pick up some ideas or find ways to do things better.
Tip #5 Create reports
Once you’ve put your marketing strategy into action, you can work out what’s working, what isn’t, and what can be improved.
If you’re not getting the results you’d hoped for, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to change channels (although, it could).
For example, if no one is reading your blogs, this might be because no one knows about them and you need to promote them through social media.
This is why it’s important to create reports that measure your results and analyse how you got them.
One of our favourite tools for this is Google Analytics, which has a freemium subscription option.
Learn more in A Useful Guide to Google Ads and Analytics for Beginners.
Armed with your reports, you can check that your choice of marketing channels is right for you.