If you look at your marketing options, you are bound to agree that there is an overwhelming range of them.
These days, brands are exposed to more choices for their marketing strategies than ever before. They can choose from content marketing, SEO, email marketing, social media marketing, PPC campaigns, and influencer marketing.
On top of that, brands can opt for the traditional marketing techniques that are still in use across business niches.
Are all these channels as effective for every type of business? Do they enjoy the same influence and command over every business’s target audience?
Certainly not. And that is precisely why each company needs to give priority to a few marketing channels that work better than others.
Now the obvious question is, how do you know which channels will be the most effective? Well, here I will introduce the most important considerations for choosing the right marketing channels for your business.
1. Consider the Time and Manpower Required
Every online marketing initiative needs continuous involvement.Click To TweetYou just cannot run a campaign and forget about it. You need to monitor and fine-tune it from time to time.
It’s easy for large companies to be hands on because they have a large and dedicated marketing team with expert marketers for different tasks.
Or brands hire digital marketing agencies to take care of all their online ads and marketing. They can afford to remain present across all channels, and doing so is often a part of their marketing strategies.
But look at smaller companies in the same niche who are short of manpower. These can be startups run by one or two persons or relatively small businesses without any specific positions for looking after digital activities.
Instead of focusing on several channels simultaneously, such companies find it effective to concentrate on channels that have the potential to scale up.
2. Know Your Customers by Data
The second most important consideration in regard to choosing the right marketing channel for your business is in-depth knowledge about your customers.
How can you know who your ideal customers are? You can only do so by grabbing as much data as possible about them.
You can mine your CRM, gathering demographic information and data on customer behavior. When you know about your target audience in detail, you can easily determine the channels they populate.
3. Consider the Phases a Customer Passes Through
A customer basically passes through three phases in the buying cycle. Those phases are the awareness phase, the consideration phase, and the buying phase. Let’s take a look at each of them.
- The awareness phase: In this phase, your prospects have just become aware of the product or service they might need for a particular problem. Because they have just been introduced to an offering, they are less likely to buy.
- The consideration phase: In this phase, the potential customers begin considering subscribing or buying a solution in relation to the problem they are facing. They have a need, so they consider buying something to meet their need. In this phase, customers are more likely to buy in comparison to the previous phase. But they are still less likely to buy than they will be in the third phase.
- The purchase phase: In this phase, finally the potential buyers decide to inquire about the product with the express intention of buying it if all other conditions remain agreeable.
Now just consider where most of your customers are in this buying cycle. Whichever phase they are in should determine your ideal business channels. For example, one channel might be effective for creating brand awareness but not as effective for pitching sales.
4. What Are You Selling?
Which channel you prioritize over the others primarily depends on what you are selling. For example, if you are selling goods that can trigger impulsive purchases with the influence of the ads, a promotional ad can quickly result in sales. Running Facebook ad campaigns can be a great option.
On the other hand, if your offerings are B2B in character, more focused content marketing might work better to get your audience to take an interest.
For B2Bs, LinkedIn can work great. But for consumer-focused businesses, such as those in the food or travel industries, LinkedIn might not be a good option.
On the other hand, some products that target search ranks and search engine ads always enjoy better click rates. That is why PPC and SEO are two cornerstones of the marketing strategies of particular products.
5. Mind the Cost
If you are running campaigns across various channels, the cost for each one of them differs. Some of these channels are more expensive than the rest.
Think of a scenario where one channel is costing you $10 for each new lead, while another channel is giving you the same result for only $2. The obvious solution would be allocating your budget for the cheaper one, instead of for both channels.
When small businesses and startups venture into digital marketing, they need to test the water and select the channels with most effective results at least cost per acquisition (CPA).
By opting for low-cost channels, you can actually run your campaigns longer, multiple times, or for a wider audience. This is why going for channels with low CPA is always best.
To conclude, businesses should take every available marketing channel seriously.
You should judge each channel’s respective benefits for your business promotion, marketing campaigns, and branding.
It might take some time to understand the right avenues for your business. But it is always better to start late than to waste time and effort by having a haphazard presence across the various marketing channels.