Choosing Your Channels: Less Is More
Somethings are just better not spread too thin and the new-age marketing channel strategy is one such thing. Less is indeed more when it comes to marketing in 2020.
And Marketing Strategy. Especially for small businesses.
Now that we have decided our niche, drafted our messaging and ready to stand out, it’s time to get to the execution of value communication. And the first question that comes to our mind is how much money to spend?
This is a valid question, as money plays a very important part in any marketing activity. But there is one question that we miss to address often, and that is - which channels?
The general approach to marketing channels these days, especially in the digital world is - let’s do it all. Again, there is nothing wrong with “let’s do it all”, in fact, it absolutely makes sense to target our audience at all possible places.
But if we are a startup or a solopreneur, the question that we need to ask is - can we afford to do it all? By afford, I don’t necessarily mean money only. It’s also a question of bandwidth and skillset.
Each channel requires a different approach, different content strategy, and different budgets. It’s not easy to stand out on all the channels, very, very few have been able to do it.
One brilliant example that comes to my mind when I think of a channel-specific approach is National Geographic. Their social media strategy has always been exceptional. If we take a closer look, we will realize - each channel has something unique to offer. If Instagram is sharing stories through visuals, Facebook is sharing more of blogs and long-form content to drive traffic and engagement. There are videos on both IGTV and Youtube but if we look at the details, format, titles, and tags used are different for both the channels. Twitter is used in its own independent way to drive traffic and engagement.
The effort they put in to maintain their presence on each channel is mind-blowing. But let's not forget that a brand like Nat Geo has a treasure of good pictures and videos. They also must be having a decent-sized team of marketers and agencies to manage it all. Overall, their end result is spectacular.
But since we are speaking about small businesses, creativepreneurs, and solopreneurs here, once again, the frank question to ask ourselves would be - do we have the resources to be present on all channels? Do we have what it takes to be noticed everywhere? If the answer is no, it’s time to decide which ones to choose and which ones to ignore.
How do we do that? Let’s do a simple whiteboard exercise to arrive at the answers to the following:
Customers: Before the channels, start with customers. Where do my customers hang out the most? Where can I find them?
Content-channel matrix: In most of the scenarios, the answer will be multiple channels. Next, it’s time to think of what kind of content do each of these channels need?
Narrative-content match: Now, let’s decide on content formats for our narratives. What kind of content will suit my narrative? Do I stick to photos or do I have something to offer through videos? If not, let’s not do Youtube, just because everyone else is doing it.
Calendar: Prepare a calendar. It’s a deluge out there, one post once in a while will lead to nothing. To start with, plan for a variety of content to be shared consistently. Prepare a content calendar for 30 or 60 days. This will give us an idea of the effort required.
Resources: Plan for resources. Each of these content formats requires a different kind of investment, in terms of time, bandwidth, and money. Search for industry references to understand the kind of content that’s working for them and plan accordingly.
The moment we will address these 5 key points, we will get an answer on how much we can stretch.
Some things are just better not spread too thin and the new-age marketing channel strategy is one such thing, especially if we are small businesses or solopreneurs.
Instead of trying to do little things everywhere, it would be better to focus on a few channels only. If you’re starting up, choose one, or at max two. Establish the influence and reach on one platform and then expand to the others.
Less is indeed more when it comes to marketing in 2020.
Cheers,
Kanupriya
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*This post is the fifth post in a 10-posts series that I have created for Small Businesses, Passion Economy Professionals, and Solopreneurs to help them in their Product Marketing Journey. If you liked it and would like to read more, you may read the sixth post here.
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Know more about ‘Connecting The Dots’ here. Looking forward to connecting the dots together :).