Every year in February many people celebrate Valentine?s Day with the ones they love. This year, Beacon Marketing is spending the month of love focusing on how we, as marketers, can show our current and potential customers some love. All of Beacon?s blogs, YouTube videos, and Beacons of The Weeks will be centered around how we can go beyond being a salesperson and be the resource our target audience wants and needs. Join the conversation on our Facebook group.
Imagine have some really valuable knowledge that you are willing to share. This knowledge could really help others, possibly even change lives. So you work hard to distill this information into a clear and concise speech. You decide to give the speech at a local auditorium. Everything looks great except when it comes time to share your knowledge, there is no one there.
This is what it is like for many marketers when they share content on the wrong marketing channels. They develop awesome content only to have no one see it because their best potential customers are looking elsewhere. Your audience is there waiting, it is up to you to find the best way to reach them.
Four Steps To Selecting The Correct Marketing Channels
The following steps will help you determine the best way to engage your best current and potential customers.
- Understand who your audience is – Selecting the correct marketing channels is all about understanding where you current and potential customers get their information. Is it TV, websites, email, social media? This means getting to know who your target audience is. Defining the demographics of your best potential customers will tell you where they most likely get their information, therefore you will have a better idea on which platforms to use to distribute your marketing content.
- Become familiar with different marketing channels and how they are used – Let?s say your target audience gets most of their information from Instagram and LinkedIn. Those are two different social media platforms used for different purposes. People on LinkedIN expect more business and professional style messaging where Instagram is more visual and can be more light in terms of tone. If you try to apply the same tone and types of content to both platforms, you will be definitely missing the mark on at least one of them.
- Know your capabilities as a business – It is important to remember presentation matters. If your audience gets their information from YouTube then that means developing videos. Take the time to develop a plan to create quality videos which showcase your business. They do not have to be Hollywood-style production, but a lot can be done with a smartphone and good lighting.
- If needed make the investment – No matter how you decide to promote your business, you have to see it as an investment. If your audience gets their information from reading, then you will have to invest the time to develop blogs for your website or for content for a monthly newsletter. If they like more visual content, then you might have to look into getting a camera for pictures and videos. Or you may have to hire someone to do these things for you. Remember the content you create and publish is more often than not the very first impression you make with your target audience – and we all know what they say about first impressions.
If you are making the investment to grow your business with effective marketing practices, then you want to get the most from your time, money, and effort. Part of this is knowing how to select the correct marketing channels so you don?t end up speaking to an ?empty auditorium?.
