On an average there are 6-8 touch points with the potential customer before a decision is taken to purchase. These touch points could be of various forms, viz emails, TV ads, digital ads, blogs, customer testimonials, sales presentations etc. The brand gets reinforced in the mind of the prospective buyer with the various inputs from different sources, and so there is a need for multi channeling to facilitate 6-8 touch points with the potential customer
20 years back brand promotion was a very expensive proposition as they were limited to hoardings, leaflets, newspaper and TV ads etc. With the internet and Social Media there were very many inexpensive ways and for smaller companies this is the only form of brand promotion
Here is a step by step guide to Multiple Marketing Channels for start-ups:
Profile the customer in detail, down to age, race, ethnicity, likes, interests etc. Speak to the 1st few clients and perhaps some prospects too to get these insights. As the company matures and adoption of the product increases these insights should be regularly updated and more insights collected
There are tons of reports available for free on the Internet that contains interests of different demographics in different channels of Social Media. For example in the USA, Youtube is preferred by the younger generation alongwith TikTok whereas Linkedin is preferred by professionals of the age group 40+. These reports also give detailed usage pattern by geography and other demography. Identifying the appropriate ones is necessary to target marketing promotions to the target demography
Some of the sites and applications that can be used for marketing promos are Youtube, Quora, Reddit, Discord, Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, Medium, Blogspot, Whatsapp, Telegram, Emailers etc. Channels would also vary depending on whether the product is meant for B2B and B2C channels.
There are two types of activity here, one is posting self created content and the other is to give comments on content posted by others. For self created content, the same should be repurposed and reposted in various sites. Details of what is self created content is given below.
There are several types of marketing content that one can create and we should use a mix of strategies. Some of which are :
Emailers and newsletters are the most effective means of reaching prospects & customers so long as the interval between them are not too annoyingly short.
One of the best ways to build thought leadership, it is important to publish articles or blogs at regular intervals either on your website or on popular blogging sites
Videos are increasingly becoming main stream media for lead generation and customer engagement. Customer testimonials, use cases, feature explanations, expert talk are some examples of videos that can be created.
When creating written content it is important to insert keywords based on SEO principles. Even though SEO is a vast subject in itself, for initial purposes a quick 3-4 hr Youtube training video can give basic insights into the must do’s.
Along with the right channel marketing strategy, consistency of communications and messaging is equally important. Thus if the plan is to post on Linkedin every alternate Monday, this consistency should be maintained without fail.
