Marketing Masterclass 5.2

Finding the digital marketing channels that work for you and your business

• A compelling marketing strategy relies on having the right combination of digital channels for your business.
• Engaging with your customers is a simple way to discover where they consume content.
• You don’t need to be on every channel all at once. A targeted marketing strategy can be just as effective.

"There’s an art to getting your marketing strategy just right. Business owners are busy so you’ll need to balance how regularly you’re talking to your customers and which channels you’re putting your efforts into,” says Lauren Begley, founder of Propel Digital. “One of the biggest mistakes we see is business owners sitting on their hands – either because they’re afraid to start or they don’t know where to begin.”

3 ways to identify the right marketing channels

The ideal marketing channel is going to be different for every business and stage of your business so it’s crucial to find out where your customers already are.

Here are Lauren’s tips for getting started:

1. Talk to your customers: “One of the easiest ways to find which channels you should focus on is to survey your current customer base. Ask them why they’ve decided to work with you and what problems they are struggling with. Then ask which social channels they use or if they prefer emails and visiting websites.”

2. Do extensive competitor research: “By looking at the services your competitors offer, their prices, how they market and what customers say about them – you can spot gaps they’ve overlooked."

“These present opportunities for your business. For instance, if all your competitors close early, you can stand out with longer hours. Or if customers complain about something competitors lack, you can highlight that feature in your own marketing.”

3. Analyse the results of your existing activity: “It doesn’t matter if you’ve only shared a handful of posts or emails, look at the data. By monitoring key performance indicators and your return on investment, business owners can justify dollars spent. You’ll also learn which efforts are generating profit so you can scale those actions. The data will tell you if your approach is working and if it’s not, you can refine your strategy.”

Getting started

Don’t worry, you don’t need to go all in on a marketing plan – in fact, Lauren says it’s fine to take it slow. “There’s a misconception that you have to go big or go home in this space. But many businesses have limited time and budget,” says Lauren. You can still gain a lot of understanding about your customers if you start small.

That could be a $5-a-day budget invested in digital ads. Or from a time perspective, it could be sharing one to two posts a week. “The data you gather will give you a guide on where you’re going to see returns,” says Lauren.

Once you’ve got some results to look at, start to test and learn. For example, email marketing may be driving more conversions, or one social platform may get higher engagement than others. Shift the weight of effort according to the performance you're seeing.

“Remember, things shift over time, too – channels that worked for you last year may not perform this year,” says Lauren. “Never stop analysing the results and tweaking your plan as needed.”