You are spoiled for choice if you are wondering about the right marketing channel. There is a wealth of instruments and marketing measures to choose from, and at the beginning, the many possibilities overwhelm you. The question now arises: Which is the right marketing channel?
However, searching for the right marketing strategy is essentially about completely different questions. You can only find the right channels if you know your target group. So first, the question of the right target group and what the potential customers look like. These are defined by demographic data such as age, gender, place of residence, occupation, income, hobbies, etc. After defining the target group, the question of how and where to best reach them follows. A clumsy example to illustrate: If you want to advertise a new student pub in a city, you will probably miss your target group with an ad in the regional daily newspaper.
However, successful marketing is done with more than one channel. Most entrepreneurs are happy when they have found the right channel and leave it at one. Or they generally only serve one without questioning it. In this case, the marketing plan should be reconsidered. Because to be able to exploit the full potential and minimize dependence on certain channels, it is always advisable to use several channels. We explain why.
Channels Are Often Similar
Many channels are similar or serve a common target group. A few examples from social media networks: If you operate Facebook for a specific target group, you also have a common intersection with Instagram. People who post pictures on Instagram may also use Pinterest to do so. And anyone who uses Xing is also active on LinkedIn.
SEO And SEA Rock Together!
Not OR, but AND: Search engine marketing (SEM) consists of search engine advertising (SEA) and search engine optimization (SEO). Companies often need clarification on whether SEA or SEO is more efficient. But do you have to choose one option? We don’t always find it because if both variants are optimally coordinated, they complement each other. The differences between the two tools can be optimally exploited through a combination.
There Is No Perfect Marketing Tool
Concerning complementarity, that brings us to the next point: There is no such thing as THE perfect marketing tool. Every tool has its pros and cons, and that’s fine. This can be counteracted by cleverly combining different marketing channels. The advantages of the various measures can thus put the disadvantages into perspective.
Your Target Group Finds You In Different Ways
On the other hand, how you reach your target group with marketing is important. With search engine marketing, users search specifically for products/services in a category using specific search terms. Thanks to SEO and SEA, you can improve your ranking and competitiveness within a search engine, e.g. on Google, with the help of Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords). This type of marketing makes the most sense when users are specifically looking for solutions to problems, i.e. they are aware of their needs or desires. The ads placed on Facebook, on the other hand, work based on Facebook’s large mass of data, which knows the different interests of the users. In this way, you reach users who are not searching specifically because they have yet to learn they have that need.
You Are Not Dependent on a Single Channel
One of the key benefits of going multi-channel is independence. Imagine you rely on a channel that allows you to place targeted advertising messages cost-effectively. And suddenly, this channel realizes what revenue it is missing out on, and the advertisement prices skyrocket. That would be stupid because you depend on it, so you must reconsider your marketing concept. Of course, you should never “rely on” marketing channels. Remember your websites, such as a website or online shop, because there you have full control, at least as far as possible.
Also Read: The Five Most Common Mistakes Clients Make In Marketing