On the Intentionally Inspirational blog, we spend a lot of time talking about improving your marketing strategy. We examine how to repurpose old blog content. We look at whether pay-per-click (PPC) content or organic content is better for your marketing. We dive into how to integrate RSS feeds into your marketing strategy.
All of that is great when you have a foundation to build on, but what happens if you’re just starting your marketing strategy?
Choose One Marketing Channel to Focus On
One of the most important keys when starting to market your business is to find a single way to connect with your customers. You need to choose a method of communication.
Your method of communication can be email; it can be a specific social media channel like Facebook or Instagram; it can be through a YouTube Channel or a podcast. The most important thing is that you pick only one.
This communication method is the one that you’re going to focus on. It’s the one that you’re going to grow.
Focus Your Attention
Why choose only one? There are several reasons. First, you don’t want to divide your attention.
Too many times, we see companies trying to do it all. They’re trying to grow their Facebook Business Page while recording a podcast and posting to please their Instagram followers.
The result isn’t the marketing blitz that they were hoping to produce. Instead, it’s a mishmash of content that doesn’t hit home with anyone.
When you focus on one channel, you can focus on creating growth for that one channel. Better yet, you can focus on creating amazing content that will build your client base and attract new clients.
Master One Marketing Channel
Another reason that you want to focus on one marketing channel is that you’re working on mastering that one channel.
For example, you cannot become a skilled podcaster overnight. Even if you watch dozens of videos and take a handful of courses on the subject, there are still some things that you can only learn by doing.
You need to master something like podcasting before you expand to YouTube or Instagram stories.
You can read all you want, but only by doing will you determine what works best for you and your customers.
Alleviate Your Stress
A multi-channel or omni-channel marketing strategy takes a lot of time and energy. If you worry too much about Facebook posts and Tweets and Instagram Stories and sharing content on LinkedIn, you’re going to burn out.
That’s not good for you, and it’s not good for your business.
By focusing on growing and improving just one marketing channel initially, you’re going to take the stress out of the marketing equation. That’s going to help you perform better as a marketer and as a business owner.
How do you choose which channel is best?
So, which marketing channel should you focus on?
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Who are my ideal customers?
- Where do they frequent? (i.e., LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, etc.)
If your ideal customer scrolls Facebook before getting out of bed in the morning, then that’s where you want to be. If your ideal customer watches YouTube videos before bed, then you want to be there.
Figure out where your ideal customer is, and then figure out a marketing strategy that reaches them there.
Stick With It
Do not be discouraged if your marketing channel doesn’t work overnight or even in the first few months. Have faith that you did your research, and your research is sound.
Growing a marketing following is like building the base of a snowman. It starts small, and it doesn’t look like it’s growing at first. However, if you keep rolling that snowball, it starts to get bigger and bigger, and soon, there’s a noticeable difference.
Stick with your marketing channel as you’re trying to grow your business.
Grow One Marketing Channel and the Others Will Follow
The beauty of focusing on one marketing channel is that branching out to other media becomes easier and more manageable.
It’s a lot easier to pitch your new YouTube channel to your 15,000 followers on Facebook than it is to try and grow your Facebook following and your YouTube channel concurrently.
Focusing on a single marketing channel first makes multi-channel marketing that much easier in the end.
Written by Erika Towne