Choosing Channels: How Getting Clear on Your Priorities Drives Strategic Marketing Decisions

If you’ve done any research into marketing strategies, you’ve probably seen one theme run through. You need to tailor your marketing tactics to the channel. You wouldn’t post the same thing on Instagram as you’d publish on your website, for example. And you’d probably use different messaging at a trade show than you would at a pop-up. 

In other words, you can’t just say: I want to be on channels A, B, and C. You also need to have a dedicated marketing strategy and deployment plan for those channels. 

Before you dive into that, you want to make sure you’re choosing the right channels for your specific brand. And — pro tip — it’s probably not every available option. Let’s talk about it.

Why modern marketing so often feels overwhelming

In marketing, context is everything. But that means that for every channel you add to your marketing mix, you’re adding a heaping pile of work. 

Even so, you’ll hear marketers across the board advocate for something called omnichannel marketing. Basically, this means taking every possible marketing channel into consideration so you can build the most seamless customer experience possible. 

And, yes, you should be doing that. But it’s a common misconception that omnichannel marketing means you need to be active on every channel. If that sounds like there’s an expectation to mirror the latest Best Picture winner and be everything, everywhere, all at once, you’re not far off. 

Are you sweating yet? Us, too. We think this is a huge part of the reason marketing feels so overwhelming to so many people (including many seasoned marketers). But you don’t have to spread yourself so thin. In fact, you shouldn’t. 

Focus drives results

Far too many brands add new marketing channels to their mix just because they think they ought to. Maybe your competitor is using it, or maybe it’s just the trendy, flashy new thing. 

Look before you leap, though. Deploying your brand across a new channel means spending valuable resources (money, time, employee creativity, to name a few). 

Plus, there’s some risk in jumping in. If you don’t understand the channel and you head in without a clear strategy, you might not see that marketing investment yield returns, sure. But you also might set yourself up for something worse.

Let’s look at review sites like Yelp as an example. When review marketing exploded onto the scene a few years back, plenty of companies leapt at the chance to create a Yelp profile and start gathering up stars for themselves.

Today, a lot of those profiles languish. Without active management, bad reviews can accumulate, driving would-be customers away. 

It goes to show that if you’re going to put your brand out there on a marketing channel, you need to do so with intention — and with the intention to stay involved on an ongoing basis. When brands focus their efforts into a realistic, insight-based marketing strategy, they set themselves up to thrive. And not just today, but in the future, too. 

How to get clear

So, which channels should your company choose to invest in? That depends entirely on your brand and your product(s). 

You didn’t think we were going to leave you with such vague guidance, did you? No way. 

Instead, there are three things you can explore to get a ton of clarity here:

• Your pain point solution. What do you solve for your customers? What’s your specific value-add? Once you get clear on that, you’ll have a lot you can leverage. Which channels are similar pain point solutions performing well on? Where are people with those pain points engaging with brands? And that brings us to the next point of clarity you need to choose channels. 

• Your target consumer. This is a biggie. In the words of Ariel from the Little Mermaid, you want to be where the people are. Once you figure out your value-add, think through who you add that value to. Then, research where those consumers engage. Do you need to be in the endcap at Target? On TikTok and Instagram Reels? Getting under the nose of your target consumer is a proven way to drive brand growth. 

• Your mission, vision, values.  You’re not some soulless corporation, and you shouldn’t act like one. As you’re choosing channels, look for ones that will allow you to showcase what’s important to your brand. 

We can help with all of this. Whether you want to dedicate six hours to our Advertising Messaging Foundations workshop or you want to hire a fractional CMO to guide your marketing channel mix on an ongoing basis, let’s connect.