Some things don’t change. At its heart, marketing is, and always was, about effective communication and engagement with customers and markets. Get a compelling proposition to a relevant market and people will buy! What has changed dramatically is the ever-increasing range of options for marketing communication – particularly online. Here are some of the more common ones… [su_row] [su_column size=”2/5″ center=”yes”]
| Website | |
| Blog | |
| Tumblr | |
| Flickr | |
| YouTube | Google+ |
[/su_column] [/su_row] Having an effective online presence is vital for any business but with som many options and new platforms coming online so regularly, what is the best approach for your business? The most common mistake people make is to try to run numerous platforms each on its own. Even if they keep them all up to date (unlikely!), it is difficult to maintain a consistent style and message. If you aren’t careful, different people can see your business as different things. This can get particularly confusing for the increasing number of people who can see you on more than one platform!
Take your pick
There is no right answer as to which is the best platform. It depends on you, your business and your target market. What I do recommend is to pick one platform as your focus and then use others to drive traffic back to your main site. Not only do I recommend you focus your attention on one primary channel, you need to be careful how many other channels you use as traffic drivers. Marketing is a process, not an event. You need to stick at it and the more channels you have, the more you must manage. The more channels you have, the greater the danger of letting something slip. It is all too easy to find yourself keeping up to date in some areas but letting others drift. Now you have a dilemma! There is always a fear in stopping some particular marketing activity! What opportunity might you miss? BUT…not using a platform is better than using it ineffectively. If you have content live on a platform that doesn’t properly reflect your business and communicate your proposition, people still see it. What they see is their impression of your business. Take a moment to check over your marketing platforms. Are they consistent? When was your last post/tweet/update?
Maybe Less is More?
If you find that one or another of your marketing platforms isn’t as you’d hope, maybe it is time to think that less can be more? Don’t stress about keeping everything up to date. Perhaps taking the decision to drop a platform is the way forward? For most businesses, a website is a natural choice as a primary web presence with social media, email etc working to drive traffic to your main site. However, don’t assume a website is always the way to go. Many consultants and similar sole-practitioner professionals have a strong presence on LinkedIn which can be easier to maintain and actually deliver a better core presence than a website. Also, think about your target market. People use different platforms in different ways. It may well be that some platforms are more suited to your business than others. Here is a link to a post looking at our own experience with Facebook – and why we dropped it.
Make the most of your content
Even if you do get more selective in the marketing platforms and channels you use, content creation can still be challenging. Producing good content is hard work so don’t be afraid to make the most of it! Reusing content on different platforms (maybe with a few tweaks as appropriate) is a great way to give more time to create great content while maximising the value you see from your content creation efforts. Check out this post for more info Getting more value out of less (but better!) content is the way to go to give yourself the best chance of sustainable, effective marketing communication.
Quality ahead of quantity
Create highly engaging, relevant content that really demonstrates how you add value to your customers. Use this content to continually refine and enhance your preferred primary web presence Communicate engaging links to your content across relevant, carefully selected platforms and channels. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking every marketing platform is a must-have. For effective marketing, less really can mean more….
