What Are Your Brand’s Best Marketing Channels?
Do you understand the value of your website? For most businesses, it’s how they market. And it may be the most powerful marketing channel they have. But it’s not the only one. The majority of businesses don’t put all their eggs in one basket. They have numerous marketing channels. Social channels, speaking, and networking—in addition to your website—are probably some that come to mind. These are all of the ways you’re reaching potential clients.
How Are You Getting in Front of Clients?
When evaluating your marketing channels, the first step is to create a list of all the ways you’re getting in front of potential clients. It could be referrals, those people who are your raving fans. It could also be through networking, speaking engagements, a blog, articles or books you’ve written, or even a formal networking group such as BNI. Conferences, trade shows, business cards, flyers, door hangers, and other marketing collateral could all be ways you’re reaching your target market.
In addition to ways you’re physically reaching potential clients, consider digital approaches as well. Those may include Google My Business, search engine optimization, or social media marketing. Stretch your brain and include all of the ways you’re getting your business in front of potential clients.
Rank Your Marketing Channels
Once you have a list, order it by most valuable to least valuable. How you rank value is up to you, but it might be the way you get the most clients or the way you get the most revenue. However you do it, prioritize the importance of all of those ways you just listed.
Next, look at your list and rank them by your level of investment, both time and money. Which tasks are costing you the most?
Now, the magic happens. Find the one or two marketing channels that deliver the highest value for the lowest investment. Those might be speaking or maybe networking. If we’re being honest, referrals are probably one of your top two channels as well.
Optimize Your Best Marketing Channels
After you have identified your top one or two marketing channels, your next question is: Have you optimized those channels? Are you getting all you can out of this channel? If you don’t have a systematized way to get referrals, for example, you probably aren’t maximizing them.
There may be roles that other channels play in optimizing your top marketing channels. Let’s take speaking, for example. Maybe speaking is your sweet spot. But you need your website and social presence to help support your speaking. Your next step is to identify what needs to change or be improved with those supporting channels to optimize the top channels.
By doing this exercise, you’ll ensure that you’re acting accordingly with what is working in your business and optimizing each channel before you go after a different one. Remember that you are acting on what is happening now, not what you want to happen. Because if you optimize now, then you have the cash, resources, time, and mental energy to go after the next thing.
The Help You Need to Develop Your Marketing Channels
Many businesses feel that a website is a significant marketing channel for them. And while that may be, it’s likely that—at a minimum—it supports other channels you’re using. Does that mean you need a new website? Perhaps.
If you struggle with answering this question, you’re not alone. Join me at Ignite Your Site, a live event I’m hosting to help business owners with their websites. I look forward to seeing you soon!
