#157: Uncovering the Truth Behind Multi-Channel Marketing Myths
As a business owner, you know the importance of marketing your brand and products to potential customers. Having a well-rounded marketing strategy is essential for success, but some businesses may benefit more from focusing on one channel rather than spreading themselves across multiple channels. In this blog, we’ll explore why using one marketing channel may be better for your business than using multiple channels at once.
1. Increased Efficiency
Using just one marketing channel allows you to focus all your energy into producing content that works best with that particular platform. This eliminates the need to create separate strategies or content for different platforms, saving time and resources. You can also fine-tune your message to fit the platform and maximize its effectiveness. Furthermore, you can track your results more accurately as all of your efforts are focused on one platform.
2. Improved Targeting
Using just one channel also allows you to focus on a specific audience. This is especially useful if your target market is highly specialized or niche. By focusing on one platform, you can create content tailored to this specific audience, resulting in improved targeting and engagement rates. You’ll also be able to track their responses and preferences more closely increasing the chances of success for your campaigns.
3. Increased Brand Awareness
When using just one marketing channel, it’s much easier for users to become familiar with your brand due to repeated exposure. By focusing your efforts on one platform, you can grow your brand’s presence and become more prominent in the minds of potential customers. This increases the chances that they will recognize your name and products when they are looking for something similar to what you offer.
4. Reduced Cost
When using multiple marketing channels, businesses often incur high costs due to separate campaigns or strategies for each channel. However, by using just one channel, these costs can be reduced significantly as it is now possible to use a single strategy across all platforms. This helps to save money while still being effective in reaching out to potential customers.
Ultimately, using just one marketing channel can bring numerous benefits to businesses if done right. It allows you to focus on a specific audience and tailor your message to them while saving time, money and resources. Furthermore, it increases the chances of building brand awareness and recognition among potential customers. All in all, this type of focused approach can offer numerous advantages for businesses when used properly.
If you’re considering using just one marketing channel for your business, make sure to do research into what platforms are available and which is best suited to your needs. This will help ensure that you get the most out of your marketing efforts and ultimately reach success with your campaign. Here are some examples:
-Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn
-Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Keyword Research & Content Optimization, Link Building
-Email Marketing: Newsletters, Targeted Campaigns
-Content Marketing: Blogging, Articles, Videos
-Affiliate Marketing: Finding Influencers and Affiliates to Promote Your Products or Services
-Display Advertising: Pay Per Click Ads via Google Adwords or Bing Ads
-Influencer Marketing: Working with Influencers to Promote Your Brand and Products
-Print Advertising: Newspaper Ads, Magazine Ads
-Public Relations (PR): Press Releases and Events to Generate Awareness About Your Business
Listen to the Show:
Laura 00:00
What if attempting to tackle every single marketing avenue is actually sabotaging your business's success, rather than propelling it forward? Today we're diving into the world of marketing, specifically multi-channel marketing, to debunk a common myth that he multi- channel approach, meaning doing all the things being on Facebook being on Tik Tok, being on LinkedIn, having a YouTube, having all of these channels is always the best strategy for every business. I hear this a lot. And when I go into organizations, whether it's a nonprofit or for profit, I find that the marketing team is doing all the things because they kind of feel pressure to. I mean, that's what a great marketing department does, right is that they're in all the places doing all the things. And while multi-channel marketing can be a powerful way to reach a broader audience, it is not a one size fits all solution. So, in this podcast episode, I'm going to explore the reasons why a multi-channel approach may not be the best fit for every business and discuss alternative strategies that might be more effective. Stay tuned.
Laura 01:13
Hello, and welcome to the Next Level Leap podcast. My name is Laura Meyer, and I'm thrilled to be your guide on this journey. With over 20 years’ experience as an entrepreneur and growth strategist for some of the country's fastest growing nonprofit and for-profit organizations, I'm passionate about the power of marketing creates massive positive change in the world. In this podcast, we'll explore how you can use marketing to create a ripple effect of change that will impact lives and communities for years to come. I'm so excited to share my insights and strategies with you and to help you discover how you can use your talents and skills to make a difference in the world. So, let's dive in together and create a marketing report that will change the world.
Laura 01:55
The purpose of today's episode is to help you, our listeners, understand the nuances of multi- channel marketing so you can make more informed decisions on your own marketing strategies. Whether you are a marketer, you are a leader, you are an executive, a CEO or a founder. This is going to help you take a closer look at the challenges many businesses face when attempting to implement a multi-channel approach, and how focusing on the right channels could lead to better results. To set the stage. Let's start with a real-life example from a brand we all likely know and might even use every single day.
Laura 02:42
Love it or hate it, you've probably heard of Slack. Slack is a popular workplace communication tool. It is something that we use as a standard in our consulting delivery here at Joy brand creative. And many of our clients utilize it every single day in place of email, and even written or verbal communication, through audio messages, huddles video interactions. It's something that I look at consistently. And it's gotten to the point where it's almost essentially replaced email for my own workflow. And its early days, Slack utilized various marketing channels, including content marketing, social media, they even ran paid ads. I don't know about you, but I've never seen a paid out for slack. And when you think about it, that's kind of interesting. But of course, they came out of the gate, wanting to do all of the marketing things in order to generate buzz and increase user adoption, which is critical for any type of software product.
Laura 03:45
However, Slack soon recognized that word of mouth referrals and organic growth were the most effective channels for acquiring new customers. As a result, they decided to focus primarily on this single channel, and spent the money that they were investing in multi-channel marketing on instead enhancing their products user experience, making it as seamless and enjoyable as possible. And in doing so, they really aim to encourage existing users to recommend slack to their colleagues and peers, driving adoption through all of these positive experiences. Some of the specific ways that they leaned into word-of-mouth referrals and organic growth was first and just product excellence. Slack really wanted to make sure that their product was easy to use feature rich and reliable. So, by offering this seamless user experience, they helped to continuously improve their platform based on user feedback, who were also there are best sources of new customers. And as a result, Slack built a product that people love, and they were much more likely to recommend it to others. And in fact, in our organ Innovation, we'll even use it as a verb, I'll send you a slack. It's something that you've probably heard if you're in the internet marketing space or working with startups, or small, lean organizations.
Laura 05:11
They also utilized what I absolutely love, which is a freemium model. It's something that we hear about a lot in software and software as a service. But I really try to utilize it in every area of marketing when I'm going into a new opportunity for growth. And what a freemium is, is it's a free initial service, allowing users to access the platform for free with the option, oh, the lovely option to upgrade to a paid plan for additional features. The thing is, is that you fall in love with Slack and Dropbox did the same exact thing. And then as you fall in love with it, you pay to continue to use it, or you pay to upgrade. This approach enables users to try the product without any upfront financial commitment, things like a free trial and a membership, making it easier for them to adopt slack and recommend it to others. Premium is a little bit different than a free trial and a membership. But I love the model, because it allows people to get hooked on the service, whatever it is, even if it's not software, and then continue to want it. They also really lean in integrations and partnerships. So what they did is they created this entire ecosystem of integrations with other popular tools and services, enabling users to streamline their workflows and increase productivity, and also send those awesome GIFs that we love to
send back and forth in our own organization. And so these integrations made slack even more valuable to users who in turn became advocates for the platform. And viral loops is another way in which they lean into organic growth and referral. So they created this viral natural viral loop. And what that means is that users who experience the benefits of using slack and wanting more organization would often introduce the platform to other teams or organizations they were part of, if you've ever been part of a Slack connect thread, which we use with our various service providers and agencies. That, of course, drives organic growth because somebody starts using it. And they're like, oh, my gosh, this is great. And then existing users become evangelists for the product without even really meaning to.
Laura 07:26
And finally, Slack built a fantastic community of users, developers, partners, through these dedicated channels, forums, events, and online resources. And so by engaging with its community, Slack really fostered that sense of belonging and loyalty. And that further encourage users to share their positive experiences with others. This would have been really hard to do. Because as you listen to me describe the different ways in which they went all in on word of mouth referrals and organic growth. It's a pretty significant effort, right building a community viral loops freak offering a freemium model that works and that people want to be part of, and overall, committing to their product excellence, that that's a lot of effort and resources. And it would have been really hard to do if the slack marketing and business development teams were spread too thin. As a result, they experienced exponential growth primarily driven by word of mouth referrals with minimal investment and other marketing channels. This single channel focus and effort allowed SLAC to allocate their resources more efficiently, resulting in astounding growth and eventually leading to the company's acquisition by Salesforce in for a total purchase price of a mere $27.7 billion. This example demonstrates the power of focused marketing, and serves as a reminder that sometimes when it comes to building a successful marketing strategy, less is more.
Laura 09:14
When thinking about how to understand the value of a focused marketing channel, like Slack did with word-of-mouth referrals and organic growth, I want you to think about the concept of tending to a garden. Imagine your organization's marketing efforts as a garden. And each marketing channel is a different type of plant for acquiring different types of care and attention. And if you're anything like me, it's kind of frustrating to try to plant too many different varieties and it becomes challenging to devote enough time and resources to nurture each one adequately. And then all of a sudden you realize you plant the thing that your backyard animals absolutely love and then you have to start from scratch. It's really frustrating. And as a result, the entire garden might just end up hot mess a disaster, with some plants not growing to their full potential. And in my case with gardening, even withering away. On the other hand, if you focus on just nurturing one or two types of plants, i.e., marketing channels that are best suited to your organization's needs and capabilities, you can ensure that they receive the care and attention that they really need to thrive. As these plants grow stronger and healthier, they will yield more results, ultimately benefiting the entire garden, i.e., your organization. By concentrating on the marketing channels that are most effective and relevant to your company, your audience, your customers, you can optimize the resources and foster growth and achieve better outcomes in the long run, just as slack did by focusing on word of mouth referrals and organic growth, and as somebody who has had to start from scratch multiple times in my own garden, what I've learned is a small garden with a limited amount of herbs and just one vegetable, usually cherry tomatoes works out perfectly in comparison to trying to be good at all of the different plant varieties, ultimately resulting in a pretty frustrating outcome.
Laura 11:22
So, when it comes on how to apply this in your own business first with a multi-channel approach, well often seen as a way to maximize reach and engagement, especially for all of us who are trying to do good in the world and help everybody we possibly can. It comes from a really honorable place. But it might not always be the most effective way to spread our message or fulfill our mission or to be able to see our vision fully realized, particularly for small to medium sized businesses, nonprofits and startups. These organizations often face unique challenges such as limited budgets, time constraints, smaller teams, and it makes it critical to prioritize marketing efforts wisely. When resources are scarce or spread, then, it is so important to concentrate on the marketing channels that will generate the most significant results for your outcomes. rather than attempting to maintain a presence on every single platform and feeling that pressure, which can lead to diminished returns and increased stress for your team. It's much more efficient to focus on a select few channels that align with your target audience and support your marketing objectives. By narrowing your marketing focus, you can then devote more time and effort to crafting high quality content and engagement strategies tailored to your chosen channels, you can go deeper instead of wider. This concentrated approach allows you to build stronger connections with your audience, ultimately resulting in better brand recognition increased loyalty and higher conversion rates.
Laura 13:08
For small businesses, even medium sized businesses, nonprofits and startups, which is mainly who we serve at Joybrand creative. The key to this successful marketing lies and optimizing the limiting resource limited resources, and strategically choosing the channels that best serve your needs. by prioritizing quality over quantity and homing in on your most impactful platforms. You can drive growth, expand your reach, and even help more people than you could have when you are spread then this helps you keep your staff from becoming overwhelmed and missing goals. Secondly, the importance of targeted efforts and maximizing impact cannot be overstated. Particular, particularly in today's competitive business landscape. And really what we're competing for is attention. When you look online, we hear so many marketing messages. But by focusing on a specific audience, your marketing strategy becomes so much more purposeful and effective, which enables you to create messaging and content that resonates deeply with your target demographic and is primarily showing up where they hang out the most often. This level of personalization and attention creates more of that authentic connection that we all want in our marketing between our brands and our audiences leading to a stronger relationship and ultimately better results.
Laura 14:37
By understanding their unique needs, preferences and pain points, and getting really specific with the type of information that they like to receive and where they like to consume it. This is so essential to crafting a marketing campaign that can withstand a single channel approach and as a result This will compel more people to take action. This targeted single channel approach really also helps maximize the impact of marketing efforts. And it makes sure that your resources are allocated where they can have the most significant effect. So instead of taking a one size fits all approach with the amount of channels that you're trying to tackle at once, which can lead to mediocre results and wasted resources, focusing on one well defined channel allows you to hone in on your tactics, measure your success more accurately, and make data driven adjustments to optimize your campaigns before you move on to a second or third or fourth channel. So this type of targeted marketing is a really important strategy that allows you to concentrate on a specific channel for a specific audience that enjoys consuming information on that single channel, which is vital for maximizing the impact of your campaigns. And by understanding that one channel really, really well, you can then go deeper on tailored programming and content that leads to better engagement, higher conversion rates, and stronger brand loyalty.
Laura 16:17
So ultimately, this focused approach is really key to being able to get attention in a crowded marketplace and achieve long term success. And in conclusion, that myth of a multi-channel approach being the best choice for every business is very much a myth. And by focusing on targeted, tailored single channel approaches, what I find is that our clients really are able to allocate the resources way more effectively, this leads to better engagement, and just overall allows the campaign to work so much better. And it allows our clients to be an influential force within their markets. And as a result, what they find as they don't need to be running around all over the place, like feeling torn in so many different directions and then being frustrated. Well, why isn't the marketing working like it's supposed to, we have multiple agencies, we're on all the different platforms, we are running all the ads that we're supposed to run, because they haven't chosen that single channel approach, that they're going to go deep on yet that they're going to learn from, that they're going to go all in on and use it as a basis for expansion. And so, what I find is, I end up having to focus them on doing less better, which is a little bit of a mind ban. So don't be swayed by people who say that you need to be on every single channel,
what I call the multi-channel approach. Instead, prioritize on your single best channel, which has a lot to do with who you serve and how you help them. Prioritize your marketing efforts by getting a result first, from that one channel. Concentrate on what it is that your target audience will engage with what they like to hear. And then what will happen is you can go deep with them. And typically what I find is organizations exceed their goal just by going deeper on one channel. And then what they get to do is duplicate the results on multiple channels, once they've achieved success with that single channel approach. So don't be swayed by the pressure to be on all of the places instead, prioritize and you will see new heights of success.
Laura 18:48
Thank you so much for tuning in to the Next Level Leap Podcast where we explore the transformative power of marketing to create positive change in the world. If you enjoy this episode, and you want to learn more about how we can work together to create positive change through better marketing, please visit our website at joybrandcreative.com. That's www.joybrandcreative.com. There you'll find more information about our services, our mission, and how we can help you use marketing to make a real difference in the world. And if you want to stay updated on the latest episodes of the next level leap podcast, make sure that you subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback and support mean the world to us and we're excited to continue this journey of creating positive change in the world through the power of marketing. So, until next time, keep spreading joy and making a difference. I'll see you soon!
Welcome to the Next Level Leap Podcast! Join our guide, Laura Meyer, a 20-year entrepreneur and growth strategist for some of the country's fastest-growing nonprofit and for-profit organizations, as she shares her insights and strategies for using marketing to make a difference in the world. In each episode, we explore how marketing can create a ripple effect of change that impacts lives and communities for years to come. From social media to branding to storytelling, we cover a range of topics to help you harness the power of marketing for good. So if you're ready to make waves and spread joy, tune in to the Next Level Leap Podcast podcast and let's create a marketing ripple effect that changes the world!