Choosing The Right Marketing Medium For Your Kind of Audience
We are bombarded with opportunities to advertise our businesses, and places to do it, or mediums to operate in, just get more complex:
- Traditional print (magazines, newspapers)
- Online magazines, news
- Outdoor, billboards, cinema
- TV: Free to air, PayTV, Digital, Internet
- Radio: there are 100s of stations in Qld alone and now digital radio
- Branded website
- Aggregate websites
- Branded YouTube Channel
- Branded iPhone apps
- Forums 7 blogs
- Social media such as
- Facebook (fan Page or Business Page), MySpace, Google Plus
- Linkedin, Twitter
How do we chose which medium? You’d be forgiven for jumping on the latest bandwagon, being persuaded to create a Facebook Fanpage because everyone else is.
But don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater! Consider if the new medium actually is being used by your brand’s target market? There is no point in spending marketing dollars on a Facebook page only to find your customers aren’t ready for it.
Marketing – Do More of What Works
Marketing is not an exact science – test, measure and revise. Take an integrated approach, make sure you know what is working from what you are doing now, and do more of what works.
In moving into social media, it is about meeting your customers on their own playing field, so you have to listen to them, learn their language and speak so that you can be heard. It’s a two way model too, build relationship, give stuff away, ensure the reader get value from their interaction with you.
Really Get to Know Your Customer
The fact they’re between 18 & 65 in Qld is not enough! What are their preferences, needs, perceptions, habits, aspirations? What is their language, how do they communicate? Where do they search, what jobs do they do? What are their groups, sports, tribes? What are their values?
Define what is most relevant to your customers, what are they looking out for? Then provide a platform for communication and consistent brand experiences. Create value in the brand exchange and deliver on the brand promise.
Remember, in this brave new world, the traditional 4P’s of marketing become the 4E’s:
Price becomes Exchange (create value in the brand exchange)
Promotion needs Evangelism (market with passion)
Place becomes Everywhere (market everywhere your customer is)
Product becomes Experience (create a consistent brand experience)
Social media provides a platform to market in this way, but make sure it is the right medium for your customers!
