Something I notice from many marketing experts and – as a result – many business owners is a tendency to focus their marketing on one channel, one platform at a time. Thinking about the entire flow of communication you need to have with a lead by Facebook. Or by direct mail. Or by emails. Or by phone. Or by networking events. And yet, it is our ability to be multidimensional in how we contact these leads that strengthens the relationship. Today, I wanted to share the concept of multichannel marketing and how it improves your sales and brand strength.
Multichannel marketing is how I market my own business and what I recommend for most businesses out there. Integrating numerous styles of communication allows you to use every platform creatively and get noticed.
The truth is, we live in a world where it is difficult to cut through the noise and get the attention of our customers. Every platform, every channel has traditional ways of being used and advertised on. The customer expects these spaces to be crowded with competition for their attention. You have to do something unusual or highly noticeable to get them to focus on your message for even a moment. Your marketing goal is to disrupt your audience and get their attention with a relevant message.
Multichannel marketing allows you to create a nimble pipeline for your leads. You may have found them for the first time on LinkedIn, and now you are inviting them to your website to sign up for your info sheet. Now you are dropping an email. Now they are getting a verbal recommendation to you from a partner business. Now you are showing up as an exhibitor at a trade show they are attending. Now you are having a face-to-face conversation with them. Now you are sending a free gift in the mail as a thank you for the great conversation.
Multichannel marketing allows you to create a nimble pipeline for your leads. #business #smallbusiness #smallbiz #smb #entrepreneur Share on XIf you kept that conversation entirely on LinkedIn, you are training this lead to understand that they can find you on LinkedIn along with everyone else they can find on LinkedIn. The moment you start turning up in other places, you are activating that part of the brain where – just for a moment – they say, “Wait, isn’t that the person I saw from LinkedIn?” It is these moments that help us disrupt, cut through the noise, and get our message across.
In addition to the way it reinforces your marketing message to your leads, multichannel marketing creates more security for your business. If you are talking to your leads only on one channel – let’s say through a local farmer’s market you attend – and then the farmer’s market stops running, how do you reach those leads again? Yes, you can find a new farmer’s market somewhere else. You can start building new leads there. You may even see a small percentage of your original leads turn up at this new market (let’s say 10%). But what happens to the other 90% of those leads you were spending so much time and effort to cultivate? They are gone. You have no way to reach them.
Multichannel marketing creates more security for your business. #business #smallbusiness #smallbiz #smb #entrepreneur #biztips #marketing Share on XWhen we rely on only one channel for marketing to a specific audience, we create risk in our business. We become reliant on that platform being around forever AND functioning properly. We become reliant that our target market will always be available through that channel. (Read here if you want my thoughts specifically on how important it is to get a Facebook audience over to your website and email list!)
Diversifying your marketing approach is safer for the long-term strength of your brand. If you are communicating to your customers in many different ways, you won’t suffer as much if any one of those methods disappears.
Diversifying your marketing approach is safer for the long-term strength of your brand. #business #smallbusiness #smallbiz #smb #entrepreneur Share on XMultichannel marketing is something you can apply across your entire marketing strategy. This approach will help activate your audience’s recall of your brand and will strengthen your relationship as you create numerous levels of the same conversation. As your brand continues to turn up in new and unexpected places, you will not only strengthen your position, you will be able to capitalize on a more nuanced relationship with your leads. And with that, you can move them further through your sales pipeline!
So, if you have a tendency to think in one dimension with your marketing, I challenge you today to think about how you can integrate other types of outreach. Instead of keeping your leads stuck in one channel, how can you invite them to other ones – or find them in other ones – so you can deepen the relationship?