Choosing Marketing Channels

Which marketing channels should I choose?

Before you ask this question, step back to ask, who is my customer? 

If you’re a startup, begin by defining who your “ideal” customer is. Create a customer profile. If you’re visual person, grab a stock image and put all of this information together in one document. It’s a great starting point.

My Customer:

Ashley and Tim Smith

35 year old Married Couple

Income: $275,000

White Picket Fence Suburban Home

2 Children, 1 Dog, 1 Cat

Launch based on these demographics and what you can hypothesize.. Maybe Ashley commutes 30 miles to take the kids to school and may be listening to the radio from 7am-7:30. She might pass by a billboard outside of her neighborhood, and once she drops off the kids she curiously searches on her phone for the web address she just heard about and saw on the billboard you strategically placed. After visiting the website she is retargeted with additional reminders of what she NEEDS to complete her world. A personal shopper to do all of her tasks.. she will finally be able to go to the gym after drop off! Success! 

For everyone, really.

Follow your marketing launch with curiosity (and patience) to see if your definition matches or completely differs from who actually ends up buying your product or service. 

How do you figure this out? That’s why rely heavily on analytics, whether it’s through existing database profiling, website and/or social media analytics, which will tell the story of who your customer is and how that might evolve over time. In addition, we have proprietary data systems that help us give our customers an accurate understanding of who their customer TRULY is, and available niches to market to.

Ultimately, data helps us execute marketing campaigns that are relevant to the end consumer and effective for our clients.

Often, we will see a new niche develop by digging into the details of data.. a product designed for a 30-40 year old population with 2 children, a dog and a white picket fence may actually end up appealing to your 20-30 inner-looper single crowd. Packaging and marketing might need to be modified upon this discovery to capitalize on this niche of interest. 

In short.. Start with what you do know, or think you know, pick your channels based on that audience, design and launch your marketing campaign and see what happens by looking into your data resources. Most importantly, be prepared to change direction if needed or further refine the path you’re on if it’s working.