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Multi-channel marketing is key if you want your brand name to be put in front of a wide-reaching audience, but exactly which channels should you be targeting?
In today’s digital age there are so many options: TV, radio, podcasts, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube. It can be difficult to know which to focus your marketing budget on and, of course, tactics such as persona profiling should help to inform your decision to allow you to achieve the best possible results and insights from your campaign.
However, it’s also worth taking note of what your competitors are doing. You don’t want to fall behind with current marketing trends, but you don’t want to simply place yourself on an even playing field with them either; you need to take a look at what they’re doing and think about how you can promote your brand in a more creative and better targeted way.
Where are your competitors likely to be advertising?
According to statistics from the latest eMarketer forecast, social media will need to be a key focus for brands over the coming year, with the medium set to overtake TV advertising – which has traditionally been the biggest money-maker – in terms of spending.
It’s expected that marketing professionals in the UK will spend some £3.3 billion on social media advertising over the course of 2018, marking an increase of almost one-quarter (24 per cent) on how much they invested in promoting themselves via these channels last year.
If this trend continues over the next few years, eMarketer predicts that advertising via social networks will account for 20 per cent of all marketing spend in the UK by 2020. This means the medium will overtake TV advertising, which would comprise just 17.8 per cent of marketing investment in comparison.
Bill Fisher, UK senior analyst at eMarketer, explained that increased competition between the social networks – many of which are adding similar features – is helping to attract more investment from marketers.
“The result is a growing social media market, and one that advertisers are keen to utilise,” he commented.
“Media-rich targeting options, with video a particularly big play, make platforms like Snapchat and Instagram especially attractive.”
Which social channels should you use?
When deciding which social media channels to use to advertise your brand, you need to have a clear understanding of who your audience is and where their online activity is likely to take place. For example, if you want to target young students, LinkedIn, with its more corporate, professional feel, probably isn’t your best bet. Instead, you’d be wanting to use a platform with a younger user base, like Instagram or Snapchat.
Similarly, if you’re wanting to target business executives, while they might have a presence on Facebook and Instagram in their spare time, they’re most likely to consume professional online content via LinkedIn or perhaps Twitter.
It’s also important to consider the purpose of your campaign. Do you want to increase awareness of your brand and grow your online following? If so, an influencer-oriented campaign on YouTube or Instagram would be a good option to explore. Or would you like to get people to sign up to attend a networking event you’re hosting? LinkedIn and Facebook would be best for this.
Ultimately, it’s important to remember that you shouldn’t just do something because your competitors are; you need to make sure you’re standing out from the crowd in your own right.
Source: Digital TV Europe, Advanced Television