Multi-channel Marketing: Avoid Putting All Your Eggs in One Basket

You’ve been busy building a sandcastle at the beach. You’ve put your heart and soul, along with countless hours of work, into that sandcastle, only for one day to see the tide change unexpectedly, and it washes away all that hard work that you’ve built. And that’s exactly what could happen to your brand if you rely solely on a single channel marketing strategy. What if your favoured platform pulls a policy U-turn tomorrow and it threatens your digital existence? So turning into a multi-channel strategy is not only a mere trend, it’s actually an evolution. It’s how you reach and resonate and reap the rewards of marketing for your business.

Hi, my name is Jordan McFadyen. Welcome to the Marketing Mindset podcast, where this podcast is designed to help you navigate this cluttered world of digital marketing, and also challenge you to move away from random acts of marketing and start actually planning an intentional marketing strategy that matters.

And today we’re chatting around multi-channel strategies, and specifically having a look at why a multi-channel digital marketing strategy is so important in today’s day and age. And this is going back a few years, where I was at a marketing conference. This is in San Diego, many years ago, I think around 2015 or so. And it was a quote from someone you might have heard of, his name was Guy Kawasaki. And he did the keynote at this particular marketing conference. And ever since this quote, it’s kind of stuck with me, and it’s still relevant today as well. And that is not to build your entire ship on rented land.

And in marketing, what this means is it relates to not only building your audience on a trending platform, or just using one specific marketing tactic. It’s essentially saying to avoid using a single channel strategy that’s going to put your brand at risk of significant platform changes that potentially could have a massive impact on your business.

If we ask ourselves that question, what happens if next month Facebook announces the removal of all local business Facebook pages? If you’ve built your business primarily on Facebook, what kind of effect is that going to have on you, your business, your marketing, your current customers? All that data could just be absolutely gone. Obviously, that’s not going to happen, and there’s no news for that to happen. But still, it’s one of those things that we need to be thinking about, especially if you are adopting a single channel marketing strategy.

Plus, I think the other thing to think about is that consumers, as consumers, we’re interacting dynamically now. There’s heaps of different channels that people are on. They’re not just using just one social media or one platform to find a business to work with, a product or service to work with. There’s different gadgets in the current digital ecosystem as well. So we really should be thinking about how we can adopt a multi-channel blueprint as part of your overall marketing strategy.

There was also a recent study that I’d read from the Advertiser Perceptions report. This was in the UK, but still, I think that the data is quite relevant. It reported that literally over 50% of UK advertisers are actually now using a more multi-channel approach, and since have experienced extended reach, increased brand awareness, and more ad engagement as well. And that report also disclosing that nearly half, around 47%, of those marketers also experienced a much better return on investment from their marketing efforts as well.

Because multi-channel campaigns are really a good opportunity for us to capture users throughout your entire marketing funnel. It’s going to allow you as a marketer or a business owner to actually build awareness and consideration, and then all the way down to actually leads or purchases down at the end of the funnel. And it’s essentially like you’re following your audience around where they are, instead of going to every platform to try and look for your audience.

Plus, there’s a lot of tighter marketing budgets around at the moment. So having a multi-channel retargeting strategy is going to be even better. It’s going to enable marketing teams and business owners to actually be able to deliver online ads to a user based on their previous intent-based actions across the web. And it really is an essential tactic for moving users down that funnel to conversion, or what other desired action that you’ve actually got as well. So a remarketing multi-channel strategy can even be even more powerful.

So really what I want you to think about is, if you’re sitting here thinking, well, all my marketing efforts are concentrated in one place, then really it is time for you to consider the channels that you should be expanding to. Or actually thinking about it the other way as well: are you spreading yourself too thin, or do you actually need to retract some of that marketing that you’re doing as well? So we’re going to have a look at both of those scenarios in today’s podcast.

So let’s have a look at actually building your multi-channel marketing into your existing strategy. Because I think the big thing to get across here is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to a multi-channel marketing strategy, as the ideal combination really does depend on a lot of different factors. One of the key ones obviously is the nature of your business really. What do you do? What is your core purpose? How do people traditionally find you, and what are you kind of expecting?

Some businesses excel at impromptu purchases, while others are going to thrive based on, let’s say, search-based transactions. So understanding which category your business is actually falling into is crucial in these early stages. And this should then lead your overall marketing strategy, and help guide you in the direction that you should actually take. Understanding which one you are kind of falling into, which bucket.

So let’s just break that down a little bit. If your business prospers from constant searches, or maintaining visibility across platforms with a search component, so whether that is Google search or Bing or YouTube or anything like that. So people use those platforms as a way to search for either content or searching for particular products. So if that’s where your business currently prospers, then you need to really be doubling down on those particular parts of the multi-channel strategy.

So as a bit of an example, you’d want to ensure that you’re really easily found on places like search engines, and that you then prioritise other actions like capturing email data and things like that, so you can collect as much data as possible on your audience. And then you can craft your marketing strategy to actually ensure that you’re actually generating relevant data from things like your Google ad engagement, your YouTube watch time and website visitors, so that you can actually really capitalise on then building out that multi-channel remarketing strategy as well.

But let’s look at it on the other hand as well. So let’s say more that your business thrives on literally being seen, and getting awareness, and stopping the scroll on social media, and answering more customers’ desires. And this is where social media and expanding your reach across those different social channels might be your key to success. Because this could be having a look at a strategy which combines both social media organic and social media paid content across those different platforms.

So let’s look at it with this example. A car breakdown service, for example, wouldn’t primarily rely on social media for their business. Let’s be fair. If someone’s sitting in a car, they’re broken down on the side of the road, they’re sitting there going, what am I going to do? They’re very unlikely to suddenly open up their phone and start scrolling through social media in the hopes of finding someone who’s actually going to help fix their broken down car. Instead, they’re going to immediately search on Google. They’re going to go to Google and find out, who can come and actually help fix my car?

Same thing if it was a locksmith or something like that. If you’re locked out of your house, chances are you’re not going to sit down and go, well, what am I going to do? I’m going to search social media and hope that an ad comes up around a local locksmith that can help me. No, you’re going to go to Google and you’re going to go “locksmith in my area”, and you’re going to call that person and get them around. If you’re providing a service like that, you want to ensure that things like your presence, and how you appear on search, is the top of your preference. How do you appear at the top of a search result? Are you appearing at the top of a search result? And that’s both in ads and organically on Google search.

And then if we take in contrast and go the other way, let’s say a law firm or something like that may require a more prolonged warming up and relationship period, where they’re actually trying to meet potential customers and clients at various points in their journey, which would be really essential for a business like a firm or something like that. And as a law firm, you’re going to want to try and build trust and confidence in your audience that you know what you’re talking about, and that you have the authority to display that your firm is going to fit with the client’s needs.

So potentially, instead of just focusing on your search strategy and being seen with intent-based searches, you’re going to try and think about how you can engage and be seen in front of an audience that are potentially scrolling social media. So let’s say it was LinkedIn or Facebook or anything like that, to be able to find and build a relationship and rapport with potential clients on those channels. So that’s just a bit of a look between the two different kind of examples.

But we also see a lot of common multi-channel marketing mistakes as well. And one of the most common mistakes that we see businesses make with adopting a multi-channel marketing strategy is actually spreading themselves far too thin. What they end up doing is actually try to attempt to create unique content on literally every single platform, thinking that multi-channel means that they need to be seen everywhere, which can obviously lead to burnout. And probably the more detrimental one is the diminishing your output quality of the content that you’re actually putting out.

For example, if you are a highly search-focused, intent-based business, think back to that business that provides a breakdown service for cars. If this business didn’t have a clear strategy and audience persona, and didn’t understand where their customers were finding them, and they decide that TikTok was the answer, and they now decide to produce 10 TikToks a day after watching a random Gary Vee video, they’re going to get stuck in a rut posting 10 TikToks a day.

And they may feel compelled then to maintain this and become active on things like Instagram and Pinterest and all these other different platforms, which then may become the stage of overwhelm. And they’re essentially not going to be able to manage any of those platforms effectively. Whereas a highly search business, in contrast, what they should be again focusing on is things like their Google Ads strategy, their Google organic performance. How are they performing well on a search result currently? Their website content strategy would be a big piece that they should be looking at, and ensuring that they’re appearing as high up in potential Google searches as possible.

So I would definitely not advocate for the “putting too many eggs in one basket” strategy just because you’ve seen it somewhere. If you’re starting to build your content marketing strategy alongside your traditional marketing strategy, begin to even look at those single platforms where you know your audience is spending time, and then just gradually over time, add more capacity and add more content and platforms as capacity actually allows, as long as that’s where your audience is actually hanging out at the end of the day as well. And then you can expand this as you learn about your audience’s habits, and you research and understand where else they may be consuming content, or looking for answers to their problems or desires and things like that.

So really, it all goes back to having that true understanding of your customer persona. Really, that is key. I can confidently go out on the record and say that I mention this on every single podcast and every single blog post that we wrote, that if you don’t truly understand who you’re actually talking to in the first place, you’re never going to be able to meet them where they are. And your multi-channel marketing strategy should aim to not be everywhere, but to be where your customers are, because really it’s about finding the right balance. It’s kind of that sweet spot to where your business can truly and really thrive at the end of the day as well.

So I think that’s one of those big key learnings when we talk about multi-channel. It’s not that we’re saying that you need to be absolutely everywhere. Again, you just need to be where your customers are. So going back to that customer persona, working out, where are they hanging out? What type of content are they interacting with? What do they need to see? Are they on social media? Are they more using Google and searching for products and services related to what you offer as well? So it really goes down to that key audience.

But either way, it’s really clear that multi-channel marketing strategies really have become, and still are, a very crucial pillar of any digital marketing strategy in general. Because not only is it going to shield your business from the unpredictability of just being on a single platform, but it’s also going to help you optimise for reach and for brand awareness, and ultimately, which is what we’re all looking for, return on that investment, both in cash and also the time that you’re putting into it as well.

So really building your marketing strategy around the nature of your business, understanding your customer’s journey, and then knowing precisely where they’re spending their time online really is the crucial part. Because your marketing approach should really be tailored. It’s got to focus on the platforms that are aligning with your unique needs of your business. Going back to what we said, making impromptu purchases, or is it answering search-based needs and wants and desires?

As you move forward, consider the following things. First, truly understand your customer persona. We say this all the time, but meet them where they are and not where you’d like them to be. The second thing is evaluate your business type, be it your product or your service. Determine the right channels for you and your business. For example, search-based platforms. Is it social media? Is it email marketing? Are you using video? The third thing, avoid spreading yourself too thin across multiple channels. I would always say to focus on quality and not just the quantity.

The fourth is to keep your eye on the data and the metrics from these different platforms to really fine-tune your strategies. And then lastly, add a multi-channel retargeting strategy to your overall approach. And this is going to help you to ensure that users are moving down your marketing funnel towards conversion, which is going to lead to that better return on investment and ROI in general.

Because balancing your multi-channel strategy is all about finding that key to the sweet spot to where your business can really thrive. And by doing so, you’re going to find that this can actually help your strategy to extend its reach and to increase your engagement and, ultimately, as I say, drive conversions. And it’s also a really important part to consider as part of the overall marketing strategy, which is obviously what we do best here at Done By Nine.

So if you do need to discuss your strategy, or discover the channels where your audience is, or need to start building your marketing strategy from scratch, you can obviously get in touch with us, jordan@donebynine.com, or go along to the website, donebynine.com. You can find out all about the service that we provide and how we can potentially help you and your business to build out your strategy and your multi-channel marketing strategy as well. If you’re on the website, you can find all of our other pieces of content. We produce blogs and podcasts. You can see online. You can head along donebynine.com.

And I do hope you’ve been able to take away some valuable insights into a multi-channel strategy. And I think if you’re sitting here and you haven’t adopted a multi-channel strategy, or you’re spreading yourself too thin across your multi-channel strategy, either one of those things is what you should be looking at and focusing on, and seeing about how you can fix those issues in your marketing strategy as well. And look, again, if you need any assistance, you can reach out to me or the rest of the team at our website, donebynine.com. And we look forward to seeing you on next week’s episode of the Marketing Mindset podcast.