MYTH #5: As more marketing platforms and channels are created, you have to use them all to be successful.
With so many digital marketing platforms available, it’s tempting to try and build your brand everywhere, all at once. But it’s not a requirement for success, and more often than not it will hinder your efforts.
The key to great digital marketing is finding the right platforms that suit your business. With one or two platforms, you can commit to using them to the fullest and craft a strategy that plays to their strengths. Mastering your chosen channels will take your efforts to the next level.
So, how do you identify the right platform for you? All you have to do is follow your customers.
Who is your core audience? Where do they spend their time online? Different platforms cater to different users. Let your audience’s online behavior inform your choice.
Does your brand address a specific problem, which users might seek to solve with a Google search? Is your target demographic most likely to use Facebook, or prefer Instagram? Are you trying to reach individual consumers, or are you a B2B business that would benefit from a strong LinkedIn presence?
Once you’ve done your research and determined which platforms your audience prefers, you can focus your marketing on these specific channels. Your ideal platforms need a thorough strategy for success, incorporating each stage of your marketing funnel. It’s all about getting the right message to your audience at the right stage of their buying process.
With this approach, your platforms become valuable resources. No matter which one you choose, committing your marketing efforts to a specific social media platform aligns with that platform’s goals. Leveraging their ad capabilities is exactly what these platforms want you to do.
Facebook’s advertising platform can be highly customized to target very specific audiences, and the same goes for Instagram. The deeper you dive into these tools, the better your campaigns will perform. Facebook offers tons of insights that can help you choose the most engaging content, focus your ads on a specific goal, and test and measure your ads to inform future campaigns.
If you commit to using Google in your strategy, you’ll see more and more benefits as your audience moves through your marketing funnel. Google’s remarketing tools in particular offer great ROI opportunities.
Bidding on Google’s high-volume keywords gets very competitive, and often they are too expensive, especially for small businesses. But when you target those same keywords for remarketing, you’ll only pay a fraction of the cost. This allows you to target a user who visits your site, returns to Google, and searches for your high-volume keywords. You can cater your message to serve these valuable in-market consumers and do it for less.
For B2B businesses, LinkedIn’s InMail feature is an invaluable tool for reaching users at each phase of the funnel. It’s an opportunity to start a dialogue with your audience, and the platform is constantly making algorithmic improvements to help you connect with the right users.
With a thorough understanding of InMail’s capabilities, you can personalize messages, build custom audiences, and offer direct paths to purchase no matter where the recipient is in the conversion process.
In short, social media platforms are designed to give their users the best experience possible. When your brand commits to that design, you can utilize its tools to the fullest and build a successful strategy. You just have to find the right platforms for your business and commit to mastering them.
This is Part 5 of our Marketing Myths Blog, where we debunk persistent digital marketing myths and outline stronger, smarter strategies to meet your goals.