Don’t Put All Your Marketing Eggs in One Basket.

I recently spoke at a PMG-North Bay Lunch & Learn titled “Don’t Put All Your Marketing Eggs in One Basket”. It’s a topic I’m very passionate about even though a huge chunk of my experience is in digital marketing, specifically social media. Now that I’ve had time to reflect on the event and bring my blood pressure back to a (somewhat) normal range, I’d like to share my thoughts on diversifying your marketing, building your brand, and picking channels based on your target audience. In my opinion, this should be a real eye-opener for you…The skinny-jean-wearing digital marketing millennial is telling you to diversify your marketing portfolio. Lol. Let’s discuss this over some avocado toast.

Tl;dr

The heart of marketing is brand building. You simply cannot build a brand by using one or two channels. If you’re struggling to determine which channels to use you need to clearly define your target audience, goals, and campaign messaging. This will help drive which channels to use and remember, don’t put all your marketing eggs in one basket!

Diversifying marketing is the surest way to build your brand

I must admit I am a brand building evangelist. In my mind, you simply can’t properly market your brand without solid branding strategies. Sure, you can create a killer video and get tons of views, or launch a hilarious campaign, but without slowing building your brand these tactics will fade and you’ll be that one company that did that one thing that no one can remember. By diversifying your marketing portfolio, you’ll reach a larger audience AND reach your target audience more often with your relevant messaging (more on that later). Imagine your brand and messaging being displayed beautifully on a billboard, in magazines, on social media, all over Google, and you reiterating your campaign messaging in person at events and mixers. The power of having your brand in relevant channels in front of your audience is incredibly valuable.

Defining your target audience will help narrow in your channels

Your target audience should drive almost everything you do. Understanding who and where your audience is will help guide your channels. For example, I had a client once who was in the commercial contractor industry and he was dead set on having his construction company on Pinterest. It was quite a battle explaining that Pinterest was not a great channel for his business. Pinterest can be an excellent channel – just not for commercial contractors. In this example, if we had taken a step back to clearly define our target audience it would have been clear from the get-go that this was a channel we didn’t need to explore.

Defining your goal will help track your channels

Pro tip: Pick a single goal for your marketing campaign. From there we can clearly define our strategies and then have clear objectives per channel. Too many businesses have their channels living in silos. Channels need to be working towards the same overarching goal for full effectiveness. Let’s say our goal is brand awareness. That goal should remain the same regardless of channel. However, each channel is different and measures success differently, which is why using unique objectives per channel is crucial. Google Ads and email marketing have different objectives but should share a single goal. 

Campaign messaging will keep you aligned with your audience and goals

One of my favorite ways to diversify marketing is by taking a campaign approach. When taking a campaign that has a singular message, you not only remove the ability to veer off track, you also create the ability to have a single clear message that is being conveyed to your target audience. Again, let’s use brand building as our goal. A single message that is reaching your audience across multiple channels will undoubtedly start clicking with your audience. It’s simply best practice when putting your marketing eggs in multiple baskets.

Putting all your marketing eggs in a single basket is a recipe for disaster. It will prove to be a waste of time and dollars. However, if you can clearly define our target audience, goals, and use a single campaign approach with a consistent message, you’ll have a really good idea of where to put your marketing dollars and which channels you’ll need to support your brand.

Beau Baumbach is the Marketing & Social Media Strategist for TIV Branding

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TIV Branding is a boutique branding firm in Sonoma County, California. We specialize in building brands by using traditional, social and digital channels in unison. If you would like to discuss a project or find out more about how we do what we do, please email us at info@TIVbranding.com.