Why You Need a Multi-Channel Strategy
Marketing in today’s day and age needs to focus on more than just the Internet. While the Internet is a major forum for advertising a business, it’s imperative to look beyond the search engines for marketing opportunities – and this is where many business owners fail. There is still a need for offline marketing, which includes such things as postcards, banners, flyers and direct mail campaigns.
This multi-channel strategy ensures that you tap into all of your target demographics. You may want to target the 18-30 demographic, which spends a significant amount of time on the Internet. However, if you are also targeting the 60+ demographic, you will need to use other channels beyond what is found online.
Additionally, people need to see a business at least three or four times before they have any kind of brand recognition. This means that multiple channels will ensure that you get noticed more often. Someone may see a banner for your business in town, then receive a postcard in the mail, and then locate you online.
By the time a person comes across your ad online, they are then ready to follow the link and be taken to your website. Without using all of the channels, however, people may have been hesitant to do business with you because they hadn’t heard about the business.
Many of the multi-channel strategies that exist are available locally. You need to tap into your own community before you take things to a national or international level. There may be many ways for you to market in your backyard, which is affordable and will get you noticed to the level that is important.
The Internet is one way to market, but it is important to remember that there are still many other ways to market as well.