Build where you own the land, distribute where the audience is.
Before distributing, ensure it’s worth visiting.
This pretty much sums up the whole post.
If you are already doing it, kudos to you. And you don’t need to read this post :). But if you’re confused about the balance between owned and rented, you may proceed further.
I understand that the rented land is lucrative. It’s crowded, abuzz with activities and attention.
Pretty much every marketer’s dream and KRA – to be present where the attention is.
Many a times while conducting sessions on product marketing, I have audience profiles mix from both B2B and B2C organizations and more often than not, the standard assumption that I get to hear from these professionals would be:
I would like to learn “Linkedin Advertising” in detail as I am from B2B background and vice versa, i.e., I would like to learn “Facebook/Instagram Advertising” in detail as I am primarily from B2C background.
This I hear many times. When I say, many times, I really mean many-many times.
When I probe further and ask which digital channel do you think a brand like Mercedes Benz should advertise on? The answer in almost all sessions have been – it’s a B2C brand and hence Facebook.
It’s amazing to encounter this channel wise categorization time and again, this belief that LinkedIn is for B2B products and Facebook/Instagram is for B2C products. On a broader level, they are not wrong, that’s how these products have been positioned in the market – LinkedIn for business networking and Facebook for social networking.
But then we discuss case studies like thisor this. How for a brand like Mercedes that needed to target the affluent segment, the information and “relevant targeting” options for their segment were available more on LinkedIn. And how a marketing professional like me ends up engaging with the content of HubSpot or MailChimp even on channels like Facebook or Instagram where I am “not” there for any professional networking.
Top – Linkedin, Bottom – Instagram stories
When it comes to marketing in today’s era, where the thin line between our browsing behavior of personal and professional content at home or work is diminishing, where the amount of information that we are leaving on each platform varies, this channel wise assumption actually doesn’t hold much significance now.
More than the positioning of the channel, what is important is to go back to the basics of marketing which starts with:
– Who is my target audience?
– Where do they hang out?
– Where can I reach them more effectively?
– What kind of message would resonate with them on each channel?
– When is the best time to approach them?
The moment you will shift your focus from channel segmentation to audience segmentation, you will automatically get clarity on where you can target your audience better.
In fact many a time, you will end up doing multi-channel marketing, select your channels wisely. Of course, run after the obvious ones but don’t abandon any channel just because it has been positioned in your mind as B2B or B2C. If your audience is there, it’s time for you to think why not?
Before you think of channels, think customers.
Blogging Journey Since 2003
About Me
Dreamer, Doer, Mother, Marketer - that’s how Kanupriya likes to describe herself and the order of these roles keeps on changing for her every hour of the day :-). Entrepreneurial in nature with strong product leadership skills, she has established brands and built products that have been industry differentiators in the Indian market. Digital media is her great passion and she is an active contributor to some of the country’s leading technology and marketing publications.
Kanupriya currently lives in Bangalore with her husband and son. When not working, she loves to spend her time with books, oven or paint-brush.
Recent Comments