As we explain in our Complete Guide to Channel Expansion, recognizing the need to diversify your channel mix is the easy part. In a digital marketing landscape where new channels and features emerge by the quarter, choosing the right channels to test is a more complicated challenge.
The first, and most fundamental, step in this initiative is aligning with your C suite on the business goals (and primary KPIs) to prioritize in your marketing strategy. Once your goals are locked in, it’s time to analyze your potential new channels through the lens of your target customers.
At Playbook Media, we pull extensively from the vast network of knowledge on Reforge, a collection of cohort-based masterclasses from tech executives. When working with our portfolio of B2C clients on their channel mix, we often reference this visualization, which we’ve updated with contemporary emerging channels using a combination of purchase intent, target audience specificity and channel scale.
There’s a lot to digest in this chart. Essentially, here’s how we recommend you use it:
- Determine the quadrant(s) where your company currently resides & wants to move into
- Rule out channels without product/market/intent fit
- Test the bigger bubbles first
- Prioritize channels that can deliver learnings quickly
- Optimize your mix according to those learnings
Other major considerations include channel maturity, early adoption advantages, account support, level of targeting available, analytics sophistication, and other factors we explain more fully in our complete channel expansion guide. And there’s a lot of groundwork to lay before you activate any new channels that will allow you to understand how well they’re actually working.
Whether they just raised Series B funding or want to move up the Fortune 500 ranks, our clients all rely on strategic channel expansion to hit their growth and performance goals. If you’re interested in a growth audit that includes channel expansion recommendations for your business, drop us a line.
