Pick a Lane in Your Marketing: Or, Why You Don’t Need to Market on Every Platform
You're probably familiar with the concept of "picking a lane"--it's all about choosing one area of focus and sticking to it. But what does that mean for marketing? And why should you do it?
This blog post will help you understand why picking a lane– or in this case, 1-2 platforms– is important and helpful for your small business marketing, as well as how to choose the right one(s) for your brand.
Why You Shouldn't Be On Every Platform
Content is expensive, because it represents a lot of time and labor (That may change with AI…but for now, it’s still pretty universally true). The amount of labor and resources it takes to execute an effective content strategy rises dramatically with each platform you add to your marketing strategy.
In our experience, small businesses don't have endless time and resources to burn (we wish!). You need results from where you're putting that marketing energy. So let's go over which platforms that your small business should include in its marketing strategy, and what platforms are less essential.
Defining Your Audience
The first step to picking the platforms for your marketing strategy is to define your audience. Who are they? Where do they hang out online? What platforms do they use and why?
If you're still unclear about how to answer these questions, we recommend taking some time to do some research. The more information you have about your target audience, the better equipped you'll be when it comes time to start building out content and campaigns for them.
Include Your Own Website
We're going to assume that you have your own website, or if you're starting a business, that you're in the process of creating one. In a world where social media is increasingly fractured or potentially unstable (due to leadership, political pressure, or other factors), it's essential that you have an "owned" landing page for your customers and audience. Regardless of whether you intend to publish blog or article content, your website should be considered your most important and non-negotiable marketing "lane".
Yes, You Need Email Marketing
We like to recommend setting up your email marketing before moving on to social media or paid advertising, because it again, it's something you own, and allows you to immediately begin building that relationship with subscribers, whether that's a list you already have, or whether you're about to be acquiring new subscribers through social media or other avenues.
Now email marketing may not be necessary for every business, but we think it's highly advisable for most businesses to include in their marketing strategy. It's a much more stable place to nurture your audience than a social media platform, and used correctly, can offer much higher ROI.
A basic email marketing strategy can look like one or more of these email marketing tactics::
Sending out monthly-ish newsletters that include updates about new products or services, tips for using them and other interesting information related to your industry (e.g. changing regulations, new technical developments, or trend reports.).
Sending out 'deep dive' emails about a specific topic that's on your mind (or your audience's mind)
Link round-ups of recent articles or items online that your audience would find interesting, educational, or entertaining.
Choosing the Right Social Media Platforms
Our best social media advice for small businesses: you don't need to be on every platform. Really. You just need to be on 1-2 platforms where a good number of your audience are present.
The first step in choosing the best social media platforms for your business is to know your audience. Go back to the research you did in the first part of this process. Where does their generation(s) spend time on social? If you’re reaching a professional or working audience, where does that industry spend time? If interests and hobbies are a factor, where are those conversations taking place? How technically savvy is your audience– are they participating in the newest social media platforms, or are they more likely to be on more established platforms?
It's ok to take some time with this, and you may even want to do some additional research. If you have competitors, see where those companies are present on social-- and look to see how active or engaged their following is. If they have a thriving following on a certain platform, that could be an indicator that that social media platform is a strong contender for inclusion in your marketing strategy.
Be careful with making broad assumptions that aren’t backed by your own research or observations. If you're a financial services company, for example, you'll want to make sure your content reaches people who are interested in personal finance and investing. Now, we might assume that Facebook is the best platform, since it reaches a more mature audience of Gen X and older who are more likely to have investments or wealth building interests. However, if we made that assumption without further research, we'd have missed out on realizing that both Instagram and TikTok have a thriving community of personal finance content creators who are specifically talking to Millennial and younger generations. In this case, knowing which generational swath is closer to your target is essential to picking the best platform for your strategy. So it’s always important to consider multiple angles of your audience.
How to Know Whether You Picked the Right Platforms
The only way to know whether you picked the right platforms is to a) put in the work of creating content and engaging on those platforms, and b) track the metrics that are meaningful and relevant to your business over an extended period of time.
It's worth noting that starting a following on a new platform is a very gradual process, so we'd recommend trying a platform for at least a year before making a decision-- it will take at least that long to start to build even a starter following. This process can be accelerated to a degree by paid ads and collaborations, but it still takes time to get a good sample size of metrics– you want to reflect how the platform works for your account once it’s established, not when it’s brand new, and metrics are likely to be skewed by that fact.
There are times, of course, when you'll want to add, or replace a platform-- just be prepared to adjust your content creation time and resources accordingly to grow a following on a new platform.