Marketing can be daunting! It is not until after you have invested time and money into the implementation, testing and measuring of your marketing, that you can fully ascertain whether or not a particular activity is actually working for your business or not.
It is because of this that many business owners shy away from developing and executing marketing consistently across multiple platforms. Instead, they take an ad-hoc approach, using just one or two platforms at any one time.
Unfortunately, taking the latter of these approaches, an approach which many would perceive as the “safer” option, can often carry more risk!
You have probably heard the saying, “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”, and where marketing is concerned, this certainly rings true. If you drop your basket of eggs, they all smash. If you invest all your marketing into one platform and something happens, you lose your major lead source.
Marketing platforms change constantly! As quickly as a Chameleon changes to adapt to different situations, various platforms make changes to enhance their user experience. Unfortunately, these developments are entirely out of your control and their effects on your marketing often cannot be predicted until it is too late.
The security of investing in multiple marketing platforms is that when one platform is jeopardised, you still have other lead sources to minimise any negative effects that this could cause.
In addition to this, if you only use one or two marketing platforms it is guaranteed that you are missing out on a sea of potential customers.
On average, it takes 9 touch points before a person takes action on what you are offering them. Keeping a consistent message and branding across multiple platforms enhances the potential for these 9 touch points to take place.
As well as this, different people interact with platforms differently. A person on Facebook may purely log on to keep in touch with family and friends, whilst another may be extremely active in various conversations and information throughout their ‘News Feed’. A similar circumstance could occur in an offline marketing method. For example, if you conducted a mail out, your flyer/pamphlet/letter may reach a person who carefully sorts through and reads all their mail. But there is a chance that it could be ignored by someone who picks out what they perceive as important and throws out the rest. It is these behaviours that are hard to predict so you need to use many marketing avenues in the hope that if you miss a customer at one touch point, they will notice you on another.
Not only do people interact with platforms differently, but they also tend to have certain preferences of medium type. A blog post sent to your email marketing list will be enjoyed by people likely to engage in written content, where as other, more visual people, will prefer to engage with a video advertisement on Facebook, as long as this is the platform they choose to interact with.
A multi platform marketing strategy will aid your business awareness because people are seeing you everywhere, across varied platforms in varied formats.
An increase in awareness, promotes legitimacy and trust, which are both extremely important in the trade services industry. When customers are letting you into their home to perform a service that they know nothing about (so could easily be ripped off), they want someone whom they can trust.
A marketing strategy that reaches across multiple platforms can also (believe it or not) save you money! If you don’t experiment with your marketing you don’t know if you are using the best, most cost effective methods. It is important to experiment and test what works for your business. This will save you time and money in the future.
What’s next?
- Join our Kick-Ass Tradies Facebook Group, for access to trade business specific conversations, tips and resources, plus a like-minded community of tradies.
- Book a 15-minute Game Plan Call with Andy, owner of Dr. DRiP plumbing and co-founder of Lifestyle Tradie, to clarify your priorities and get clear action steps.
