Every modern business in this new decade realizes the importance of having an online presence. Even if in some cases this is not directly related to selling. You might agree with this, or may have even had instances where you’ve discussed this with you team but most brands have a hard time figuring out what works for them. Have you ever wondered how to pick your digital marketing channel? Here’s how!

It is important that you take the time and figure out which marketing channel will be the best fit for your business before you start pouring time and money into them.

The truth is you never know 100% — but there is a way of narrowing down your options. A simple solution that I’ve put together is to try and see where your business fits in the following chart.

Once You’ve Found Your Place

Note which part of the chart your business fits into and focus only on those channels. The size of impact of the channels across businesses is a rough scale based on public data. It’s best to start with the channel of biggest influence since they have a higher potential to scale.

Top Left Quadrant

If your customer is actively looking for a product you offer + the most random audience that could buy your product. The channels with an asterisk are in multiple quadrants.

Google SEM*

Google SEM means that you place your ad on the results page of the search engine. Google works for almost any audience and demographic as long as your product category is one that people are likely to search for.

Bing SEM*

Bing is a search engine that is roughly 15% of Google’s entire search volume.

SEO*

With SEO you rank or appear on search engine results on Google, Bing, and Yahoo organically, i.e. without paying for ads. This achieved by creating content and optimizing it with relevant keywords your customer may search for online. SEO offers less control over customer action when compared to SEM.

Amazon Ads

This is a quickly growing advertising channel, which works for most e-commerce products that are sold thorough Amazon and otherwise. These can be used to target people pretty well.

Pinterest*

Placing ads on Pinterest. This platform is ideal if you are targeting young people and women.

Top Right Quadrant

Your customer is actively looking for a product similar to yours + your target customer is very specific

Integrated Partnerships

Tradeshows

Review Sites

Google SEM*

Bing SEM*

SEO*

Bottom Right Quadrant

Your customer are not actively looking for a product like yours + your target customer is pretty specific

Facebook + Instagram*

Creating ads on Facebook and Instagram. Facebook being a primary social media platform it can work for almost any audience, broad or targeted, as long as you know who you are marketing too. Also this requires some basic knowledge in how social media works. The same is true for Instagram.

LinkedIn

Placing ads on LinkedIn. This is good for some categories of B2B sellers where the target customer also uses LinkedIn a lot, like HR recruiters and business managers the scale is low for products and services. .

Direct Mail

One of the most direct and precise marketing methods is to get a database of people you know would be good customers, and email them. You can also use this incentivize and encourage repeat sales.

Outbound (Calling & Email)

Outbound calling is also a very precise method of marketing for products and services. To execute this you will need a database of people you know would be good customers and call or email them.

Podcasts *

This is a fast growing channel, you can market well with by choosing podcasts that cater to difference audiences in different instances.

Affiliate *

You can pay partners a commission to driving clicks to your website. Theoretically this could be quite targeted visitors but my experience is that most affiliates can only drive generic visits at a certain scale.

Bottom Left Quadrant

Your customer is not actively looking for a similar product + the most random people who could buy your product

Pinterest *

Placing ads on Pinterest. This platform is ideal if you are targeting young people and women.

Display Networks (GDN, DSPs, etc.)

This lets you place banner ads on various display networks. For example by going through Google Display Network (GDN), you can place your banner ad on thousands of sites. The targeting on this is not great because of the scale.

Online News Channels

Placing ads on news sites where you pay to show people your content. The click rates are cheap and you can reach a big audience if you pick the right news sight but the targeting is not great due to the scale.

Facebook + Instagram*

Creating ads on Facebook and Instagram. Facebook being a primary social media platform it can work for almost any audience, broad or targeted, as long as you know who you are marketing too. Also this requires some basic knowledge in how social media works. The same is true for Instagram.

Affiliate *

You can pay partners a commission to driving clicks to your website. Theoretically this could be quite targeted visitors but my experience is that most affiliates can only drive generic visits at a certain scale.

YouTube

This has great reach and the targeting is the second strongest major online channel after Facebook. But it also requires time and tools to create content consistently to grow your audience. You can also use affiliate channels on YouTube to promote your product.

TV/Radio

Advertise on TV and Radio. It is a tried and true medium of marketing but you will have to test big on this channel. TV and Radio can both drive new customers at acceptable prices, even compared to every other channel. But the targeting in this channel of marketing is very broad.

Podcasts *

This is a fast growing channel, you can market well with by choosing podcasts that cater to difference audiences in different instances.

Every day colleagues, friends and family furiously make plans, to catch a movie, spend a day at the beach or hangout at the mall for some much needed retail therapy during the weekends. Meanwhile, big brands and businesses spend an entire work week advertising to them to in the hopes of grabbing their attention. In this battle for marketing real-estate and crores spent in advertising only very few come out on top.

If you are a venue that houses these businesses such as malls, shopping centres, cinemas and coffee shops, the pressure is certainly on to satisfy both the customers looking for a good time and the brands that want to sell. Where traditional marketing has failed venues in attracting footfall and prospects, a brand new way to satisfy sellers and customers is here!

Smart Wi-Fi Technology

Babble Networks offers a wide-range, smart Wi-Fi technology to malls, coffee shops, shopping centres, cinemas IT parks and public spaces to encourage traffic. Offering free Wi-Fi incentivises customers to frequent the venue and build habits that are guaranteed to help improve sales for businesses dependant on this traffic.

A recent study shows that customers try to access the Wi-Fi at any public space such as a mall, hospital or hotel within 10 minutes of arriving. This has cemented free Wi-Fi as a key component in customer service. Spaces that offer free Wi-Fi have also been observed to have a better business rating than those that don’t, making it critical in repeat business and customer recommendations. Babble Networks’ smart Wi-Fi technology offers public spaces such as malls, hospitals, hotels and multiplexes the opportunity to leverage Wi-Fi through the following features:

• Long Range Communication
• Omni Directional Coverage
• Dual-Band Speed Up to 1750 Mbps
• Weather Resistance Hardware
• Wireless Enterprise Security
• 250+ Concurrent Clients

What does this technology do for you?

Build a reliable and lasting relationship with businesses dependent on your ability to pull footfall for sales. Create opportunity for brands to be excited about marketing your venue and create a strong customer engagement. Venues and businesses that are recommended by customers gain a better reputation than brand awareness built solely on ads and marketing.

Get To Know Your Customers

In addition to being a cost effective tool to market locally to customers and reinforce your brand image this platform allows businesses to understand their customers better. Basic customer information such as their email and mobile numbers can exponentially increase prospects. Brands can improve brand loyalty through creative loyalty campaigns and timely sales and offers. A user friendly console allows the venue manager to create and manage ads to be displayed through the free Wi-Fi channel directly to the user’s mobile device. This personalised experience is a no-brainer in earning a loyal customer following.

Be it a sprawling commercial venue or even a small to mid-level business do not hesitate to make the switch to digital with free Wi-Fi technology, because with something as simple as free Wi-Fi you can establish a quick cost efficient way of impressing prospects while providing a first class customer experience that is critical to any businesses success!