Marketing channels are the specific conduits through which a company’s message can target and reach its customers and prospects.
It used to be that B2B software companies would develop their marketing strategy around buying advertisements in specific trade magazines or publications, creating a small budget for Google AdWords, and building a sufficient, if not fancy, website. Beyond that, most additional marketing channels were viewed as experimental or an unnecessary use of resources.
The problem with that approach is that a single channel strategy is far too simplistic for B2B technology companies, which tend to sell sophisticated products to very complex segments.
That’s why today, B2B marketing is multi-channel marketing. Growing businesses have a huge array of marketing channels at their disposal. From websites, billboards, and blogs, to print ads, brochures, and even skywriting, the options are seemingly limitless. Of course, unless you choose the right marketing channels — the ones that influence your customers most — you risk never truly engaging your audience in the right places.
Discovery Channel: A Guide to Identifying and Prioritizing Optimal Marketing Channels provides a high-level overview of a marketing channel selection process for expansion-stage companies. It is intended for senior executives and project managers who, after reading the eBook, will be able to make sense of the wide and complex range of marketing channels that help bring their message to their customers and pinpoint the ones that are most effective at engaging those customers. Those insights will allow your company to strike the right mix of marketing channels and optimize your marketing dollars so that they have maximum impact.
Other benefits of identifying and prioritizing marketing channels, include:
- Helping to develop finely tuned annual marketing plans
- Improving tracking and benchmarking
- Gaining insights into competitors’ marketing strategies
- Knowing who to hire for future needs
- Setting more realistic goals
As the eBook explains, it’s ultimately not a question of whether your B2B company should be incorporating multiple marketing channels to reach your customers effectively. Rather, the questions that need to be addressed are which channels provide your business the best opportunity for customer engagement and acquisition, and how many should you be using.