Finding the right platform mix to maximise market reach: 5 things you should know

By David Graham on 16 February, 2016

Experienced digital marketers who have used social media marketing, email marketing and employee advocacy platforms know the pros and cons of each environment. They understand what works well and what doesn’t and how one environment’s shortcoming can be countered by another to maximise the benefits from their digital marketing efforts. In this context, I have provided five reasons how the above-mentioned platforms complement one another.

1. Your target clients’ preferences

You can have the best marketing plan in history and share the best content but you cannot force your target clients to use specific platforms. There are individuals who love Twitter but steer clear of LinkedIn and vice versa. There are those who are not interested in subscribing to your email newsletter, however they are more than happy to receive content from a known person through your employee advocacy platform. Find out where most of your clients and prospects are and engage and interact with them accordingly.

2. Who owns your content?

Imaging this scenario. A company decides to only use LinkedIn. Their thought leaders connect with clients and prospects and publish blog posts from the LinkedIn publishing platform on a regular basis. Overnight, the LinkedIn share price plunges, the company closes its doors, together with your staff member’s networks and your company’s collective thought leadership. It is best to keep all your content on your company website and/or blog.

3. Nurturing prospects

Social media platforms are great to make connections and get followers, share content and convert communities. They are not, however, good at enabling you to share and interact with targetted audiences in a private, personal manner. If you are attempting to nurture a few thousand prospects in a personalised manner, you have to do this individually on social media (direct messages on Twitter and messages on LinkedIn). An opted-in email channel, with categorised subscribers which can be filtered, can manage this easily.

4. Democratising to staff members

There are numerous case studies that bear testament to the fact that a well implemented and managed employee advocacy platform is highly beneficial for business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies. 1000 staff members each with an average of 100 social media connections represents a potential reach of 100 000 people. Daily posts on an employee advocacy platform results in millions of social media shares, likes, comments and impressions and results in increased brand awareness, offline engagement and revenue.

5. Open rates and social media feeds

All marketers know that irrespective of the channel used, only a percentage of your email subscribers, social media connections and staff member’s individual contacts will view your content. There are many factors that affect this. Even though an email reached an inbox, it does not mean it will be read. Global email open rates are around 24%. Social media followers and connections do not monitor their social media feeds on a continual basis either. A mix of your corporate social media posts, personalised email and shares by staff members with their personal networks will ensure maximum exposure of your company’s thought leadership.

Do you have anything to add? Do you have any comments? I welcome your feedback.

David Graham’s passion is business-to-business digital marketing with a specific focus on value networking and inbound marketing. He consults on business-to-business digital marketing strategy and execution, with an emphasis on building sales pipelines and generating new prospects More

Finding the right platform mix to maximise market reach: 5 things you should know