Channel Diversification in Online Marketing

Putting all your eggs in one basket means you either get very lucky or lose a whole lot of money very quickly. The same applies to online marketing. Using only one channel does allow you to focus all your attention on it, but it also carries significant risks. If a problem occurs on that channel, your entire outbound marketing can be gone in no time. So if you rely exclusively on it for customer acquisition, you can quickly find yourself in trouble.

That is exactly why it makes sense to broaden your marketing strategy through channel diversification. In addition to reducing risk in the event of outages, there are other benefits, such as:

• Greater reach - certain target groups prefer certain channels. Diversification makes it possible to reach more users, and therefore more potential new customers.

• Higher brand awareness - A consistent message across multiple channels strengthens brand identity and increases visibility.

• More data-driven insights - Different channels each provide a unique view of the data, enabling additional insights that help support more informed decisions.

• Better customer engagement - Interacting with users across multiple channels can create more personal interactions and thus a stronger connection to the company.

• Potentially higher ROI - Data-driven decisions across multiple channels often also increase the efficiency of online marketing efforts and thus lead to higher returns.

Choosing the Right Channels

Which channel we should consider for diversification usually depends on the goal we want to achieve with it. Where do we see the greatest potential, the best chance to position ourselves as a brand, or perhaps even so-called “low-hanging fruit”? Are there channels where there are hardly any competitors active yet?

One way to select the most suitable channels is to follow the classic marketing funnel - depending on which stage the target audience is in and which conversion actions we want to promote most strongly.

It is also advisable to regularly check whether the current target group definition is still accurate or needs to be adjusted. Requirements, needs, and search behavior can change over time. This allows us to observe a potential shift in the target audience and respond accordingly. In some cases, the target audience defined in advance also differs from the actual audience we reach and that converts with us.

What the ideal customer looks like is determined by various factors, such as:

• Demographic data (age, gender, location, family status ...)

• Interests

• Purchasing behavior/purchasing power

• Lifestyle

• ...

Here, the goal is to discover additional potential and expand existing opportunities. There may also be niche target groups that are highly relevant to us. The advantage: competition is usually lower, which can lead to lower customer acquisition costs. If we identify the target groups' pain points, we can also tailor the messaging of campaigns and creatives precisely to them. In many cases, this creates more relevance, higher engagement, and ideally a better ROI.

Following the Rules

As we can see, channel diversification is extremely important in marketing. However, we should keep two rules in mind:

1. Channel diversification should always be well thought out and not done just for the sake of it. Anyone who expands immediately to several different platforms risks becoming overwhelmed and not doing justice to the nuances of each channel. That, in turn, can quickly lead to undesired results, causing channels to be shut down again before their full potential has been realized.

2. It is also important to allow a channel enough time. In very few cases does the first attempt work perfectly, and adjustments and optimizations along the way are essential. Only after we have gone through several optimization cycles and collected enough data can we fairly assess the channel's performance and make sensible decisions.

Of course, channel diversification also requires a certain investment. As mentioned above, many factors determine how many and which channels are suitable for diversification. In addition, these vary significantly from company to company and should therefore be carefully reviewed and considered in advance. If, however, we approach it the right way, it can pay off many times over.

Thank you for your attention! Hopefully this was insightful, and you were able to take something useful away from it! In the third part of our mini-series, we will take a closer look at contextual advertising. You can find our previous post on business goals here.

Did we forget anything important, or do you still have questions about the topic? Then feel free to write them in the comments!

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