Unleashing Business Growth: Why Your Business Needs a Diverse Marketing Approach

Recently, I read an article in a popular news outlet complaining about recent changes to the Google algorithm and how it affected their website and traffic going to their website. One thing is sure, changes to platform-specific marketing algorithms, and changes to how platforms work can have a massive impact on your business, but can you do something about it or not?

The old saying “Don’t place all your eggs in one basket” holds for marketing today. The age-old advice of diversifying your marketing channels remains crucial. Relying solely on one channel leaves you vulnerable to algorithm changes, potentially harming your marketing efforts. You would need to identify the changes, rectify your marketing efforts, and gradually rebuild your marketing strategy.

Having a diverse marketing strategy and growth plan prevents marketing drops

These changes are not new. Years ago, Google ads used to have a sidebar on the right side of the search page. These ads worked great. You could set up your ads to only display here, and they were, for the most part, cheaper as it is not the first thing you see when you go onto the page. Only after the first second, the eye navigated to these ads. Many businesses relied on this as their primary marketing strategy. But as the internet and technology grew, sidebar ads had to go. Most users started using phones instead of desktop or laptop computers, and these ads were no longer relevant. 

Even though they worked for many businesses, Google decided to drop this Feature, and many companies quickly had to adapt to the moving landscape. Businesses that only used this strategy had to scramble to get the same results and were forced to change their marketing strategy to something else. The effect of the change benefitted some companies greatly, and others were left behind.

So, the problem these companies had and that is still unfortunately the norm today for some businesses, is that they rely only on one thing to drive their marketing efforts. For small to medium businesses, these dips in marketing have a massive effect on sales as calls drop, enquiries drop, and feet in the door dry up.

Diversify for success:

When thinking about a marketing strategy having one channel to market on is not sufficient. A marketing strategy should cater for more than one channel. Should one of them fail then the other will be a cushion to lessen the blow. The internet and user behaviour constantly change, and platforms need to adapt to these to give their users the best results. As they change so should businesses. The same holds for Facebook ads, Instagram, Generic posting etc. Changes happen to these platforms regularly and we need to embrace this.

One thing that you do have control over is your website. You can keep your website up to date yourself and there won’t be any changes on there unless you make it yourself of course. One strategy is to point all other platforms to your website as the main marketing hub. Users should be educated, have a great experience and reach all the answers they need on it. If one marketing platform fails, then resources can just be allocated to another, and business can continue.

Keeping risk at bay:

Changing your approach to your business marketing and having more than one channel to pull in traffic, leads, and resources mitigates the risk of one failing and affecting your business sales. A diverse strategy could be something like the following. 

• Having a great website. 
• Running Google ads, 
• Facebook and Instagram Ads, 
• Writing blogs and posts on your website, 
• Email marketing, 
• Search engine optimisation, 
• Having a consistent social media schedule.

By diversifying resources, we ensure that should there be changes to algorithms, platform features or a complete shutdown of a system (like Google Plus). You are prepared and won’t lose momentum. 

Reaching your Audience.

With the above strategy in mind, this also leads to a broader audience reach. If you spend all your time and energy on one platform, you will miss out on people needing your products and services but are not on a particular platform.

Comments, we often hear from clients are. 

My Audience is only on LinkedIn.

None of my clients has Facebook. 

I don’t use Facebook for business, so my clients won’t either.

Only young people are on Instagram or TikTok.

There might be some truth to these comments, but by sticking to a single platform, we are missing out on crucial audience reach. Let’s for instance look at the statement, “My audience is only on one platform such as LinkedIn.” That might be true, and you will find your target market on it, but the opposite is true as well. 

Statistics show that most people are less likely to use LinkedIn and will maybe check in once a week, month, or every other month. Yes, some people use the platform daily, but most of these guys will be sitting in the evening relaxing and watching videos on YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram.

In South Africa, there are more than 30 million people who are on Facebook. That is two-thirds of the entire population. A platform as powerful as Facebook knows so many things about your target audience, don’t you think it’s time to embrace the change and use these Free platforms that everyone is using?

Remember that just because you know your online behaviour, that does not mean it is the same for your clients.

Enhance brand awareness:

This leads us to brand awareness and it ties in perfectly with the previous section. If your company is on more than one platform, and you utilise it correctly it is great for your brand. Make sure that your brand voice and image are the same across platforms. If you do this, it will create a much better image of who you are. What your company/business or startup stands for in turn will increase trust and familiarity with your brand.

If you check out your competitors, you will see that many of them are failing in this regard as they are not consistent or have forgotten about their old Facebook page that has either nothing on it or a post from 3 years ago reminding everyone to stay safe in the pandemic.

This a great opportunity to outmanoeuvre competitors with a great brand.

Partner with a marketing agency:

I hope these points help you understand that having a single channel to market your company is not ideal and could cause a problem down the line. Websites can crash, social media changes their algorithms, and Google changes where ads are displayed. All these things can happen, and you should be able to navigate them.

One of the best strategies to implement is a growth strategy that a marketing agency like ours can run for you. It should include all the above strategies, look at the platform best suited for your needs, target audience analysis, performance reviews of campaigns, website care plans etc.

Growth plans will help you navigate the stress and leave it in capable hands, you don’t have to worry about figuring it out on your own.

The marketing landscape is constantly changing, and businesses and entrepreneurs need to embrace the change.

Do not put all your marketing eggs in one basket. Partner with an agency that can help you embrace a changing landscape and prepare your business for sustainable success in a digital world.