Modern day marketing plans if viewed from above would look like the street map of a highly-populated city. Here is your organization at point A, trying to get to point B, which set of directions is going to best get you there?
Lets start by breaking down the different options involved here as simply as possible:
- Interstates: These are your traditional advertising mediums if you’re B2C; print, television and web. If you’re B2B it is print, web and trade shows. Pros: You can definitely go faster here, straight-shot, well traveled. Cons: tolls can add up, greater damage from collision.
- Side streets: This is the realm of social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, WordPress, Tumblr and on and on and on and on!) Pros: avoid tolls, great for traveling locally. Cons: many different routes, traffic
- Back-roads and alleys: This is your guerrilla marketing. Pros: shortcuts, seeing new things. Cons: can be dangerous.
Some people take the approach of all side streets and back roads, hoping their underground image can blow up into success. Others, disregard the other routes and stick solely to interstates.
Here are my thoughts. Without interstates, you’ll need to be a great navigator. And even if you are, what will happen when you don’t want to drive? With only interstates, you can become too relaxed. Also, is you’re destination going to be on the interstate? Only if you view your target audience as the rest stop.
This is about as over-simplified as it gets, but I will tell you that the best directions you receive will be the perfect combination of these different options. Unfortunately that fancy app. that gives you the perfect directions, hasn’t arrived, and you’ll still have to map it out yourself. Take comfort in the fact that you are not the only one driving down some of these roads for the first time. Just make sure you keep your vehicle healthy and don’t break down on the side of the road.
Author: Chase Howells
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