Affiliate Tips: How to Pick Your Ideal Marketing Channel
For solo-preneurs who operate their own digital platforms, it can be tough to figure out which marketing channel to focus their energy on the most. The excitement of getting business off the ground is certainly exciting, but with so many opportunistic marketing channels to choose from, which one is the most ideal for you?
Let’s first explore all the overlapping marketing channel options.
- Sales: Sales is talking specifically about lead generation.
- Online: Online marketing covers websites.
- Offline: Offline marketing covers in-person stores and events.
- Brand: Brand advertisement can happen online or offline.
All of these components are critical in building a sustainable platform, but the overlapping nature of these marketing channels can make it incredibly hard to organize an ideal marketing plan. They are all interconnected; each one contributing to the next. Here are some examples of how they are all essentially cross-channels.
Lead Generation (Sales) can either be Online or Offline. If online, lead generators would focus on:
- SEO
- Website optimization
- Content marketing
- Email marketing
- Web ads
- Retargeting
- Webinars
- Podcasts
- Social Media marketing
- Mobile optimization
If offline, lead generators would focus on:
- Direct mail
- Catalogues
- Magazines
- Events
- Point of sale
- Call centers
- TV
- Radio
- Sponsorship
Websites (Online) encompasses lead generation and Brand advertisements. If focused on brand advertising, webmasters would practice:
- SEO
- Display advertisements
- Viral content
- Video content
- Native content
- PR
- Mobile optimization
- Social presence
If webmasters are focused on lead gen, it would encompassed everything we mentioned in the very first point.
These are only two of the multiple ways these four platforms intersect and overlap. So, with all of the possibilities at hand, which marketing channel should you focus on first as an affiliate?
It turns out that the answer doesn’t rely so much on who you are as much as it relies on where your audience resides. This means that you would need to research your targeted audience demographic. Find out if they are mostly male or female, educated or uneducated, low income or high income, and any other important details you should consider. Some important questions to ask during this research process is:
- Who are my competitors attracting?
- What do historical trends show?
- What type of life circumstances would they be in to need my services?
Once you figure out your exact target audience (and we’re talking about details such as sex, ethnicity, age, employment statuses, and even likes and dislikes), research the main audience pools in each of these marketing platforms:
- Social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat)
- Blogs (Tumblr, TypePad, Blogger, WordPress)
- Content sites (Youtube, Livestream, SlideShare, MetaCafe)
- Search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, AOL, Ask)
- Events (LeadsCon, CFSA, Affiliate Summit)
Once you find the platforms that attract the most appropriate audiences for your service, don’t hold back from giving it your all. The best marketing channels are the ones your customers are using. Get on those platforms and round up more traffic for your website than you ever thought possible!
If you haven’t signed up with Zero Parallel yet, register to be an Affiliate with us today!
