Here’s the latest on Marketing Home Products in a Segmented Marketplace
Balancing Social and Traditional Communications
Yes, social media is changing the way the world communicates, but that doesn’t mean that every customer is using it. Despite the hype surrounding social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, we must not forget that traditional communication mediums play a vital role when marketing home products to our target audiences.
For today’s companies and home product marketers, it’s critical to strike a balance between social and traditional communications that is tailored to your specific brand. If your home products business is consumer focused, then social media channels may be a more popular way to reach out to your customers; if you’re operating in the b-2-b channel, communicating in trade publications and more “traditional” communications channels may be worth more of your time and effort. Your business model, industry and target audiences including their gender, age and race, will help you identify the best methods to reach them and influence their perception of your brand and/or their buying patterns.
It’s important for brands to implement a multi-faceted marketing approach that talks to customers when and where they look for information. Some brands claim that social media doesn’t work, but they’ve yet to invest any time and effort into making it a success. It can’t be a “build it and they will come” approach. Creating a Facebook page and Twitter account won’t do anything for your brand if you’re not participating in the conversation. Social media is about interaction and engagement and is only successful when effort is put into a transparent, two-way communications model.
The bottom line is that in today’s chaotic world, you need to balance your efforts between new (social media) and traditional communications. You can’t be talking to everyone, in every medium, and expect to do it well. Talk to those individuals who mean the most to your brand; and do so in the channels where they will hear you and join your conversation.
