The $10,000 Marketing Mistake: Don’t Forget Your Medium/Platform!

Please note, I will cover a hypothetical example in this text to explain the concept regarding the importance of Medium in your brand strategy.

It is important to understand the medium that we use to push out our marketing message because if we do not identify the correct platform and its conversation style that means we will be sending all our efforts into a void.

Now, why is that? Well let’s try to understand this with an example, let us consider an Automotive Service business, since we have to focus on our niche to increase the clarity of our messaging, we will specifically choose businesses that provide service for Electric Vehicles.

Now that we have our niche “Automotive Business that serves the Electric Vehicle Industry”, we need to consider these two scenarios.

Scenario 1 –

A hypothetical brand called “Power X” lays out a marketing plan, they are all done with their Ad Designs, copywriting, and their Ideal Customer Persona who they want to serve, but they have left out Medium. Do you think their Marketing Strategy will bring results? Well…. There is a small chance it does if luck is on their side, but it’s a big risk and in business, we always want to minimize risk. Alright, let’s continue and see what happens.

Well, they go out and start spending almost about $10,000 on different platforms and they find that their strategy doesn’t seem to be working, their Ideal Persona isn’t interacting with their messaging and they are not getting enough information that could help them adjust their strategy. Let us analyze why that is.

We have to consider each platform that we use as a Tribe, and each tribe has its own preferred way of communication and preferred way of communication style. If a person goes to Tribe A and speaks the language of Tribe B, there will be a clear disconnect as they won’t be able to understand what that person is communicating to them it will be like a random person has entered their territory without permission and they will not find that presence acceptable.

Now let’s take a look at Scenario 2.

Scenario 2 –

Now let’s consider another hypothetical brand called “Moto EV”, Moto EV does everything Power X did for their marketing strategy, however, they research their Medium as well, what advantage do they now have….?

They understand the language of that Tribe, they can blend in and connect with them in a manner that feels personal to them. They will not be ignored but rather other people will be curious about who they are and what they do, their marketing messaging aka words they speak will make sense and provide value to the Tribe they communicate with, not only that they will know how to enter that Tribe’s territory the proper way so they don’t alarm and introduce fear in others but rather approach this random person with curiosity.

A person who enters with permission in an approachable manner will have a much higher chance of convincing the Tribe to listen and consider their offer, there is a great book called Permission Marketing by Seth Godin that covers this concept more in-depth.

Now that we have taken a look at both these scenarios, who do you think out of Power X and Moto EV will succeed in building a long-term healthy relationship with their customers? In my opinion, the answer is clear and the winner is Moto EV.

So, before you start making Ad Designs and Copywriting for your Marketing Strategy, figure out your Medium and how to talk to them, this way your strategy would work more favorably and predictably according to your expectations as you would have reduced the initial friction already. This is why even in today’s digital world, personal connections with the right people can help you get business easier rather than un-personalized outreach like Power X.

Key Takeaways –

Once you know your medium, you can blend in with your designs in a unique way that is enough to make you stand out but be non-intrusive and speak the words smoothly so you don’t raise alarms and can convey the information you wanted in a professional manner.

Make sure you research these three things before going forward with your strategy:

1. Your customer’s preferred communication platform, for your product/service.
2. Their communication style/lingo that is being used on that platform and within that niche.
3. The visuals which are seen as attractive in that niche.

If you haven’t already researched Brand Strategy, I would highly recommend you to do that, because that helps you find clarity and produce actionable steps for all your strategies and how you can grow your brand by communicating on the right medium, with the right visuals and provide an experience your tribe will love.

You can read more about Brand Strategy here. I will be sharing more on how to identify the correct platform for your Marketing Efforts depending on different factors, so make sure you are connected with me on LinkedIn to stay updated.