Internet Marketing: How to Choose the Most Suitable Marketing Channel for Your Brand

Some time ago, I encountered something very interesting while doing corporate online marketing . I was very busy before and didn’t have time to write it down.

Here's what happened: One of my clients is in the wedding photography business. The wedding photography industry has been around since the search engine era, with SEO and SEM promotions being done on search engines like Baidu. When you search for keywords related to wedding photography, you'll find a large number of wedding photography agencies that do Baidu paid rankings and natural search optimization. When Weibo was popular, wedding photography companies used fan links , Weibo events, Weibo topics, etc. to gain fans on Weibo. With the popularity of WeChat Moments advertising , you'll also see wedding photography ads when you scroll through your Moments . It's a mature industry that relies on online promotion.

My strategy is to use high-quality channels such as news and forums on the PC side, combined with the company's official website SEO to occupy an advantageous position in search engines to acquire potential consumers. On the mobile side, I will build a corporate brand promotion platform on Weibo and WeChat , and use fan activities, events and content operations to attract fans, build brand influence and ultimately facilitate transactions. The execution effect is good, but it is not the main point and will not be described in detail.

Later, when communicating with the client, the client gave us feedback about a competitor's channel. The exposure, conversion , and input-output ratio had reached astonishing levels. Let me tell you about it.

New, brand new, and novel have amazing appeal to consumers, and even just adding these words to the packaging will make the product exude charming charm, such as new packaging, new formula, and new upgrade. What can generate greater appeal is new technology, the PC era and the mobile Internet era brought about by technological changes. The entire marketing environment has undergone earth-shaking changes with the technological upgrade. The current online marketing and precision marketing are all based on this.

However, this kind of technological change may only occur once every few decades. I think companies and marketers should pay most attention to new channels. What the client told me in the previous article was this new channel: Douyin , or the short video platform represented by Douyin. Currently, a large amount of wedding photography promotional information can be seen on Douyin, which also proves that this channel is effective. Most of the marketing methods are for companies to open Douyin accounts, use celebrities for promotion and Douyin official advertisements.

In marketing, every industry will have the most suitable channel, and every product may have the most suitable channel. For start-ups or new products, the most important task in the early stages of marketing is to find the communication channel that best suits their business.

So how to choose channels? Below I will use Douyin as an example to explain in detail the logic of choosing marketing channels.

1. Channel attributes

Each channel has its own unique attributes, even if some channels exist for the purpose of publicity, such as the common outdoor billboards, which have built-in LBS attributes; building elevator advertisements, which are confined and narrow spaces; native information flow advertisements , which provide people with an immersive reading experience; no matter what kind of channel it is, there will always be innate channel attributes, and these attributes are what we must first consider when choosing a channel. Generally, I divide channel attributes into two dimensions: channel information carrier and channel immersion capability.

Channel information carriers are the forms of content expression used by channels to transmit information, generally text, pictures, videos, sounds, etc. Generally speaking, videos contain the largest amount of information, pictures and sounds are the easiest to understand, and text gives people the most imagination and blank space, which is the most free in terms of people's feelings; channel immersion capacity refers to the ability of the channel to bring people into the channel. The deeper the degree of immersion, the higher the advertising reach, the less likely consumers are to be disturbed by the external environment, and the easier it is for them to be reached by advertising information mixed in the channel.

In the figure below, I list the dimensional analysis of common channels.

In the case of Douyin, the channel information carrier is video, and this display effect has a stronger visual impact than text, pictures, and graphics. If it is just a video display, then outdoor videos and building video advertisements are of this type. Another dimensional attribute of Douyin is that its channel immersion ability is very strong. Users jokingly say that ten minutes on Douyin is like two hours in the real world.

For many channels, such as outdoor advertising, consumers have defined them as advertising spaces , so most people choose to ignore them or even avoid them intentionally. There is a huge difference in channel immersion ability compared to Douyin, so the difference in advertising reach will also be very large.

Based on the channel attributes, we can roughly figure out what kind of industry or product is suitable for Douyin:

• First of all, the video must be impactful. The video effect can be shocking, fun, interesting, warm, etc.
• Secondly, the videos being disseminated can be integrated into the tone and atmosphere of the platform’s videos, making good use of user immersion during dissemination rather than making users feel abrupt or distracted when watching them.

Industries that are currently using Tik Tok for communication include: wedding photography (wedding photography pursues blockbuster-level visual effects, and love is a common emotional bond among humans that can attract resonance), mobile games (epic picture quality, shocking actions, and displaying them through pictures and texts is weaker than videos), travel (I used to want to go just by looking at pictures, but now I want to go even more after watching videos), and home improvement (in the past few years, the home improvement industry invested a lot of money in mobile phone 3D experience rooms, but the sliding experience is poor, and the effect is not as good as directly displaying it with effect videos).

Based on the attributes of the channel, the automotive industry strives for excellence in video promotional films, and most communications also choose video as the carrier. It seems to be a good match, but it is rarely seen on Douyin. We will analyze why below.

What needs to be emphasized is that in channel selection, there is no difference in the advantages of channel information carriers. The selection should be made mainly based on the target object we want to convey. If we want to spread the rhythm and auditory effects of the brand, the first choice of carrier must be sound. If we want to show the impact of the brand, the first carrier must be video.

2. Channel Core User Group

Without users, there will be no channels. Users are the foundation of channels. Channels, like a company’s products, have their own user base, the most important of which are core users. If you want to promote on a certain channel, after understanding the attributes of the channel, the most important thing is to understand the core user group of the channel. This is related to whether the brand can be accepted during communication and what kind of expression can be used to influence these users.

Let’s take Tik Tok as an example. Tik Tok belongs to the short video industry. According to iMedia Research data:

The scale of mobile short video users is expanding rapidly, and is expected to reach 353 million in 2018.

Analysys data shows:

Female users account for 61.6% of short video comprehensive platform users, which is much higher than the 38.4% of male users. Users are generally young, with 70% of users under the age of 35. In terms of geographical distribution, users are widely distributed, with 78.73% of users mainly distributed in first-, second- and third-tier cities.

From the above we can extract several key points: young age, high proportion of female users , wide geographical coverage, urban areas, and large population base.

Douyin is a music-based creative short video social software incubated internally by Toutiao , targeting young people in China's first- and second-tier cities. More than 85% of its users are under 24 years old, with a higher prevalence of female users. They are relatively well educated and concentrated in first- and second-tier cities. Its coverage is narrow and its market scope is relatively small. Its users are in a period of rapid growth and their usage habits are unstable.

We can also extract several key points from the above: young people, highly educated people, first- and second-tier cities, and more female users.

Of course, in actual business operations, we need to find more data to support it. From the data we have sorted out from the Internet, we can make a simple sketch of the Douyin user group: white-collar workers living in big cities, mainly women, who watch fun and interesting videos to kill time after meals or before going to bed, and share interesting ones with friends.

From the above core user analysis, there may be reasons why the automotive industry does not appear much on Douyin:

• First, the automotive industry has attracted more attention from men and less attention from women, and a large proportion of Douyin users are women;
• Secondly, the age group is relatively young and their purchasing power is temporarily insufficient.

Of course, brand communication will sometimes take into account future dimensions and will not be stopped simply because of insufficient current consumption capacity. After all, young people have greater consumption potential. There is no data support here, so no further discussion will be made. For the wedding photography industry, the core user group is a perfect match: wedding photography generally has women as decision makers, and Douyin's core user group is mainly women, and the young generation is in the dating or marriage period; the region is in first- and second-tier cities, which have certain quality requirements for wedding photography and corresponding consumption capabilities; the first demand of wedding photography consumers is the visual experience of the photos, and Douyin's channel carrier is video, which can meet this visual requirement well.

The same applies to industries such as home furnishing and tourism, where the core user matching degree is relatively high.

There is also a reverse deduction method, which is more suitable for vertical or niche channels. The operation is relatively simple. Based on the user groups of the channel, you can directly deduce the industries and products that are suitable for promotion on the channel. For example, in mother and baby forums, the vast majority of users of such forums are expectant mothers or young mothers. The companies and products that are suitable for dissemination through this channel are basically closely related to childcare products such as milk powder, nutritional supplements, and toys, as well as women's products such as cosmetics and household items.

3. User Perception of Channels

The worse a product's reputation is, the fewer users it will have, and as substitutes emerge, the product will slowly die out. Channels are slightly different from products in this respect. Even if many channels have a slightly worse reputation, such as the common psoriasis advertisements, they still stand firm. The most important reason is that such channels are indeed effective.

The importance of effect to channels is like that of users to products. The main reason why effects still exist despite poor reputation is currently the most widely recognized explanation from human cognitive psychology: the single-tone contact effect. As long as a product gets enough exposure and is remembered, people will consider it when making a choice. The more times it appears, the more people prefer it, especially products with a lower decision-making degree (this is also one of the reasons why household brands still have to advertise continuously).

Product exposure is sometimes more important than reputation. Some companies or celebrities will use controversies or even scandals to increase exposure, such as "If you are a brother, come and chop me up" (you can find some clever marketing cases on the Internet, but the risks are high).

For enterprises, especially those that want to establish brand influence, user perception of channels is very important. This can be seen from the brand advertising channels of luxury goods. Luxury goods will strictly control the channels of brand exposure. We cannot see luxury goods advertisements on a large part of the promotional channels where user perception is of lower level.

For most companies, they need to pursue consistency between the brand user tone and the channel user perception tone. The table below is a simple brand positioning and channel matching table. In fact, the brand’s user perception in the channel will consider more factors such as public image, emotion, unique tone, etc.

Let’s take Tik Tok as an example. Because it is positioned as a creative music short video, Tik Tok will give people a young and trendy tone. At this time, when the brand chooses to promote, if it is too different from the brand tone, it will appear very abrupt. For example, if you promote health products for the elderly on Tik Tok and then have an old expert come forward to share his experience.

There is one thing that needs to be explained here: if the users you want to influence are only a small part of the brand's users, you can directly consider the effective channels that these users are most frequently exposed to. For example, many top Internet companies choose to paint walls in rural areas. This is actually a very effective channel for the group of farmers you want to reach.

4. Channel-Product Fit

I have previously written about product marketing and marketing productization ("How to deeply integrate products and marketing? Product marketing and marketing productization"), which talks about how future products will be marketed through their own marketing designs (interested friends can check it out). Currently, more often than not, corporate publicity must be attached to channels.

We have preliminarily finalized a channel through the above channel attributes, channel core user groups, and channel user perception. If we get the first three steps right, we have chosen the right channel. If we follow the steps to carry out creative planning and advertising , there will be certain results. However, there is still some distance to go before we can do a good job. To do a good job of communication, choosing the right channel is the first step. Communication mainly relies on two forces: one is the channel, and the other is the user.

Only by leveraging the power of channels and leveraging users to spread the word can we achieve the best communication effect and establish a brand effect.

After choosing the right channel, in order to better leverage the power of the channel, we also need to think about the most appropriate channel-product combination. The most important thing is to choose the right channel-product fit point, which determines the creative form of communication. This topic is rather vague to discuss, so let’s take an example from TikTok (for discussion only).

I have seen an advertisement for Daily Fresh on TikTok, and one of the screenshots is as follows:

The copy of this advertisement is very good: colleagues shop here every day (taking advantage of people’s herd mentality, and choosing colleagues, acquaintances have higher trust), 30 off for purchases of 59 on all items (discount information, the price factor will be attractive no matter where it is placed, especially for attracting new users on the platform), and delivery to home within 1 hour (logistics guarantee, eliminating user worries). The copy has listed the core advantages of the product, and repeatedly emphasized the cost-effectiveness and quality in the video. The brand is also displayed in the upper left corner and in the video title , all pretty good.

But I don't know what the considerations were, maybe to make the character more approachable, so they used ordinary people to play the roles. But unfortunately, this is on TikTok. Its algorithm combines core factors such as like rate, comment rate, forwarding rate, and video viewing completeness to decide whether to recommend a video to more people. This makes the strong stronger, and fun, interesting and exciting videos will be seen by more and more users.

So what everyone sees are either beautiful girls and handsome guys, cute pets, beautiful scenery, or unexpected twists and turns, which are things you don’t usually see. When a few ads of MissFresh came out, I felt like I couldn’t watch them at all. I stood out from the crowd, but out of professional habit as a marketer, I forced myself to finish watching them.

I think this is because the channel-product fit is not found correctly. If this information is pushed in an APP with a life news information flow , people will not find it strange. However, on a platform like Douyin, it would be better to change the protagonist or the script.

5. Channel Sharing Path

Through the power of channels, we can maximize the user reach of advertising. The next step is to leverage the power of users to achieve multiple-level amplification of communication. User forwarding and sharing are important components of many marketing activities and are very common in Internet communication.

When we design and create advertisements, we will add many incentives to stimulate sharing or forwarding, such as forwarding discounts, unexpected plot twists, users' self-expression, helping others, triggering emotional resonance, etc. This article will not go into details. When choosing a channel, you must study the scenarios in which users see the content in the channel and choose to share it: Is there a ready-made sharing path in the channel? Is this path simple and natural for users to use? Do users get hints to share? What obstacles will there be in the sharing process?

In traditional newspaper or magazine advertising, the communication chain ends after reaching the user. Only a very small number of users may share the advertisements they saw in newspapers or magazines. Because there is no sharing path, it will be very troublesome for users to share. Among the Internet advertising channels, some also belong to channels without sharing paths, such as search engine SEM, DSP , website full-width ads, etc.

On TikTok, we can see that advertisements have sharing channels. Users can share advertisements just like they share other fun and interesting videos. Of course, this places higher demands on the advertisements themselves. On TikTok, the power of users can be maximized for dissemination.

We have seen a lot of H5s that go viral on WeChat channels. To a large extent, this is because WeChat provides a very convenient sharing path within the channel, and various public account articles, H5s, and mini-programs have been guiding users to become familiar with this sharing path for a long time. Therefore, in the WeChat ecosystem , there are often successful marketing cases that use the power of users to complete dissemination.

This article ends here. A big difference between online marketing and traditional marketing is that more marketing data (impressions, clicks, conversions, jumps, etc.) can be fed back, which gives us the possibility of continuous testing and optimization. Therefore, we must constantly monitor marketing data and make timely adjustments to achieve better communication. For marketing, there is no one-size-fits-all channel.

The author of this article is @銷楚. It is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

Product promotion services: APP promotion services, advertising platform, Longyou Games