How do you test and experiment with new or emerging marketing channels?

Since the internet became a household item, marketers have been exploring new marketing channels. For a time that was email, social media, & analytics. Even though those channels are more standardized and used by most companies, the rate of change means emerging channels just keep coming. Marketers are still learning the best way to leverage apps and notifications. AI is being discussed in practically every marketing circle as companies figure out how it will impact their content and websites. Tik-tok has a comparatively low adoption rate amongst marketers because it's relatively new. As long as new products or communication tools are coming onto the scene, marketers will do everything they can to leverage them for marketing purposes.

This is a good reason to stay up-to-date on all things social media trending topics. Those who read a lot, and consume content consistently, will recognize trends and new opportunities! When something new is introduced on the market, you can do several things: 1. Be first in line and test it all. You win some, and lose a lot! ;) 2. Join the channel but claim the handle only. Wait for your peers to test it. 3. Do nothing until it's been proven to be a hit. Then join and well, be in the back of the line. A social media professional should be curious about new emerging channels and should want to go try new tools and platforms when they are introduced. Case in point: Treads! Go play... and experiment!

Ironically AI is a huge area of development with near endless application. Businesses will embrace this new technology and as things get more refined, more businesses that are exclusively based on AI will flourish and create a whole new wave of jobs for the upkeep and maintenance from day to day.

From my experience, video has taken over content consumption from entertainment purposes through to educational knowledge retention. As attention spans continue to decline, the average person wants information here and now. No more time to read, simply watch a video and the information is visually delivered with precise accuracy as algorithms present more relevant search results as time goes by. There are plans I believe that TikTok wants to become a search engine which could present an interesting challenge to the "big tech" firms. Any platforms that embrace both video and AI will dominate the landscape moving forward.

Two words: underpriced attention. New and emerging marketing channels (social networks, blog niches, "text me" campaigns, etc) are coming and going all the time. Early on, it's tough to know which will stick around for the long run, and which won't. Assuming you can get an early foot in the door, you'll almost certainly earn outsized attention from your activity (organic or paid). I think about the early days of Twitter, TikTok, even Google Ads...the early adopters won big time because of their ability to wrangle underpriced attention to their advantage. Need a proof point? Love him or not, GaryVee is who GaryVee is because of this very concept. Find underpriced attention, and exploit it for all they're worth.

Trial and error is the classic method to identify progress and opportunity. Without testing different channels, you will never know what is the most effective at reaching your audience. By trialling different platforms you will gain access to rich data-sets that covers a wider audience which will help you analyse and forecast an ROI if investment is needed to support certain marketing efforts.

Eventually your old marketing channels become noise to your audience. Just think about email - initially it was a fantastic way to promote your business or service. Certainly it is still a massive revenue driver, but it is also filled with "noise" because of so many emails coming from so many vendors. Think about how Google created a "promotions" tab so your personal emails were split out from sales related emails. If you're not testing new channels, you're at risk of being impacted by "channel fatigue". If a channel changes you will almost certainly regret not having some other options to leverage.

One approach I take is to set aside part of my annual marketing budget with the intention of testing new things. I set aside 10-15% of my annual program spend and keep it in my back pocket for when a new idea or technology pops up. Then I'm not scrambling to find money if a new opportunity emerges. It also means that I can share with my executive counterparts that I'm testing and trying new things. I've found this is a powerful way to instill confidence and help them see that I'm being aggressive as a marketer.

Make sure when you begin to scale up the new channels you tested that the performance results don't start to drop off as you invest more time and money into them. Often new channels may have a smaller user base compared to more established channels/platforms and if you try to scale too quickly you could find that your frequency (number of times reaching an individual) may start to climb too high, or that quality of the targeting starts to erode (if there are not enough people falling within your ideal target market) negatively impacting your outcomes.

You need to monitor and measure your key metrics and see how aligned it is with your goals area. You also need to keep updating your goals at timely intervals and plan your channels accordingly. There are various ways you can analyse your channel but doing it constantly is what makes the difference.