What do the Yellow Pages, a coffee shop and a networking event all have in common?

The answer might surprise you...but it's the Internet.

Before the Internet, that's how people found out about services, met new people and made business contacts.

The Internet made it more convenient, provided more access and did it at a scale never seen before.

This is how each of these manifested into a service on the Internet:

Yellow Pages - Google

Coffee shop - Facebook

Networking event - LinkedIn

It’s important to realize that people have a particular mindset when they are on those platforms.

I'll first start with Google.

GOOGLE

Google is the largest search engine on the planet. People use Google to research and find information on a topic such a service or product.

There are over 3.5 billion searches every single day and 1.2 trillion searches per year all over the world.

This is what we call intent marketing. You want to advertise on Google if people are actively seeking out a product or service.

Google is great for both B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer). You bid on different types of keywords that people use when they searching for something.

While Google Ads is based on an auction, the business with the highest bid doesn’t always get the first advertising spot.

Google has a Quality Score which is determined by different factors such as click-through rate (CTR), landing page experience and quality, relevance of the ad, relevance of the keyword in the ad group, etc.

With Google Ads you want to reverse-engineer what terms people would use when they are looking for your product or service so you can get their attention.

Up next is Facebook.

FACEBOOK

Facebook is the largest social network and people use it mainly to connect with friends, have fun and enjoy some entertainment.

There are over 2 billion monthly active users with 1.49 billion using it daily.

People aren’t looking for any product or service in particular when they use Facebook. The type of marketing you do on Facebook is called interruptive marketing.

You want to advertise on Facebook for products or services that most people aren’t actively seeking out. The power behind this type of advertising is the targeting that Facebook offers.

Facebook Ads is excellent at B2C. You can target people using a number of different interests and demographics. This allows you to get your product or service in front of people who you think would be a good fit.

The last platform I'll bring up is LinkedIn.

LINKEDIN

LinkedIn is the largest network of professionals on the planet with over 600 million members! According to LinkedIn, there are 180 million senior-level influencers, 63 million decision makers and 10 million C-level executives.

People use it mainly to connect with other professionals, learn about their industry and share their knowledge or expertise.

There are quite a few similarities in how people use LinkedIn as they do Facebook. The type of marketing on LinkedIn is interruptive.

You want to advertise on LinkedIn for products or services that professionals aren’t looking out for specifically. That can be a number of things.

LinkedIn Ads is fantastic at B2B. Like Facebook, LinkedIn offers a multitude of targeting options for advertising to professionals.

The difference is most people fill out their LinkedIn profile to show where they work, what their job is, how long they’ve been there and the industry they’re in. That can’t be said for most Facebook users.

You can target your ideal customer based upon job title, company name, industry or interests. This can get you in front of the right people who can make a decision to buy what you are offering.

LinkedIn Ads will be a game changer for B2B businesses as it continues to grow and become more advanced.

Lastly, I'll talk about re-marketing.

RE-MARKETING

I want to add that the power of multi-channel marketing is when you use the platforms above to re-market to people who already engaged with you and expressed an interest in your product or service.

Whether it’s they’ve visited your website, watched a video, or downloaded an eBook, re-marketing is the key to moving a person through the buyers journey from a prospect to a customer to an evangelist.

It’s important to re-market to people because not everyone will buy from you right away. It often takes multiple touch points to nurture someone.

So it’s good to use different platforms to create advertisements to get that person to take the desired action you’re looking for them to take.

We will see that companies that use multi-channel marketing acquire more customers, increase profitability and generate more brand awareness than those that don’t.

Next time you advertise ask yourself:

• What is the mindset of my ideal customer?
• Where do they like to spend their time?

I’d like to hear about your experience...

How do you use Google, Facebook or LinkedIn to get new customers?

Do you use re-marketing in your business?