KEY POINTS:
New research reveals consumers are spending more time than ever before engaging with a wider range of communications mediums. For businesses, this means spreading your marketing dollars across more than one or two communications channels is a more efficient way of communicating with customers.
The research, undertaken by market insight company Big Picture, found that with the influx of information on offer these days, there is a trend towards 'light touch' media consumption. Light touch is described as people consuming many types of media in short periods each day a contrast to the traditional tendency for consumers to be loyal to particular media. For example, reading a newspaper cover to cover everyday or watching the 6pm news on TV each night is no longer the norm.
This shift has come about through the arrival of new types of media and increasingly fragmented, busy lifestyles. Social networking, txting and emails have made consumption of information a short, sharp affair and consumers, constantly on the go, no longer have the time to digest large amounts of information at once.
So how can you reach this type of customer? For small to medium sized business, knowing where to best spend an often small marketing budget can be a challenge in itself. With the trend of light touch, the answer may lie with a tactic of 'small and many'. That's small, succinct pieces of information about your company, spread across many different channels.
Try a mixture of online and offline advertising, email or direct mail marketing and look for opportunities for third party endorsement through traditional public relations. That way you increase your chances of reaching your target audience wherever they are.
Consider placing your business in a number of online directories. This is a relatively inexpensive way to up the number of "touchpoints' for your business on the internet. The more places your business can be found, the better ranking you may get in online search engines as well.
Finally, it is important to make sure your website explains concisely what your company does and how it can help the customer.
Statistics show you only have around 8 seconds to grab their attention, so you want to make sure you're getting your message across before that potential customer looks elsewhere.