Strategy first. Channels second.
Marketing is often expected to move quickly.
Channels are introduced and launched, activity begins, and progress is expected to follow within short timescales. What is asked less often and is oftentimes less clear is why any of it exists in the first place.
In this particular context, channels are simply the ways in which an organisation shows up in the market. From the outside, that looks like progress, and in many organisations it is treated as such.
They are visible, tangible, and relatively easy to put in place. A new website can easily be launched within weeks. A social media presence can be established in hours. Events can be booked in, and content can be produced.
Channels become synonymous with demonstrating movement and activity.
Something is happening. It can be pointed to, and the business, therefore, feels active.
Yet, if we pause for a moment, I believe we can all agree that the mere presence of a channel is not the same as the presence of direction.
Without a clear sense of what each channel is there to do and how they relate to one another, activity simply begins to accumulate without necessarily building anything.
Channels are easy...
Setting up a channel is rarely the difficult part.
It is rather straightforward to create a LinkedIn page. Easy enough to follow the latest trend, refresh a website, or click a button. In many cases, I would argue that they become a form of box-ticking.
And this is where the problem begins.
The organisation feels it should be present in certain places, so it is.
A channel exists because it is expected to exist. Not because there is a clear view of what it needs to deliver or what it is there to achieve. Channels, therefore, are not chosen with intention. They are adopted, and once embedded, tend to persist regardless of whether they are actually contributing to business growth in any meaningful way.
The question we should be asking ourselves then is not whether a channel can be used, rather, whether it should be.
Operating in isolation
When channels are introduced without a clear strategic role or as part of an overarching strategy, they tend to operate in isolation. There is no clear sense of how they support one another, how they are interconnected, or how they contribute to a shared objective. Social media activity, content production. You may see some results, but the effort put in rarely compounds over time.
Let’s take an event as a useful example here.
Many organisations invest time and budget into attending or exhibiting at events. There is energy in the moment with conversations and contacts made. Fantastic.
What about what happens around it?
There tends to be little build-up beforehand. Little use of other channels to create anticipation or awareness, and afterwards the follow-up is inconsistent (or shockingly non-existent). That event, therefore, sits as an isolated spike in activity and drain on budget, rather than something that feeds into broader systems.
The same pattern can be argued with distribution channels.
Partnerships are established around the world to extend reach and visibility, but are often left to operate without clear direction or support. There is this expectation that they will generate results simply by existing. In reality, without the right material, messaging, coordination and follow-through, they understandably struggle to represent the business effectively.
From activity to system
Over time, this leads to two things.
First, effort is diluted. Time and budget are spread across multiple channels without clear return, and with limited visibility of what is working. Which leads to the second. Marketing begins to be seen purely as a service function. Something that delivers outputs on request, rather than something that drives growth.
Strategy changes the role of the channel.
It forces a decision about what each one is there to do in the context of the business needs. Presence alone is no longer enough. Each channel needs a defined purpose.
From there, you can grow the questions on how the channels connect and work together. That is where marketing itself behaves differently. Not as a series of individual activities, but as an interconnected system. Each channel contributes in a specific and defined way. And importantly, each builds on the other.
This is not about effort, but rather intent.
A useful starting point is to ask a small number of more deliberate questions.
What is each channel actually there to achieve, beyond simply being present?
How do our channels connect, or are they operating in isolation?
Where are we mistaking activity for progress?
If we removed a channel tomorrow, would anything meaningfully change?
Strategy before channels
Building brand visibility through channels without a clear strategy is not unlike building a house or a bridge without a blueprint. Material is used and progress appears to be made, but without a clear design to follow, what is created lacks structure and stability.
Channels, on their own, do not create momentum.
They only begin to matter when they are guided by a clear sense of direction. It is the strategy around them that will allow the marketing ecosystem to develop and build into something more meaningful for the business.
The main takeaway from this is that the task is not to simply do “more”.
Rather, it is to be much more deliberate about what each elemental part is there to do, and how it contributes to the whole.
The Intuitive Marketing Coach is a weekly newsletter covering topics around marketing, leadership, and business growth to help foster a more intuitive, logical, and ethical marketing approach. Be sure to subscribe to receive future posts directly to your inbox, and share the publication to help others connect and join the community.
Interested in learning about a specific topic in a future newsletter? Get in touch.
Thanks for reading The Intuitive Marketing Coach! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
Did you enjoy this post? Share it with your network and spread the word.
Thanks for reading The Intuitive Marketing Coach! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.