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Hi everyone. And welcome back to Less Chatter, More Matter the podcast with all the info and none of the waffle. Thanks for tuning in again today. It is a delight to have you listening in. Today's episode is all about channels specifically, how do you choose the right channels for your internal and external comms mix? Now, for those of you who subscribed to my free 12 month comms tool kit, this month, you will have received a channels governance matrix template so this episode is going to be particularly handy for you. If you don't [00:02:00] subscribe already head over to heymelcomms.training/freebies and click on the link for the toolkit. I'll also pop that link in the show notes. I promise you, you won't be disappointed. In fact, you'll get a lovely surprise in your inbox each month until December this year.

So, before we get into the episode a quick one, just on the basics. If you're super new to comms, a channel is any method you use to share information like a webinar, social media platform, email, et cetera, et cetera. The challenge we have today is that we have so many channels to choose from, and it can be really tempting just to jump on the bandwagon of the latest, bad, or try and use too many channels.

So let's take a step back first and think about why your channel mix is so important. It's important because it's the way you reach your target audiences, whether that's your staff, franchisees, customers, investors, or even just the general public. [00:03:00] And not just to reach them, but to resonate with them.

So having the right mix is absolutely crucial to getting your message to where it needs to go and helping you to achieve your business objectives. So whether that's growth or whether that is, uh, building trust or building brand awareness, whatever that looks like. Your channel mix is going to help support your achievement of your business objectives.

Now there's three fundamental principles to consider when designing your channel mix. Number one: what channels is your audience currently using? What channels are your audiences currently using? Plural. Number two, what channels best showcase your message. And number three, what is actually sustainable and feasible for you to manage?

So let's start with the first principle meeting your audience, where they're at. There is no point for example, [00:04:00] using LinkedIn, if the audience you're trying to reach as teenagers. If you want to reach teenagers, then right now, you probably need to be using TikTok. Look, by the time this is published, it's probably something else. But for now it's, TikTok.

If your key audience is investors, then LinkedIn or email might be the best channel to use outside of your AGM, for example.

If you're thinking about employees, then there are so many channels to choose from. But again, find out what they're currently using that's working really well, and the channels that are useful to them. So, for example, if you have a non wired workforce, so these are people who, for example, are on the road all the time, or they're not in front of a computer all day, they're in a store, in a hospital ward on their feet, then quite honestly, an internet is probably useless at the end of a long shift. The chances of them just hopping onto SharePoint to see what I've missed is so slim. So [00:05:00] what's the best way to reach them. I've shared a few ideas in a blog post recently that I will share with you all in the show notes around how to reach a non wired workforce. And of course, we'd love to hear some examples of what's worked for you.

A side note here and a cautionary tale, no matter the audience, try to avoid creating a new channel, unless it absolutely makes sense to do so. So, for example, it makes sense that you'd create a new website if you're running a new business, right. But why create something like a new app for your employees? If they're already active on something like Yammer or Teams or WhatsApp or whatever it is.

Creating a new channel often doesn't make sense unless it's consolidating a bunch of channels that are currently being used into a more user friendly platform. So for example, if there's Yammer and Skype and whatever else, and it's all been consolidated into Teams or Microsoft Viva. Great. Makes sense.

Or if a new [00:06:00] channel would meet a need that your audience has identified, not one that you think they have, one that they've identified. So, unless it makes their experience easier or better or plugs the gap, it is not worth your time and effort. Remember that if you have to create, or if you create a new channel, you have to maintain it.

But before you even get to that, you have to do all the work around the change management piece to actually get people, to use it in the first place. So that is a huge amount of work. Now this obviously depends on your starting point. I've worked with some businesses where their channels were absolutely dire or non-existent.

In some cases, they were using like really dated platforms that were no longer supported by vendors. So if something broke, it couldn't be fixed. And other cases, they were using platforms that they had built, you know, put together with band-aids and was so highly customised that the only way you could add or change anything was to get a developer in, again, not sustainable.

In others, they [00:07:00] only had one way of reaching people. So people were being bombarded through that channel with messages. And if that platform had an issue, went down, there was no way to communicate. There was no other way to communicate. So in these cases, There is absolutely a case for establishing new channels. But if your starting point is a business that already has quite a few channels established for various audiences, and most of them are effective and efficient, then look at what you can do to improve those existing channels rather than creating new ones. Okay. So that's the first principle, choose channels where your audience already is. The second principle is to choose channels that best showcase your message. So what I mean by that is, if you, for example, design and make wedding cakes. Then you need a platform that's very visual. So Pinterest and Instagram, for example, are the places to be, especially if your audience is using those platforms to search and look at products [00:08:00] like yours. I was having this conversation just a couple of months ago at a networking event I was at.

And the lady who had catered that event, uh, she does beautiful food by the way, uh, she also does wedding cakes and those sorts of things. And she was talking about how she was really struggling with business. And all I said to her, oh, are you on Pinterest? She's like, oh, no, not like, I just, I'm just on Instagram. And I have a website.

And straight away we started conversation because how many of you out there have been planning a wedding or know somebody who's been planning a wedding and they've gone straight to Pinterest for all their ideas? Right. So I've actually just really encouraged her to have a look at Pinterest and see what others are doing on there in the same area and see how you can compete against that, or just make your, your offering different, but just get on Pinterest, because that is where your audience is, so be there.

And it's a great visual medium, so showcasing her beautiful food and beautiful cakes. It's ideal for that. But if your business [00:09:00] is more like mine though, so I'm a service provider rather than a provider of like tangible products, I have products, but then they're not tangible they're training products, then a platform like LinkedIn is probably more suitable. So I only have a few channels, but I use them really well. Well, I think I do. Let me know if not, um, my main channels are LinkedIn and Instagram and this podcast. Now my Instagram is also linked to Facebook, but honestly, that's just more out of convenience than anything else, to be honest.

I've also been playing with Pinterest and the reason being that I sketchnote. So I produce visual pieces and it makes sense to a degree to trial those platforms. I also use the video function or stories on Instagram fairly regularly to connect with my followers. So again, it makes sense for me to use that platform.

But again, I'm only using a few of them and I'm trying to service them really well with content. That makes sense for the audiences that are there. So again, what are you offering and what platform will best [00:10:00] showcase that offering and are those platforms where your potential customers or clients are also searching for what you offer?

So again, if I just go back to LinkedIn as an example for me, that is where a lot of my corporate clients are searching for what I offer, which is consulting services and training. Right. But if people are searching for, they want to know more about me, they want to get more of a sense of, uh, what I offer particularly for training and Sketchnoting, then they'll hop over to Instagram and check me out there.

So again, what are you offering? What platform will best showcase that offering? And are those platforms where your potential customers or clients are also searching for what you offer? On another episode of the show, I'll talk about choosing the right messages and content for each of those channels. So stay tuned for that.

Okay. The third and final principle is this: what mix of channels is actually sustainable and feasible for you to manage well. Very few comms teams or small [00:11:00] businesses are lucky enough to be so well-resourced that they can manage a huge range of channels for all their audiences. I can speak from experience from both sides here.

So while it might be tempting to do all the socials and try the TikTok, and do all the things, all the internal comms channels, et cetera, et cetera, you really need to consider how you're going to service these channels really well. There's no point in just doing a mediocre ad hoc approach to your channels because you just won't achieve the results you want. And you'll just feel like you're treading water all of the time. So from all the channels you think could be useful, you need to prioritise and base this decision on data, on research, knowing what platforms people are using for what purposes and how, and when they're using them.

You can always change your platforms later. You can add a new one when you've got the time and money on board, but to start just pick a few that you can manage really well. [00:12:00] Remember, all of these channels, you're going to need to consistently develop content so that you remain relevant and visible. And that is a huge amount of work.

We do that for a few clients at the moment, we basically just create content for them every week to help keep them visible on social media. And we do that because they don't have the resources on board themselves and we're better at it, to a degree. Not only do you have to develop all that content, but you have to monitor, respond to comments, et cetera, et cetera.

So I encourage you work smarter, not harder. There are of course some tools out there that can help you things like a Meta's business suite or HootSuite where you can preschedule all your posts for your social media channels. For example, um, mail platforms like Vision SiX or MailChimp, where you can schedule emails in advance and even dare I say it, AI tools like ChatGPT. I mean, they can give you a leg up on writing the content for these channels. So also [00:13:00] look at how the tech can help you to serve your channels. Okay. So to recap on today's episode of choosing the right channel mix for your business, number one, go to where your audience is; choose channels where you can meet them where they're at, where the conversations are taking place, and where people are searching for products and services like yours. Number two, choose channels that best showcase your product or service. So again, example of the wedding cake business, you're going to need a very visual channel like Pinterest. Number three, make sure whatever channel mix you design it's feasible and sustainable for you to manage; it's best to do just a few targeted channels really well than haphazardly manage a huge range of channels or not manage a huge range of channels.

So again if you haven't already, I encourage you to subscribe to my free 12- month comms toolkit so you can get your hands on this month's tool, the channel governance [00:14:00] matrix. This is a template that will really help you map out your channel mix in more detail, and put in place some rules around how your manage those channels. You can find the link at heymelcomms.training/freebies and it's also in the show notes.

So that's it for me today i really hope those three principles get you thinking about your current channel mix or the one that you're planning for. And as per usual get in touch if you have any questions or ideas. Of course please write and leave a review for the podcast on your app of choice it would mean the world to me and encourages me to continue to offer up this learning. Have an incredible day And keep doing amazing things