// Knowledge base
Getting started with Online Marketing, but where to start?
By Mitchel van Luit
2 min read
Lookalikes, retargeting, search ads, hype ads. If you want to start with online marketing, where do you start?
In short
✔ Start at the beginning. Don't be distracted by the latest hypes in marketing land.
✔ You can only build on a strong foundation. The foundation of all your marketing should be the people who are going to give you money.
✔ What is their reason for paying you?
Lookalikes, retargeting, search ads, and every month a new channel you need to do something with. If you want to start with online marketing, where do you begin?
Our advice: with the people who are going to pay you. Not with the channel.
Why the channel question is the wrong first question
The choice of a channel feels like the first decision, because it is the first visible decision. But a channel is a means of distribution. It magnifies what you have to say to the people you choose. If you have not yet clearly defined what you are saying and to whom, the channel simply magnifies that ambiguity, at a cost.
With the latest tools, you aren't suddenly going to sell things people have no need for. That sounds obvious, and yet this is the foundation that most campaigns skip.
Four questions that come before the channel
Who is paying you already? Not your ideal client on paper, but the clients who are actually there. What do they have in common? Why did they come to you and not someone else?
What problem do they solve by paying you? In their words, not yours. This is the difference between “we provide advice” and “I don't know which part of my budget is getting results”.
Where are those people searching or looking? If they are actively searching, then there is demand to harvest. If they aren’t searching, then you have to create demand, and that is a different kind of campaign with different metrics.
Can you see if it works? If you can't measure which enquiry comes from which source, you'll end up running on gut feeling. Then every channel is just as good, because you can't compare them.
Amend the channel afterwards
Once those four answers are on the table, choosing the channel becomes almost boring. If your target audience is actively searching, you start with search ads. If it is a specific professional group, LinkedIn is often the only place where you can reach them precisely. If you need to explain something, you need space and you end up with video.
Start on one channel. Two channels at the same time means two half budgets, two learning phaseand no conclusion.
Why hypes are so appealing
A new channel promises that you can skip the fundamentals. That is precisely why it catches on, and precisely why it rarely works. The parties that do make it work already have those fundamentals in place and are merely adding a new distribution channel on top.
Tailor your marketing to the demand of your target audience. That is the foundation of demand-driven marketing, and of our method.
marketing psychology
The summary at the top (the “in short” block) lowers the barrier to entry: anyone who sees the core message first is subsequently more likely to read the whole article.
// Frequently asked questions
Questions about this subject.
Which channel is best to start with?
That depends on your target audience, not on what is currently popular. If your target audience is actively searching for what you provide, then search ads are the logical place to start. If it concerns a specific profession, then LinkedIn is often the only place where you can reach them precisely.
Is it better to start on multiple channels at the same time?
No. Two channels at the same time means two half-budgets and two learning phases, and in the end you can't say whether either of them worked. Start on one channel, find proof there, and only expand after that.
What if I don't know who my target audience is yet?
Look at the customers you already have: what do they have in common and what problem did they solve by paying you, in their own words. That is more useful than a profile on paper, and it only costs you time.
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