When you’ve enjoyed real success with one marketing method – or a particular approach is ‘in fashion’ – it’s easy to default to that option as your communication method of choice. But could an alternative route deliver better results?

We all have our favourites – best friends, beloved brands and long-followed sports teams.

And the thing about favourites is that our loyalty can often blind us to potential deficiencies. We can overlook faults in our beloved because we aren’t thinking rationally.

The same applies to marketing channels.

If you’ve enjoyed success using promoted campaigns on Twitter, for example, then it’s easy to keep doing the same thing.

“I’ve had results once, I’m familiar with how this works, surely I just keep doing the same?”

But if you are pushing a slightly different product or service to last time – or you are looking for a different outcome – then it pays to review your options.

Different marketing skills and media channels exist for a reason and your best chance of achieving your goal is to plan your strategy carefully – with the right communication mix.

No matter how small the brief or challenge, take a step back and ask yourself some important questions:

• What’s my objective?
• Who do I need to influence to achieve that objective?
• What do I need to tell these influencers?
• What’s the best way to share this message with influencers?
• How soon do I need results?
• How much budget do I have?

With a bit of clear thinking you’ll give yourself a much better chance of beating those sales targets, generating interest in an event or making your next product launch as successful as possible.