The fifth eBook in the Paid Growth and Campaigns category. It pulls together everything from the channel-specific eBooks into a single way of running a campaign - from setting the objective on a Monday morning to reviewing the results six weeks later and deciding what to repeat.
Members ebook·7 chapters· 35 minute read
Chapter 4
Channels and Assets
How to pick the small set of channels that matters for the campaign and the assets to build for each, without over-producing for channels that aren't going to carry the weight.
Once the brief is written, the temptation is to do everything everywhere. An email, a series of social posts, a paid ad campaign on three platforms, a leaflet drop, a press release, an event, a podcast appearance. Most small business campaigns try to use too many channels for their size, end up with thinly built assets in each and underperform across the board. A campaign with two channels done properly almost always beats a campaign with five channels done partially.
The right channels for a campaign depend on the audience, the offer and the budget, in that order. Where does the audience already spend time and pay attention? Which channels actually fit this offer? What can your budget really cover at the depth a channel needs to work? Two channels is usually enough. Three is the upper limit on most small business campaigns. Four is rarely the right answer.
This chapter is about choosing the right two or three channels for the campaign and building the assets for each at the depth they need. By the end you'll have a channel plan and an asset list that fits your real time and budget, not one that imagines an extra week and a designer who doesn't exist.
The full chapter walks through the channel selection rule, the asset list per channel kept honestly small, the build order that puts the heaviest asset first and the recurring overproduction patterns that swallow campaigns.
The channel selection rule
Pick channels by the audience, not by the platform. List the two or three places this audience already spends meaningful attention, where the offer fits the format and where you can sustain depth on your budget. For a January self-assessment campaign aimed at sole traders, the channels are usually email to your existing list, a small Google Ads campaign on the obvious search terms and one targeted social post or two. For a Mother's Day florist campaign, the channels are usually email to existing customers, an Instagram and Facebook ad campaign with strong creative and the shop's own door display. For a boiler-service push, the channels are usually email and SMS to existing customers, a small Google Ads campaign on local terms and a leaflet drop in the right two postcodes.
Notice what's not in those lists. Twitter / X. LinkedIn. TikTok. Press releases. Podcast appearances. Each of those might be the right channel for a different audience and offer, but they're not free additions to a campaign that already has its right channels picked. Adding them costs assets, attention and budget that should have gone into making the right two or three channels deeper.
The asset list per channel
Each channel needs a small set of assets. Don't inflate the list to look thorough. The assets that don't get sent or shown are pure waste.
Honest asset lists per channel
Email: a launch email, one mid-campaign reminder, one final-call email - three emails total
Paid ads: two pieces of creative per ad set, two ad sets max, written ad copy for each
Organic social: three to five posts spaced across the campaign window, written from the message
Landing page: one page for the offer, one short follow-up page if the form leads to a thank-you with next steps
Print or door drop: one design, one print run, one route plan
If the asset list for a campaign runs to more than fifteen items in total across two or three channels, the campaign is being over-produced. Cut it back. Owners who try to ship thirty assets in three weeks usually ship fifteen mediocre ones and burn out before the launch.
The build order
Build the heaviest asset first. The landing page is almost always the heaviest, because everything else points at it and any wobble in it shows up in the conversion rate of every other asset. Build it first and properly. Then the email, because the email is what most small businesses can launch fastest if other things slip. Then paid ad creative and copy. Then organic social. Build outwards from the page, not inwards from the social posts.
If you're shooting your own creative for paid ads, use the four-shot list from the eBook Facebook and Instagram Ads for Small Businesses. Don't book a photoshoot for a campaign budget that can't sustain it.
Reuse and refresh
Most campaigns don't need entirely new assets. The brand, the photography, the customer quotes and the page templates from your previous campaigns can be reused. The bits that need to be fresh are the ones that carry the new offer and the new message - the headline of the page, the subject line of the email, the headline of the ad, the hook of the creative. Reusing the surrounding furniture saves time and keeps the campaign recognisably yours. Owners who rebuild every visual asset from scratch for every campaign waste their best week of the year on cosmetics nobody notices.
What to do this week
Pick the two or three channels for the next campaign on your calendar. Write the honest asset list per channel, capped at fifteen items total. Identify the heaviest asset and put it first in the build order. Diary the build days against your real availability across the next two to three weeks. The next chapter is about the timeline and launch, which depends on the asset list being honest first.
Recurring principle: use low-cost channels intelligently. The right two or three channels, built to depth, beat five channels built thinly. The earlier eBook Low-Cost Marketing Ideas is the broader version of the same idea.
The rest of this chapter walks through the practical steps, the templates and the checklists you need to put it into action. It includes worked examples, copy frameworks and the small decisions that make the difference between a plan that sits in a drive and one that gets used.
Inside you'll find a step-by-step playbook, a downloadable template, a checklist you can run this week and a short list of common mistakes to avoid before you start.
The full action plan, broken into weekly steps.
Ready-to-use scripts, templates and checklists.
Worked examples for different sized businesses.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them.
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