In my last article, we discussed how you really need to understand that print alone will not allow you to fully reach your potential audience. In this article we will talk about all of the competing channels in the mix today.

It wasn't too long ago that Print, Radio, TV and Outdoor Display were the channels you had available to reach your intended audience. Today, each of these channels still exist and have even been refined as a result of technological advances to enable you to communicate your content messages to a more targeted audience with less cost. For example, in television broadcasting, the buzz is all about how to communicate targeted messages to the set-top box level while still maintaining subscriber privacy. Sounds a little like personalized print!

However, the times are changing with respect to channels of communication - and we are not just talking about television channels! We have seen an explosion of new eMedia channels over the last few years. Each of them is fighting for ad spend, so there is a lot at stake for each of them, especially since the number of available channels is growing faster than marketing budgets. In addition, the "democratization of publishing" is driving a lot of new development. As the new communication tools enable everyone to create and distribute content to the masses, not only have the available channels increased but so has the amount of available content. So the challenges that exist, if you want to get your message out, are: how do I reach my intended audience and how do I get them to listen to my messages over all of the other noise once I reach them? So let's take a look at the competing eMedia channels that exist today.