La capsula Informativa: Smarter Channel Planning: Moving Beyond Platform-First Thinking

The digital ecosystem just ain’t what it used to be.  

For digital marketers and communicators, this isn’t news. Audience behaviors are shifting, platforms are evolving with AI and other advancements and the ways people discover and interact with content have fundamentally changed.  

But if everything around us is changing, it begs the question: Are we changing, too? Or are we letting the environment evolve while we stick to the same old playbook? 

When channel planning, it can be easy to lean on assumptions. We fall back on what used to be true instead of what data and audience behavior are showing us. And if we want to be smarter and more intentional with our channel strategy, we need to start by challenging a few of our long-held beliefs.

As French philosopher and author Albert Camus wrote, “There are truths but no truth.”

What once seemed like hard rules when it comes to channel planning have turned out to be temporary truths, at best. Yes, these strategies and ideas may have worked in one context or era, but our tactics quickly lose relevance and efficacy as platforms and behaviors evolve.  

A few of the common half-truths we continue to cling to include:  

“Channel strategy should be rooted in goals.” 

Goals matter but forcing them into platforms rarely works. Start with what audiences want from each platform, then figure out how your content and goals align with those expectations. 

“Social media is only for building awareness.” 

Today, organic social has become strongest for validation and reinforcement. It is great for loyalty marketing and getting people to close. Audiences following you on social media often already know your brand. They are usually looking for reaffirmation and value, and sometimes discovery, but awareness alone is no longer the primary role. 

“Content needs to be tailored to every channel.” 

Strategy should lead. Your content can be adapted and broken into different pieces but what matters more is keeping the user experience consistent across platforms. That doesn’t mean each channel needs something entirely different. The same core idea can work in many places, as long as it’s appropriate for your audience, platform and goal(s). 

“Distribution across paid, earned, shared and owned automatically equals integration.” 

Not if the content is all siloed. You need coordination between efforts. There needs to be sequencing and connected messaging. Otherwise, you are just spraying messages everywhere. 

“Optimization means watching performance metrics.” 

Metrics alone do not tell you what to do. Optimization only works when tied to the right strategic questions: What does this actually mean? Why did this happen? What are we going to do with it? 

Letting go of these myths clears the way for a more intentional approach to channel planning. 

The first step of building an intentional, smarter channel strategy is determining what you’re actually *trying* to do and achieve with each platform. This may sound simple, but for every channel in your mix, you should be able to answer three questions: 

1. What is this channel’s primary job in our strategy? 

2. What are the secondary goals?  

3. How does it connect to other channels in our mix? 

Take LinkedIn organic posts. The primary job is thought leadership and professional credibility. We are showing that we know things and we have people who know things. The audience following us already somewhat knows us, so we are trying to win them over. They are finding this content passively; they are not seeking us out. They are scrolling and the content appears. So, we need to give them a rich on-platform experience. 

The secondary goal might be driving traffic, even though LinkedIn does not drive traffic the way it used to. But this audience is more likely to convert because they are already following us. The content and experiences need to be cohesive across channels. 

And just as important, this channel needs to connect to others in the mix. A strong LinkedIn post can spark interest that leads to a blog visit, an email subscription or a retargeting ad. When each channel picks up where the last one leaves off, the audience experiences a clear and connected journey. 

The funnel has gotten jagged. It’s not a perfect funnel anymore (was it ever?). But we still need to understand which content is relevant at different phases and where audiences are most likely to encounter it. 

The PESO Model helps frame this: 

• Paid media grows reach but also does retargeting 
• Earned media builds credibility but also validates decisions after purchase 
• Shared media creates engagement throughout 
• Owned media tells your brand story and helps conversions 

The trick is assigning the right tactics to each stage. If you are trying to generate awareness from social media now, you better make sure your copy is searchable because whole posts are being pulled into search results. You should be putting up videos with transcripts, and not the auto-generated transcripts that will butcher your brand name. 

Instagram videos are now discoverable. TikTok videos are now discoverable. These are ways your brand can be found on social – if you are using the platforms correctly.

Once you know what each channel is supposed to do, make sure your content can actually do that. To align your content strategy and your channel strategy, ask yourself:  

• Does your channel mix reflect your  goals, or are you just doing what is easy? 
• Are the right tactics being assigned to each stage of the funnel? 
• How do you know if your audience is moving through channels? 
• What is the plan for follow-up content? 
• Are you using data to shape decisions or just going with what feels familiar? 

Even if we cannot track every step, we can still measure whether our content is achieving what we wanted on each platform. If your LinkedIn content is supposed to establish thought leadership, look at engagement from the right people, not just impressions. 

Things like user-generated content volume and brand mentions matter, too. We often forget about these even though that is what social media is about: the conversation happening back and forth. 

Smarter channel planning doesn’t necessarily mean overhauling your strategy. Start with small, deliberate steps. Audit your active channels and be honest about what is still driving outcomes and what is running on autopilot. Look at how paid, earned, shared and owned content connect. Most of the time you don’t need new content, just stronger links between what you already have. 

Focus on one area to optimize rather than launching something new. That might mean writing video transcripts with search in mind or shaping your newsletter with conversion in mind. Choose something measurable and give it time to work. As impressions and clicks decline across platforms, rethink how you measure success. Mentions, time spent with content and return visits often tell a clearer story about whether your content is doing its job. 

Most importantly, build a habit of review. Setting aside time each month or quarter to assess what has changed makes it easier to adapt in small ways instead of scrambling through major resets. 

The goal is not to be everywhere or to reinvent content for every platform. The goal is to stay aligned with audience needs and expectations while advancing your own. Platforms will keep changing, but if your strategy is rooted in that alignment, you can adapt no matter what comes next.  

Smarter channel planning means being intentional, making connections across efforts and continuously optimizing based on real insights.  

When in doubt, start small, test often and keep your audience at the center of every decision.