If you are one of those individuals that are native to the rise of digital, most businesses find themselves falling into typical marketing pitfalls, including feeling the need to do everything at once or jumping on the latest digital trend that does not necessarily serve your bottomline.
Can you remember a time when you first encountered a digital advertisement and what it looked like?
In the late 1990’s, a digital ad may have been a semi-obnoxious flashing pop-up interrupting your online activity to try to sell you a commodity you likely didn’t need. The original pop-up ads were disruptive, distracting, and over time, grew more and more ineffective to converting the right customers.
The cost associated with these annoying advertising tactics was hard for early adopters to argue with, when traditional print advertising costs such as newspaper or magazine ads costs began to increase and now can cost organizations upwards of $100-250K per ad in the present day.
Combined with the failure of ineffective advertising tactics and the inflation of cost associated with traditional marketing resources, businesses are struggling to source cost-effective solutions to increase their Return-on-Investment inside of their marketing efforts even today.
The problem many agencies and marketers have had to address with businesses looking to integrate social media into their marketing strategy is not only how they can demonstrate the success of social media tactics, but provide the required digital literacy to bridge the gap between those organizations who may have stakeholders around the table likely to raise an objection to digital adoption.
The Success of Social Strategy Solutions
Modern day marketing tactics such as social media has allowed businesses to make breakthroughs in their ability to reach their desired target audience and step in the forefront of their customers through a multitude two-way communication channels we know as social media platforms.
While companies can spend up to hundreds to thousands of dollars investing in one-off marketing materials that may only extend to their local outreach, social media marketing allows businesses to extend their offering beyond a traditional brick-and-mortar setting.
Not only these results are more effective in evaluating a business’ overall marketing strategy, but the data associated has become more accessible and relevant to their business goals.
Results from Successful Social Marketing Include:
- An increase in brand awareness
- Higher engagement rates
- Improved customer retention and loyalty
- Real-time feedback and interactions
And the list goes on!
The real return from investing in social marketing is that you’re creating a digital presence for your business that will allow you to become seen and heard online in a way that traditional marketing avenues would never be able to match in terms of cost and time.
Confronting Your Company’s FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)
Now that you can see the connection between the cost-effectiveness of utilizing social media marketing in your organization, you’re probably wondering how to get started.
Don’t worry if your FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is paralyzing your organization from taking action. Although you may have not been an early adopter, there is still time to start being social.
The impact of not doing anything allows your competitors to become top of mind in your customers’ worlds, leaving little room for traditional avenues to start converting at the same pace of a more interactive approach that could have been driven through social media.
Serial digital marketer, Neil Patel, points out that traditional ad avenues interrupt customers at their most vulnerable and the tactics may only actually engage audiences for a brief period of time.
The real benefits of social media marketing allows you to serve your customers a variety of content and messages that can be tailored to their specific needs multiple times a day and across a number of channels.
By becoming active on social media and supported by a sound strategy, businesses like yours can experience reduced turnaround time with new leads and nurture existing relationships with your on-going customer base.
Empower Yourself Through Industry Educators
In order to be successful in social media marketing, you will want someone in your corner to guide you along the way.
Whether you engage with an agency like Chirp Media to quarterback your plan, or enrolling yourself in online courses to become more informed, it is vital to be empowered through the relevant education to create tangible ROI in your marketing efforts.
The best place to start is by setting SMART Goals that are in line with your organization’s goals. You can use our SMART Goal Marketing goals template worksheet to become present with the desired outcomes you organization’s is setting out to achieve.
Having your marketing objectives spelt out in a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound) format will aid your organization in properly evaluating what social media tactics will serve you best and what cost-effective options available to feed your bottomline.
From here, you can make an informed decision on whether or not you will require to hire in-house or externally to make your goals a reality. Whichever you choose, be diligent of selecting a professional or agency that has expertise in an array of digital marketing disciplines, such as SEO or content marketing, that will evaluate the full scope of your business’ digital presence.
If you’re ready to see a shift in your business’ marketing ROI, book your [FREE] marketing assessment through the button below.
Article by Alison Masniuk
Alison Masniuk is a Digital Content and Communications specialist based in Calgary, Alberta. Alison is passionate about social media and technology, always looking how to communicate a brand's story through original content and strategy right from ideation to execution. She has a professional background in Human Resource Management, Public Relations, and Digital Marketing.
