There’s a saying in the marketing world where the client admits “I know 50% of my marketing dollars is being wasted; the problem is I don’t know which half.”
Lately I’ve had a few meetings with well-established businesses in the area who are unfamiliar with social media and can’t quite clearly see the ROI from such an effort. And so even though I know I’ve touched on this already many times in my column, I figured this topic bears repeating.
Traditional media (print, radio, TV), while beneficial for companies who can afford it, is out of the reach of many smaller, fledgling businesses. The biggest reason why traditional media might be a misuse of marketing dollars for smaller businesses is that there is no way to track how many eyes have viewed, listened to, or watched the ad. Therefore precious money is being wasted on an inattentive audience.
This is where social media marketing might have a huge benefit. With sponsored content within a social media platform, you can clearly define your audience. Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.. already know the behaviours and interests of their users because they asked them right off the bat when they registered for the service! So when you create an ad audience with Facebook, a brick and mortar home décor store can say “Show this ad to people within 50 kms of my store, aged 25-70, who list interior decorating as a personal interest”. Similarly, an online e-commerce site that sells men’s grooming supplies can create an audience of “Males aged 20-70 within Canada and the US”. Of course, you can be even broader than that, but isn’t that terrific that you can narrow your sights on the people who would care about your product or service in the first place?
But that isn’t even the best part. Once you are running your ad, you have access to plenty of data (in Facebook this is called “insights”) which creates instant reports to tell you how effect your ad is. It will tell you your “reach” (how many people saw your ad within their newsfeed), as well as your engagement (how many people liked, commented, or shared your post). This will give you instant feedback as to whether an ad is working or not. If it strikes just the right chord with the right people, you will see plenty of engagement. So you can add even more to the budget and reach even more people with this effective content. Can you get that kind of feedback from a general traditional ad?
I don’t want to discredit traditional advertising altogether as there are certainly still situations where a billboard or trade magazine is extremely effective. But if you think social media is a trend that has no place in your advertising budget, you will very quickly find yourself lagging behind competitors as they capture the attention of smartphone users who now spend as much as 4 hours a day on their device!
Don’t fall behind!