One of the questions I get the most is “which social media should I use to promote my company?” I generally give a generic answer because once I start going into detail I see the glazed look go over people’s eyes. Social media is a GREAT way to sell and promote a company. You can generate a lot of leads and sales by having a Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube account for your business. That being said, do you as a business owner know how much time your spending on these sites building and promoting, and how much business you are actually getting from it?
When I do marketing analysis for a company the first thing I do is look at the product and determine a target demographic. This is a group of people who I think would be interested in the product or service they are trying to sell. After that I create a detailed marketing plan that may or may not involve social media. This is based off demographics for all the different social media sites. I not only put in the plan which sites to use, but how much time, energy, and most importantly money is put into the site. I base this all of ROI (return on investment). I want to ensure where I am putting the money is where I will get the most leads. If I put $10,000 towards social media I want to see the company get that much business back or more within a certain time frame. It is not good business to put $10,000 in advertisement into a media that may only give you $5,000 back.
The next thing I usually get back is the money being put towards traditional media and advertisement. Again, this is part of market strategy and analysis. The internet is a great way of advertisement but as long as people who give potential business are still leaving their house, you should be putting money to advertise in the “real world”. It is true that social media is much cheaper to do. Most of my techniques in social media advertisement is free! The thing with traditional advertisement is that it will get people who do not use the internet or social media to notice you. There are many ways of doing this as well that can be done with a small budget.
Here are a couple scenarios to help explain:
Scenario 1- A company in San Francisco is launching a new handheld gaming device. It is a product that does not link with any current gaming systems (ps3, xbox). It has its own selection of games, many similar to what is offered on other systems. They want to create a marketing advertisement but after development and production they have a small budget for the first 6 months of launch. After reviewing the product we determine we want a 70/30 split on media. 70% of funding will be put towards social and online media. A site was developed, Facebook was set up to target males 16-24 (determined initial demographic), and a twitter account was set up to help give updates of the product. A linkdin account was also set up to market and network with other companies to help with distribution and sales. We then put 30% of the budget towards traditional advertisement. We designed and printed posters and fliers to put in malls, video game stores, and used money to help launch promos with movies that came out with a related video game.
In this scenario it made sense to direct a lot of money towards social media. Not only is our demographic very large on social media sites (16-24 male gamers) but since the product was an electronic gaming device, it was a safe assumption that many “gamers” also had an online presence. We did want to do other marketing to ensure we were seen around competition in the stores and create a presence outside of social media as well.
Scenario 2- A candle making company based out of Salt Lake City needs a marketing campaign to launch their new scented candles. They have no market presence currently. After review of the product we determined that we wanted to sell these with a more traditional approach. Instead of selling directly to customers, the company wanted to sell to other companies to distribute. We determined to still create a website where they could sell directly and a Linkdin, Facebook, and blog was set up. These were set up primarily to set up a fan base and create brand presence. We only spent about 20% of their budget on creating this. The rest went towards contacting and creating networks with other businesses and creating banners, flyers, posters, and displays for the products in the stores that carry them. This will help make their product stand out from the competition.
In this scenario we determined it was important to develop a web presence as well as a way to sell directly to the loyal customers who do not want to go to the store each time. We did find it more logical to do more traditional advertisement and media within the stores where they will be sold from.
It is important to realize that market strategies should be reviewed continuously. It is important to review to see what is working and what isn’t. If you thought using one media was good, but after 3 months of putting money into it and getting no new business it is a good idea to possibly adjust or abandon that media. I also always suggest trying every media and gauging the results from it. Also watch for new technology and media that may work well for your business. Marketing is simple in getting the word out, but is very complex when it comes to ROI and being effective and efficient. If you are not sure what to do it may be a good idea to hire or at least talk to a marketing or media expert.
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