Elie Maalouly 5 February 2019
In the past few weeks there’s been this buzz about social media buying and its importance. By now you would have noticed that Ads are starting to appear a lot more frequently on your Instagram feed, Facebook and even Facebook market place.
Currently advertising on Facebook is still considered very affordable and great value for money, however with the competition heating up and many more brands jumping on the bandwagon, having a wider brand strategy is key.
Using other channels to continue engaging and acquiring customers is a must, in fact it’s more important now than ever. People like Gary V are creating the hype around social channels, however, don’t mistake what he and others are saying, Gary still talks about using direct mail for his own business as well as video, adwords, email marketing etc.
So why are so many businesses just focusing on the hype and forgetting long term?
To keep it simple brands must focus on a long-term strategy that’s divided into two pathways:
1 – An acquisition strategy
&
2 – A retention strategy
Acquiring the right customer is a strategy of its own and one will need its own topic of discussion. However, having a healthy acquisition strategy targeting multiple channels such as SEO, SEM, Social and Videos is a MUST.
For bigger businesses building a team around these is easy, for small businesses the above can be a nightmare. However, there are always ways around it:
| 1 | Build an SEO content strategy that aligns with your brand and what you’re trying to provide your customers- i.e. if you’re selling wine; focus on providing value in your content that isn’t just about the wines you’re selling. Blog about wine regions, write reviews about wines you don’t stock, engage in wine forums and provide value in your engagement. Build a long-term content strategy. This can be built by using a software such as HubSpot or Google Webmaster. |
| 2 | Build an SEM strategy that allows you to compete on keywords that aren’t too expensive and provide you a healthy conversion rate, we consider anything that is $1 spent with a $3 return is a good starting point. |
| 3 | Social – Social engagement/posts and Social Media buying are two completely different strategies: 3.1 Social media engagement: Must be driven by, what we term here at RANDEM as your brand wheel. What the brand stands for and how you want customers to perceive and relate to it. You will need to navigate the delicate line between driving value and being commercial with your approach. A great account to watch would be Pepsi. Watch their replies and some of the content they have, it’s just fantastic! 3.2 Social Media Buying: Requires a deeper understanding of who you’re trying to target, what value you are trying to provide to them, and what ROI you’re wanting to achieve. The framework we like to use for our customers for example is to break them down into micro segments, segments that are very specific. Below is an example diagram of how one campaign is currently running on Instagram: a - Ad – Burgundy Wine – Target Audience – Men/women, Age 40 +, Location – Affluent Suburbs, city – Sydney. Content – (targeting the local suburbs) so for example, text can be ‘Vaucluse we have you covered with our 30 mins delivery from our large selection of white burgundies.’ |
| 4 | Video content: With YouTube still the 2nd largest search engine it’s important for any brand to use that channel. The good news is, you don’t need expensive equipment to be able to record yourself or your products. Using the wine concept again, reviewing wines that you sell and even wines that you don’t stock that are considered HOT in the market is a great way to engage with new and existing customers. Videos can be used in most of your channels, EDM’s, Facebook, Instagram, Your Blog, Your product pages that it’s puzzling how this is still so under-utilised. In our next article we will continue this discussion talking about Retention strategy and how this all come full circle. |
