Social media has the power to amplify your marketing ROI. Some businesses might as well see a rise of 100% in their revenue. In 2018, social media marketing is still one of the highest grossing techniques. Several experts will try to convince you to jump aboard the social train, but does it work for all brands and all businesses? If over 77% small and medium businesses in the US are already exercising their social media efforts in promotions, isn’t there an excess of brands competing for the limited attention of the users? How long can marketers promise the limelight for new brands amidst the neck to neck competition?
What are the six factors you must consider before investing in a new social media marketing campaign?
The low setup costs and low maintenance have made social media marketing the favorite of almost all smart business owners and CEOs. There is indeed nothing more potent than the power of content, and most social marketing strategies go on to reiterate this fact. Whether it is YouTube and Instagram or it is Facebook and LinkedIn, social is all about publishing share-worthy content. Only about 48% of the businesses using social means see a positive trend in their ROI. Engaging in online marketing is not the only requirement for a high ROI. There are several factors your campaign needs to account for to experience positive KPI trends.
- You will have to invest time
Almost all forms of organic marketing are cost-effective. As a result, thousands of brands in your niche are right now online, trying to create impressive content on LinkedIn or YouTube. Building a dedicated social media presence is quite time-consuming. The high competition means you need to spend more time creating your unique strategy that can outdo your competitors. This takes time. In all possibility, you will not even break even on the first month of the campaign.
- The social media marketing ROI is channel dependent
The amount of return you will get is dependent on the social media channel you are using. The strength of your campaign will also depend on your cross-platform promotion efforts. It extensively depends on your existing customer-base and online followership. If you already have a commendable customer-base, you can utilize that to fuel the popularity of your brand’s social media campaigns.
- The concept of ROI varies between brands
ROI can depend on many factors including the click-through rates (CTR), social media traffic and sales. So, when a business tells you they have experienced a 500% rise in ROI, it is imperative for you to ask, how they are getting their numbers. In such an event, you target a 500% hike in returns; you might be in for a disappointment. Find out their stats and analysis after calculating the costs of promotions correctly. In the US market, most ROIs are self-reported and hence very difficult to verify. Do not take any arbitrary number for granted. Always make it a point to ask the relevant questions.
- It will not be easy for new businesses
Experiencing a positive trend in your campaign ROI will not be easy. It is especially tricky for dedicated e-commerce stores that are new in the genre. This decline in success is a result of the plummeting organic reach through social networking sites. Sites like Facebook and applications like Twitter have intentionally reduced the visibility of brands to promote their sponsored advertisement deals. Social media advertisements offer high profile to new businesses, but they are always costlier than organic approaches. Without smart management of marketing expenses, you will end up knee deep in bills, without a sight of the profits. Your expertise will dictate the future of your brand on social media
Social media provide the most robust platforms for establishing brand identity. You need the knowledge and technical skill to leverage the potential of this marketing technique. As we have mentioned before, developing a brand’s social media identity takes time. However, the process can be never-ending without the assistance of a creative and trained individual, who knows about the fine art of online marketing. Each platform has typical traffic surge time, posting frequency and user type. The choice of the social channel will depend on what you are selling, and to whom you are selling. Check out https://maisontulip.com/seo/los-angeles/ to learn more about local optimization of social media marketing campaigns. Demographics are critical for all online strategies, and yours will determine the nitty-gritty of the user-engagement plan.
- Your reach will depend upon your products and services
If your business offers online subscriptions to movies, magazines or videos, you have better chances of seeing your ROI skyrocket shortly. All companies have the potential to create social media campaigns, but not all of those campaigns will fair equally well. The ones that provide stronger content and exciting visuals will perform much better than the ones that involve obscure demographics or boring services.
- You will need a lot of luck!
Do you know how a video becomes viral? In reality, there is no secret in the market for creating viral content. Some marketers are spending millions every week in the hope of creating something that will break the internet like the PPAP song. There is no saying what the highly unpredictable digital users will love tomorrow. It can be something as trivial as a cat video or something as touching as Wheels, which people are heralding as the most viral video ad of 2017. There is no secret sauce to the recipe of online success. Although one viral content is enough to move from the “amateur” status to “professional” status, you need a significant touch of luck in the process.
Social media marketing still has enough potential left for the upcoming brands and new small businesses. It is especially possible for the MSMBs to leverage online marketing due to the low cost of investments and the lack of physical setup necessary for the campaigns. However, continuing without the assistance of an expert marketer is quite risky for entrepreneurs, who lack the digital marketing experience.