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How Social Media Helps to Lower the Cost of Marketing
Filed under: Corporate Social Media, Guest Posts, Social Media
How to justify social media marketing projects to top management from the cost perspective? As marketing trends have evolved from traditional channels to social media platforms, more and more businesses are debating the return on investment (ROI) seen from the utlization of online techniques. While a multi-million dollar campaign can reach more people on Super Bowl Sunday, an effective Facebook presence can do more to retain customers and increase traffic to your store, website and blog, for less.
The return on investment for any company using Facebook as part of their campaign can be measured in a few different ways. Here are the elements that help you lower the investment part of the ROI equation that you can use to justify your push for social media adaption:
Immediate Response
The Super Bowl Sunday ad might generate a burst of revenue, but it is often not sustainable. A Facebook presence, however, is a day-to-day interaction with your customers, allowing for more immediate feedback from your ads, promotions, and sales. This allows your company to be more nimble by being able to react faster as trends come and go.
The advantage the Internet has over offline media is, that if a campaign is not working well you do not incur the costs of taking down billboards, posters and stopping ad runs. A quick change to your website is all it takes to remove ads, repairing any potential damage caused. This flexibility cuts costs and helps with a business’s return on investment.
Word of Mouth
There is no better return on investment than having your customers advertise for you. Word-of-mouth campaigns can get the message out faster than waiting for your ad to air or print. In this sense, Facebook is far superior to older methods since with a just a click your ad can be sent to any number of people.
You can test and tweak your message during the campaign to respond to audience sentiment and ensure virality.
Community
The give and take action available through Facebook creates a communal atmosphere between you and your clients. Studies have shown that consumers who felt their voices were heard were more likely to develop brand loyalty. Using Facebook gives your customers the ability to voice their wants directly. In turn, your company will be able to respond to those wants quicker which will make people engaging with your brand more likely.
Contests and Sales
If you have excess stock or an opportunity to sell items at a reduced price, Facebook can help you get the message out quicker than a traditional sales rollout. The informal nature of the sale will make your clients feel like they are getting a unique opportunity available only to them which gives them a better experience. The cost of such a campaign can sometimes be limited with only a few hours of your time.
Instant Feedback
By the nature of Facebook, your clients and customers have a venue to comment, complain and applaud your actions or products. While not replacing traditional marketing surveys, it does give a much more immediate feel of the pulse of your customer base. We have used this to poll customers about their needs and then providing the solution. Result are great in both direct sales and positive feedback.
Generations
More and more of today’s consumers have grown up in a wired environment. To them the internet is the billboard and the newspaper ad. By not having a presence in sites like Facebook, will limit your message and keep you from reaching the customer of tomorrow. People don’t hang out on random company websites the go to social networking sites to interact with their friends. In those environments your brand has a chance to be part of the discussion.
The opportunities of social networking sites give companies creative options to target their marketing, get instant feedback as well as having the clients themselves promote the company and its products. The return on investment will be higher because it can be done quicker and cheaper than with traditional media. The I part of ROI will be lower.
The main goal of the CMOs is converting social media members into leads or paying customers and achieving measurable ROI from social media. Here you can read more about social media ROI:
- Social Media ROI Will Become Important. Until now people have experimented with low budgets and without very specific goals. The bigger budgets will bring an need to show return.
- How To Measure Social Media ROI. The number one thing about ROI is that it is measured in dollars (or in euros or any other currency you might prefer).
- Social Media ROI Backwards (for B2B) …If you have thousands of followers on social networking sites then the obvious question comes up. How do we get money out of it?
- How to Create Your Social Media Strategy? Get your strategy in place before you start. Here are easy to follow steps that help you give your social media strategy a solid foundation.
- 48 Social Media KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). You should set at least some metrics that indicate if you are turning profit. Otherwise you can reach your KPIs and still loose money.
By Pam Velazquez, writer for www.RecordsProject.com
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Image credit Andrew Magill
Posted on: October 18, 2011
No one clicks on banner ads or traditional display ads anymore. The CTR has dropped to a tenth of a percent. Non-standard ads which look like content have now taken off. Providers like Facebook, Adblade and Linkedin serve these content looking ads and they are taking all the budgets.
You’d be surprised on how well traditional banner ads and display ads actually work.
In certain niche markets, these are still really effective especially if you are looking at an older demographic. But efforts are lost on younger crowds of users.