Where Should You Advertise For Best Results?
Today, we will cover what to do after you've selected your target audience--the idea here is that we now need to market ourselves and create exposures to our target audience. According to Hubspot, it takes at least 8 touchpoints to make a sale. So what do you do next?
It's safe to assume that anyone reading this blog post has a fixed budget to spend on marketing. So the logical question to ask is: where is my budget best spent? Is it better to spend money on social media? On advertising? On email marketing?
Another safe assumption would be that you want results--and you want maximum ROI as quickly as possible.
In this blog, we will look at how growth hacking and understanding the types of resources you have at your disposal impact how you attempt to reach your target audience, and what level of ROI your efforts will yield.
The Fastest, Most Cost Effective Way to ROI
Results can mean many different things to many different people. Today we will focus on acquiring new customers and the steps to take after you've selected your target audience.
As growth hackers, our philosophy is to find the fastest and the most cost effective ways to revenue. But growth hacking isn't a substitute for digital marketing. The two are intertwined, sharing characteristics like experimentation, creativity, innovation and analytics.
From the digital marketing standpoint, let's cover some of the marketing channels we can use to market a business online.
You can rank your website on the search engines, either using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Pay Per Click. You can send emails to either existing data or acquire new emails. You can pay for banner ads on specific websites that your audience visits. And of course, you can use social media.
Is Social Media the Fastest Way to Revenue?
Generally speaking and depending on the business, social media can be the fastest and most cost effective way to revenue.
For the moment, let's pretend that everyone agrees with us that social media is the right option. Now that we're on the same page, let's dig into the details. The first thing we need to do when we are planning social media marketing is to select a platform.
What are our options? The most popular social media platforms are YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest. And the list will continue to grow in the years to come.
But don't get overwhelmed. There is a simple way to choose the right social media platforms. Are you ready for the secret? Find which one your audience lives on.
If you haven't already determined your target audience, you'll need to go back and listen to Episode 3 of this podcast, which covers how to identify your target audience.
If you've already selected your target audience, we have a great resource for you--it comes from the social media scheduling platform, Sprout Social.
Sprout Social took data collected in 2018 by the Pew Research Center and made it into an easy-to-digest infographic. The infographic looks at the demographics of users on the major social media platforms. This infographic will help you decide which social media platforms your target audience spends the most time on.
Here are some examples of which marketing channels and social media platforms potential customers hang around. Let's assume your consumers are teenagers. I'm guessing most of you by now know that they can be found using SnapChat and Instagram. There is also a new player on the field: TikTok, formerly known as Musically.
Growth Hacking is Data Driven
Now let's cover the data: 70 percent of teenagers use SnapChat and 72 percent are using Instagram. Generation Z is looking for the newest, coolest social media platform, which is causing a massive decline in Facebook MAUs for this audience.
Jumping to the complete opposite generation, let's talk about Baby Boomers. As most of you know, in the last several years Baby Boomers have jumped on the social media bandwagon--either to reconnect with friends or to see photos of their grandchildren.
Take a guess which social media platform they are using. PAUSE You guessed it: Facebook. Forty-one percent of Baby Boomers use Facebook. The shocking other channel they are using is YouTube. In fact, 40 percent of Baby Boomers consume content on YouTube.
But don't expect Boomers to post TikTok videos anytime soon unless their grandchildren decide to put them in one of their prank videos.
We've covered two generations here. When you get a chance, check out the infographic Sprout Social created to look at different age ranges, genders and other demographics to see where your audience is spending their time on social media.
A Digital Marketing Trap
Now that we know which social media platforms our audience uses, the next logical step is to market to them via these channels. But be careful because this can be a trap.
Why would marketing to your audience on social media platforms they use be a trap? Well, without considering which type of content performs well on the channel plus the capabilities or resources you may or may not have at your disposal, you could easily end up failing on that social media platform.
We've developed a strategy that we call the CAR Method. What it does is looks at the type of content that works well on the platform, then factors whether or not you are capable of being successful on that platform and to what degree.
CAR is an acronym we've developed that stands for:
C: Capabilities
A: Access
R: Resources
Starting with C for capabilities, C refers to the hard skills needed to create content. This consists of being able to use Photoshop, edit videos, record sound, write scripts and blog posts, and more. Assessing the capabilities you have will start you down the path of determining which marketing channels and social media platforms will work best.
Next we have A for access, referring to the level of access you have to your customers, industry experts and other human resources. The type of access you have will determine what kind of content you can produce, and the means through which you can deliver it.
Lastly, we have R for resources, which refers to the capital you have to invest in the resources that you lack. For example, if you don't have an in-house video editor, but you can afford to outsource one, those funds become a resource for you to get the job done. Or maybe you have someone on your team who has light editing experience and can edit the video. If you don't have the financial resources to hire a video editor, then you might decide to skip filming long form videos altogether and focus on creating different types of content instead. The more resources you have, the more options available to test different content.
It's important to remember the acronym CAR when determining channel, platform and content. You need to evaluate your capabilities, understand who you have access to, and finally know which resources are available for content creation.
How to Leverage Social Media Marketing
What are you capable of doing on a given social media platform, and what types of marketing strategies and tactics will work best for you there? Well, that depends on the factors we described above using the CAR Method. And of course it depends on your target audience and their demographic characteristics.
In order to effectively leverage social media marketing, you must survey the landscape and assess which types of content are performing well on each of the major social media platforms. What kind of content is doing well on Facebook… and are you capable of creating that content? I can tell you that right now, long form video, infographics and blog posts are doing extremely well on Facebook.
You'll have to take inventory of your CAR to determine how quickly you can growth hack your way to maximum ROI. Do you have access to a graphic designer? Do you have someone who can create video? Do you have a writer? If you have these capabilities and access to human resources, then you can create the right content and succeed on Facebook.
It's the same with Instagram and the other popular social media platforms. What capabilities do you have to create the right content per platform? For example, when you have access to a creative team and content development process, you can easily create and promote Stories. If you don't, then Instagram isn't the best social media platform for you to play on.
At this time, the Instagram Feed is not performing as well as Stories, so if your target audience is on Instagram, then you need to be producing Stories--frequently, consistently and authentically. Note that outsourcing Stories content production can become very costly, and might not be the most efficient use of your budget. So you'll want to think about how your internal team can create engaging Stories content for Instagram using fewer resources.
Video
With regard to long form video, being able to use a camera and edit footage are the minimum requirements. But if you have the capital to secure lighting, sound and set design, it can dramatically improve the quality of the video. Another thing that helps keep attention is animation. This can be outsourced even on the leanest budgets.
Using the example of long form video for Facebook--we have access to customers. That means we will likely shoot customer testimonial videos or tell stories through our customers.
We've covered the ways in which growth hacking accelerates digital marketing strategies to create the fastest path to revenue growth, with an emphasis on social media being one of the most cost effective tactics. Using the CAR Method, that is, capabilities, access and resources, we've also discovered the must haves when it comes to executing on your marketing plan for creating the right types of content for your target audience and business.
Interested in learning more about growth hacking your way to digital marketing success (i.e., higher ROI and lots of cash)?
Tune into Growth Hack by Papi Digital each week for practical tools, tips, and techniques designed to supercharge your campaigns and keep you ahead of the curve.