Services, Solutions, and Skills: Why Social Media is Integral to Your Marketing Strategy
After the days of shuffling around your “top friends,” adding music to your profile, and seeing Tom’s face consistently popping up across the platform, it’s hard not to laugh a little as we now watch TikToks, monitor political news on Facebook, and plaster our pet photos across Instagram.
That is to say, social media has grown, hasn’t it? And, in that case, shouldn’t your marketing strategy, too?
Saying “Hello” to Social Media
With the advent of the internet came the inherent opportunity for marketers to embark upon the newest advertising frontier. And as the total amount spent on online advertising grew exponentially by the early 2000s, it was only a matter of time before social media platforms began to dip their toes into the waters of online revenue generation, too.
Today? Social media advertising is expected to amass a total of $39.6 billion by the end of 2020, which is approximately 9.4% higher than that of 2019.
Of course, many entrepreneurs today seeking social media glory (or attention, at the very least) may not necessarily find that surprising, seeing as internet users are reported to spend a daily average of 2 hours and 22 minutes per day on social platforms.
Thus, as social media continues to flourish, so, too, will the opportunities for businesses to attract and advertise to new audiences.
It Pays to be Social
While we may have started by discussing the advertising-specific avenues of social media, it goes without saying that these platforms act as more than mere digital billboards for brands. Rather, they act as the venue by which businesses can attract new individuals, thereby increasing their overall rate of exposure.
In fact, according to a 2020 analysis conducted by Hootsuite, “52% of all online brand discovery still happens in public social feeds,” meaning that, on a year-over-year basis, more and more consumers are turning to social media to feed their spending habits.
In fact, this trend is likely to increase in the near future, judging by the current breakdown of active social media usage by generation:
Baby Boomers — 48.2%
Gen X — 77.5%
Millennials — 90.4%
And that’s before we take Gen Z into account. In short, social media isn’t just another avenue for advertising your particular brand or product (though it is that, too)! It also allows you to interact with your audience, rather than interrupting them, thereby increasing your ability to strengthen your brand identity, monitor and track leads, place yourself at the center of the conversation, and more.
Social Innovation and Integration
By integrating social media into your overall marketing strategy, you’re providing yourself with the opportunity to innovate and explore new methods of audience engagement that you might not otherwise have with other forms of traditional media advertising.
After all, social media may be just one cog in the proverbial marketing machine, but it’s also one that continues to grow and thrive as technology and communities develop.
That’s why, here at Mad Men Marketing, our social media team comes equipped with an arsenal of services, including the ability to help you generate effective paid social media and strategize your organic social media!
We understand that your attention should be rooted in the day-to-day responsibilities of running your business, not reading every little social media comment or message that lights up your push notifications. Thus, we don’t just offer social innovation and management, but we also provide you with monthly analytics to clarify your brand’s return on investment, as well as strategize the effectiveness of future social media campaigns.
If you’re ready to interact with your customers (as opposed to interrupting them), contact Mad Men Marketing today by calling 904-355-1766!
Digitally Designed, Expertly Executed: Using Google Ads for Your Marketing Strategy
Results Within Reach
Before diving into the finer details of numbers and statistics, we simply cannot stress enough the overall control and transparency that optimized digital advertising can provide, particularly when one utilizes Google Ads as a major component of their advertising strategy.
This is because Google Ads (formerly known as Google Adwords) allows you to track and measure your results to the nth degree, thereby increasing your ability to adjust your budget or campaign strategy as you see fit. And while its overall control and transparency have already exceeded expectations, it will only continue to get better from here.
This is because the flexibility of Google Ads extends to that of tracking efficacy. Where measuring your return on ad spend (ROAS) from traditional media may prove challenging — if not inaccurate, at worst — the transparency of Google Ads’ measurements can provide you with clear and detailed results that enhance your ability to both target your ideal audience and capture more leads.
After all, when utilized correctly, “about four times as many people are more likely to click on a paid search ad on Google (63%) than on any other search engine, [including] Amazon (15%), YouTube (9%), and Bing (6%),” as reported by Clutch in 2019.
Tracking Your Investment, Tracking Your Success
Speaking of tracking your results, digital advertising is all about knowing your conversion rate and how, exactly, your leads are interacting with your brand. Whether you’re reviewing the rate of app installations, form submissions on your website, or even phone calls and store visits as a result of your customers’ online searches, this information is invaluable to both you and your business if you are going to meet or exceed your year-over-year growth goals.
The good news? Google can provide you with this and more.
Perhaps this is why, according to research conducted by SEMRush, 62 percent of marketers use leads as a primary metric (rather than impressions, for example) for measuring their success, with approximately 67 percent of the participants relying on search-engine optimization (SEO) as their preferred method for achieving results.
And when you begin to truly invest in your company’s SEO and pair that with Google Ads, your marketing strategy can only become that much stronger. Thus, if your business is ready to dive into the rich world of digital advertising, Google is simply the logical (and most profitable) place to start.
Signing Onto Your Strategy
All that being said, a robust advertising plan would ideally include multiple mediums for calling consumers to action — like television commercials, radio spots, billboards, and more — as they all serve to complement one’s digital efforts.
And here at Mad Men Marketing, our digital team comes equipped with an array of services and skills, thereby allowing you to mix and match your ideal marketing mediums while continually optimizing your digital strategy.
We understand that trying to do this on your own is daunting to say the least, and that to someone that doesn’t spend a lot of time doing it is easily overwhelmed by everything that can be done and that needs to be done. We don’t just offer expertise, we offer digital strategists and developmental specialists who are ready to help you enhance your overall business model. If you’re ready to interact with your customers (as opposed to interrupting them), contact Mad Men Marketing today by calling 904-355-1766!
The Rise of Social Commerce (s-Commerce)
We've seen companies like Amazon and Facebook transition from a laser-focused CD and movie source and social media network respectively, into multi-faceted money making machines. Amazon has positioned itself as THE online marketplace in the United States and has diversified into other web services like hosting and marketing as well as developing its own distribution infrastructure to the point that it can rival virtually any logistics company and it has its sights set on grocers too.
Meanwhile, Facebook has gone from cool collegiate exclusivity to the most ubiquitous social channel in the world. Recently, Facebook revealed that it would amplify its existing e-commerce ads to account for showcase shopping ads. Just like Google, Facebook is taking advantage of their online resources to help advertisers push more merchandise just in time for holiday shopping. The new ad format allows advertisers to display one main picture with several product images that would, ostensibly, have their own unique landing pages. This gives the potential consumer a broader understanding of what the retailer may be selling and what's specially priced.
Pandora's box is open and there's no going back. Linking a bank account to everyone's personal Facebook page isn't far off and this may raise security concerns all over the world, but for now, social media will undoubtedly see a rise in sell-through, especially with reasonably priced impulse buys. It will continue to command an ever-increasing amount of your advertising budget as their ads evolve in terms of what can be done with them creatively and who can be targeted strategically. Currently, only a few heavy hitters are testing out the new format, but look for a wider roll-out soon with other companies following suit in 2017. Admittedly, I laughed derisively when some people claimed that Facebook was coming for Google. Well, it appears that not only do they want to compete with Google, but with Amazon and Alibaba as well. What's more is that they seem to have the golden touch right now and I wouldn't put anything past them.
Mobilizing Marketing: The Shift to Mobile Ads
Clearly, mobile ads are the future. Like, the very near future. Maybe by 3:30 today. Utilizing mobile advertising potential to its maximum involves real-time marketing savvy and ubiquitous access to the demos that you are trying to reach. Mobile advertising allows for both. Whether its through social media or direct email/text, companies can use mobile ads to get their products and their brand literally in the hands of consumers.
Technology trends are pointing towards wearables and modular applications. My 5 year-old has a tablet. So does my 93 year-old great-grandmother. Opposite ends of the age demo but digitally connected to the world in the same way. The way that companies market themselves as a whole is going to continue to see a fundamental shift towards mobile due to media itself going that way. As the younger generations age, the way they consume media will continue to evolve to be more accessible to fit their lifestyles.
As consumers continue to cut ties with traditional cable/satellite operators and leave the desktop computer behind in favor of tablets and smartphones, the ability for brands to reach consumers through these methods wanes as well.
Watching shows on the train to work. In the car on a road trip. Riding the bus to school. In the cart on the 13th tee. It's not what is soon to be happening. It's what's already happening. And although the willingness to spend on mobile content is there for those companies that want to stay trendsetters in brand awareness, there are still many companies slow to the party when it comes to mobile marketing.
Millennial Generation. Who are they?
Clients right now are not really focused on the millennial generation – DEMO: adults born after 1980. The truth is, should companies start looking to a long term brand shift, that positions them better with millennials? As a millennial myself, I would tend to lean towards…who can really say at this point. Why are we defining a generation's future buying potential – the entire reason we advertise to a demo – based on research that creates a label of age and wants/needs, focused on right now mind you. Why doesn't anyone talk about generations X and Y? It seems strange to me that we just jump right over two generations from baby boomers, straight to millennials. One could, and should argue that generation X and Y are essentially one in the same. With that, why are 34-45 years olds neglected to be “sought” after?
It's like this, a bigger percentage of the population, in terms of sheer numbers and buying power, is not the millennial generation. My stance is this, don't neglect the consumer with the buying power today, and give the millennial generation time to become a more powerful consumer, before trying to tilt your business plan. My generation of “millennials” is indeed still very fickle. Many of us are still trying to figure out what we want to do for a living. While the majority of us are concerned with being a good parent, having a successful marriage and helping others in need – many of us simply don't have the income yet to be considered a target demo for the majority of small business owners.
The way to position your business with any generation, not just millennials, is to listen and become responsive to needs. I'm not saying to become reactive, but rather be smart about how you are positioning your advertising and marketing efforts to all generations. Have the ability to develop long-term campaigns that can pivot based on consumer behavior. We have some great research available to the public on millennials, contact us today for a free copy of our research. support@madmenmarketinginc.com