In Season 1 of our series “Marketing Rocketfuel,” Drew and Michael have been discussing the various hidden costs that come with using social media for business marketing. On this 5th episode of the season, our experts discuss the hidden costs that are associated with using social media as a marketing tool. If you are involved in a small to mid-level business and are ready to grow to the next level, then this series is for you.
Social Media Marketing Isn’t Free
Promoting your business through social media is in and out of itself a booming business. As Michael points out, an analysis conducted by The Content Factory found that “the average organization spends between $200 and $350 per day on social media marketing. This works out to between $6,000 and $10,500 per month or between $72,000 and $126,000 per year.”
Social media is a great tool for business promotion and gaining visibility. However, social media can be used for so much more! In order for social media to be effective for business growth, it must help you move your business from being visible, to people actually doing business with you.
Which Platform is Right For My Business?
Drew pointed out that one of the most commonly asked questions he receives is at Escape Plan Marketing is “what social media platform should my business be on?” Drew pointedly answers this with “it depends.” Just like a brick and mortar business, your social media presence is all about location, location, location.
Platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Pinterest at this time are the major players in the social media space.
Some business owners wonder if the social media platform Snapchat will work for their business. Drew makes a point to note that this is not the best platform. He states that this is due to that fact that the videos you record on Snapchat go out instantly. If you have an error, it may require many trials to fix it. This can simply be a waste of time and energy when another platform can give you more bang for your buck.
Assessing the Competition
Michael points out that It is important to remember that you are not just competing with other businesses in your industry. You are competing with everyone. From Kim Kardashian to the NFL, everyone is vying for views. Therefore, you must make sure that are on the appropriate platform for your target audience. Say you have a facebook page, but all of your customers are on Instagram, then you are wasting your energy on Facebook. By being on a social media platform that your audience doesn’t use, you are essentially building another business from the ground up.
Produce My Own Content or Let Someone Else Do It For Me?
According to Drew, when you are starting a business, you should be producing and posting something everyday. Invest in a tripod and camera, and develop a personality with your footage. Have fun with your social media! However, as your business grows, it will become inevitable that you will need to change your focus away from being in charge of your social media presence. The time it will take to fine tune your videos, such as a reel (short form video), eventually needs to shift to growing your business growth while you outsource the content production.
But How Do I Outsource My Content Production?
How do I outsource my content? An agent can’t be with me everyday at my business. One idea Drew gives is to shoot video footage yourself and then share them in a file with your marketing expert. The marketer can then make edits and
Or if that’s too much, schedule time with your agency for them to shoot enough footage for your social media posts. This does come with an increase in costs. At that point, you will need to evaluate the return on investment for having an outside agency produce your social media content. Ask yourself “am I making enough money to make it worth what I spend on outsourcing my social media content?” It’s very easy to spend a lot, but are you making it back?
The Hidden Costs of Social Media Ads
Most marketing companies will charge you a fee to produce content, to manage ad campaign, as well as to pay for the ad budget. These costs can wildly vary. Facebook ads can be anywhere from $200/month to $50,000/month. It all depends on who you are trying to reach and how often.
Because there is so much prep in producing social media content, it is also great to consider to “batch produce” content. Batch production means that you produce content at one tie for multiple posts. For example, if you are promoting one product per day, you may want to record video content for 5 products at one time. This will streamline and systematize your content production. This will save you a ton of time. If you don’t do this, and then a marketing agency must do this for you, your agency will charge you for it. Creating systems and process for content creation can save you not just time, but a significant amount of money.
Don’t have a strategy or system for content production? It may truly be worth the money to pay an agency to develop that strategy for you. This is their business and they can be an incredible asset in recommending how to have a successful content production plan.
Get An Outsiders View
Sometimes in business it is difficult to see your business from an objective point of view. Michael likens this to reading a beer bottle from the inside out. A fresh set of eyes can be extremely valuable when assessing and developing a social media marketing plan.
Action Tip: Review Your Company’s Social Media Channels
When is the last time you posted on your social media platforms? How often do you post? Has it been 3 years since your lost post? Are your graphics current? Is all of your information up to date on your social media channels? Are your business operating hours correct on your facebook page? Is your content complete or are there holes? And frankly, is your content even relevant? These are the hard questions that you really need to ask yourself.
Drew and Michael have a few suggestions. It’s possible you may need to beef up the amount of content on your platforms. Some companies even post multiple times a day! Post at least once a week that is relevant to your customer base. Feel free to shut down a social media page that you can’t keep up with. You have a twitter account that no one is following? Shut it down. Do something and do it well. Execute one channel well and then expand it! Michael recommends that you start with producing video. Keep producing and getting in those videos to make yourself more and more comfortable with making content.
And, finally: get a new phone. If your phone camera quality is poor, put out a little extra cash to buy one of better quality. Smartphones have better cameras than ever before. Take advantage of them before you step up your game and invest in extra equipment. And on a side note: hold your phone on portrait view when recording videos so that you don’t have that your video is in full display mode.
The Ultimate Question Is..Do you want to grow your business?
Like, Comment, and Subscribe to Rocketfuel Marketing today.
This series is sponsored by Escape Plan Marketing. EPM provides rocketfuel for small to midsize companies. If you are looking to grow your business to the next level, click here to gain access to our FREE Marketing Audit Checklist. Reach out to Drew at Escape Plan Marketing for all of your marketing needs.
