In our years of providing digital marketing for clients, we have found that there is one thing that the successful campaigns (long-term or short-term) seem to have in common: providing quality content.
It’s a misconception that a company can simply “hand over their [insert social media platform] account” to our firm (or one like ours) and everything will just magically fall into place.
In short, our successful clients are in touch with us every day or at least once each week. The reason this is important? You are the expert for your product or service. You have “insider” info and insight into your industry that we cannot simply make up, or even easily find out.
When we see social media campaigns struggle to gain ground, often these are accounts where there has been little communication or information provided from the very beginning. It really can be an uphill battle, resulting in lack of results and mounting frustration.
What do we do, then? Our expertise is in marketing strategy and techniques. Of course our team of project managers, marketers, and designers dive in to learning about your business, industry and customer base as much as possible, absolutely. But the fact remains that we can’t possibly learn what YOU know – often expected to launch a campaign in just a few weeks to a month’s time. These elements can be vital to the success of a marketing campaign; it’s a process, and it takes time.
You might hear marketing pros refer to a funnel (see diagram) Let’s look at each level.
- Awareness – potential customers find out about you, about your business, where they even learn your business name!
- Interest – customers are looking for more basic information, such as where you are located, what product or service do you provide, etc.
- Consideration – customers begin comparing your business and your competition. Do you have the lower prices? A better website? More active Facebook page?
- Intent – a customer is now specifically looking for your business, product or service; they are looking specifically for YOU! This is a pivotal point to capture them as customers, or they may walk away and find someone else.
- Evaluation – here’s where they may actually talk to you, spend more time on your website, perhaps get to know you and your business or products a little bit better.
Up until now it has been all about Marketing. According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, “marketing” is the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service. Notice that we haven’t actually convinced the customer to buy anything just yet, but rather attempting to convince them to purchase something (either a product or service).
The final stop within this funnel – which also can be used as a sales funnel – is Purchase. This is, like the title says, where they purchase a product or service from you. Now your potential customer has seen something on your Facebook page or website and they like that product (remember, they’ve already done their research, so that gets them in the door of your business, or gets them to ‘click’ that button on your website). So at this point – once they walk in your door or click that purchase button – they are now a customer.
And don’t be discouraged if a purchase is not made the first time they stop in or click to your website…a lot of decisions are made window shopping – and they’ll be back the next day!
So back to the matter at hand: Content, Content, Content. What can you do as our client to ensure optimal marketing campaign performance?
- Share with us the blogs you follow
- Provide for us a list of your competitors and any insight you have into their strategies that work (or don’t work)
- Send us photos of work completed, products or “action shots” of your team providing services to your own customer base.
- Got testimonials? Make sure we see them so we can share with new potential customers. There’s rarely anything quite as convincing as the words of loyal customers.
These things individually don’t seem that big, but the cliche rings true here – sometimes it’s the little things which are most important. When you provide us with these things, our expertise in strategy and marketing will be of much better use and will lead to great success.
Sarah Howk
Media Specialist