I have worked and taught in the field of media all my life, so I know the important role that advertising plays in providing the profitability which allows content that serves the public. But online advertising often isn't accomplishing what it should.
This article makes a couple of important points, showing that online advertising is far from a mature industry, and often does not accomplish the goals of the advertiser.
Procter & Gamble cut more than $100 million in digital marketing spending in the June quarter but there was little impact on its business, proving that their digital ads were largely ineffective.
The two most common complaints about digital advertising are that 1) advertisers are paying for ads that are viewed and clicked on by bots, not humans; and 2) ads are placed by thousands of automated “ad exchanges” that are out of control of the advertiser on sites and pages that don’t match the advertiser’s products.I have been teaching for almost 20 years that the Internet should be seen in terms of the relationships it facilitates, not in terms of the technology. I am fully convinced that the Internet, websites, and social media can be used to foster beneficial relationships between businesses/organizations and their customers/constituents. But I am not convinced that display advertising, inserted into websites and social media feeds, is the way to do it.
It is relatively easy to create an ad and then pay one of these ad exchanges to place the add in various sites and feeds THEY choose, based on the demographic information YOU specify. They later tell you how many users saw or clicked on the advertisement. As the article explains, there is great potential for the advertiser to be deceived about effectiveness, due to automated click bots, or the ad exchange putting the ads in bogus (or shall we say suboptimal) locations.
So how SHOULD businesses and organizations use social media and the Internet to promote their brand?
Here are my five strategies to get the most value out of your online marketing communications:
1. You have to engage in TWO-WAY interaction with your audience
Give them content that is relevant to their interests and when they respond, respond BACK to them to show them you are listening. This takes time, planning, and smarts.
The social media, itself, may be free, but the bigger your organization is, the more people hours and budget it takes to plan and create the content, to listen around the clock, and to make replies and help solve problems, all while perfectly aligning with your brand image and brand promise.
This process doesn't work via one-way advertising.
2. Use strong CONTENT MARKETING
People respond positively when the messages they receive are relevant to them. Messages that are not relevant get ignored, and frequent irrelevant messages may result in unfollowing. This is why businesses and organizations need to REALLY understand their customers -- who and where they are, their interests, and why they are or should be interested in what WE have to offer.
The highly-relevant content we create may be posted right in our social media feeds. It might be in a blog or other format that is linked to from our social media. But is also needs to be well-optimized for search engines, because the specific topic of the one particular content piece may be what allows someone to find us and decide to like/follow us.
This content will surely include text, but also video, graphics, and photography custom-produced for your social media posts.
3. Time of day you post is really important
Post your content at a time when YOUR people are most likely to be reading, so your content does not scroll down and get lost in the clutter. Some platforms may TELL you when your people are on. If not, you can experiment with posts in different day parts.
4. Call to Action
Every post should be crafted to stimulate some kind of action, even as simple as liking the post.
In persuasion theory, the way to get people to do BIG things is to first get them to agree to little things, and to then lead them along, step-by-step, toward the bigger things. These little things, as simple as liking or sharing, gets their thinking aligned the way you want, so when the bigger need or opportunity arises, they are pre-disposed to take the important action steps you want.
So EVERY content post should include some form of call to action.
5. Seek both frequency and reach
For decades, the dual emphases for advertising have been frequency and reach.
Reach means you DO want to get your message to as many people as possible, to help find prospects, i.e. people with whom you are not in contact. Your goal in online reach should be to get people to like/follow your feeds, or otherwise make initial contact.
But for building and strengthening the relationship between you and your constituents, the frequency of interaction is vital. The more positive contacts your audience has with you, the more likely they are to buy (or do whatever the action goals of your organization are), and this is driven by the frequency of contacts.
Of course, don't overwhelm them with 147 posts a day. Find the daily or weekly frequency that is right for you and them.
The balance between frequency and reach may be different for different businesses/organizations, but remember that they do different things and your online marketing content should never be only one or the other.
Reach is making initial contact. Freqency is about cementing the relationship.
Final Thoughts
Lots of people think that if they USE social media, they will automatically be effective at marketing via social media. Not really true.
There are many dimensions that must be accounted for and planned in social media marketing that go way beyond being a user.
I'll be teaching an online course on social media marketing in the spring semester through my school, Wayne State College. It will be regular tuition, but anyone anywhere can enroll, in a degree program or not, for undergraduate or graduate credit.
If you're interested, let me know. Registration will be in October.
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