Businesses have long accepted that social media has massive marketing potential and can bring in a serious boost in revenue. For very little outlay and with no particular barriers to getting started, social media has evangelically been hailed by marketers as the key to the best return on investment (ROI) possible; a magic bullet.
Why would social media be falling out of favour?
However, as time is going on, social media is evolving and marketing using channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are becoming increasingly competitive. Indeed, it’s a saturated space where standing out in a crowd of millions is becoming increasingly difficult.
Having ridden the wave of social media marketing for the last decade and more, businesses have now started to take a long hard look at how beneficial it has infact become – and reinvesting time and budget into more traditional alternatives.
Diverting social media spend is worthy of consideration
Put simply, the success of a business’s social media campaign is largely dependent on how much effort has gone into other channels, and this is something companies are now waking up to. Let’s examine two companies: Company X and Company Y.
Company X decides to create a social media campaign and invest £150 a week towards marketing. Company Y spends £150 a week on traditional advertising and begins to build up a solid base of clients. Three months later, Company X has made some headway and is breaking even on its social media spend.
Company Y has a healthy customer base, and it’s now that they make the decision to launch a social media presence. At the end of the year, both Company X and Company Y have 1,000 followers each. However, Company X has invested around £1800, but Company Y has only spent the few hundred pounds needed for the social media campaign – and yet their posts are reaching a very similar number of people.
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Social media takes time
A good social media campaign is not just something you can do on a whim and expect it to suddenly produce more revenue. A healthy dose of time and effort is needed to construct a meaningful social media presence that actually works. Constant monitoring and engagement with users is vital too. It can easily take months or even years to see any kind of decent comeback.
Measuring return on investment
Going back to return on investment, it’s worth pointing out that not all ROI reporting is created equal. Even though around 77% of marketers regularly use at least one social media channel for business marketing purposes, only 48% of businesses claim to have seen any ROI at all. This could be for several reasons, but the main one is that the definition of a “return on investment” can significantly vary depending on the marketer. How is it actually measured? For example, when a marketer starts shouting about a 700% ROI it sounds amazing, but how have they arrived at their figures? Is it the number of visitors to the business’ social media pages? And how have the costs been calculated?
How can a business be sure it’s definitely due to a successful social media campaign and not simply down to a more traditional channel such as a well-timed piece of direct mail?
In a world where everyone’s voice is jostling to be heard, businesses are allocating their marketing budgets evermore wisely. It’s becoming apparent that social media isn’t necessarily the silver bullet it was first thought to be when it comes to the best ROI.
Traditional marketing methods – the trusty TV or radio advert, email campaigns and leaflet advertising for instance – still have their place. It’s simply which ones bring in the best return.
Years of experience – at your fingertips!
If you would like some further advice about the best use of advertising budgets in the current climate, here at bakergoodchild our team has years of experience behind us. To let us help you today, call us on 0800 612 1972 or use our contact form for a chat or to ask questions. Don’t forget to check out our case studies too.
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