Social media = yay / nay for business growth?

To cut to the chase – for a digital-first business, big YAY!

A lot of D2C marketers (especially those of the ROI-forward variety) tend to think of performance marketing as an easy one-stop fix to gain early adoption and traction; and anything else on brand or content is to be figured out at some ambiguous future time. And it can be. That’s why Meta ad spending is typically 90% of a new brand’s budget. 

HOWEVER, 

1. We all know Meta has gotten more and more crowded & expensive, making cold consumer CAC’s unsustainable for businesses

   
   

2. The era of storytelling is reigning supreme - with consumer options in key consumer categories at an all-time high, consumers are looking for something to tell you apart

   
   

3. Even in traditional marketing funnel terms; social can and does play a critical role in 3/5 stages: awareness, interest, AND advocacy!

   
   

4. Organic acquisitions (slow and steady) are by far the most profitable and loyal consumers in the long term (think better LTV/CAC, performance-marketers!); because they’re the most considered and engaged segment of consumers

So what should you do?

1. Align it with your business goals: Disconnected strategies won’t work. What’s the big bet product you’re spending the most money on, what’s the audience cohort you’re targeting – your social strategy needs to operate with the same core objective, albeit customized for the conversational nature of the platform.

   
   

2. Treat it as your TED Talk: Here’s your chance, your platform. As a founder/brand with a personality, this is your place to shine. Complete control over content to tell your story as you see fit. So tell it. Don’t sell the what, give them the why and the how.

   
   

3. Nurture and invest in it: Not necessarily money, but most definitely time! Content creation takes time and thought, and with the amount of examples, resources, and freelancers that exist today - it does not need to be cost-intensive. Exceptions aside, it’ll probably be months or effort before green shoots start to appear.

   
   

4. Reinforce: Tell them once, and then tell them again, but differently. You should have a maximum of 4-5 content buckets that you’re trying to land on your social, each post does not need to operate independently. 

   
   

5. Gather all the input you can: Use the 2-way communication opportunity! Get product feedback, content feedback, consumer behavior insights, and more. 

And how can you harness it into actual business outcomes?

1. Measure, with the same diligence you would your paid media! Key metrics you should look at: Reach rate, share rate, follower growth, and traffic to the website. Slice this by week, by content type, by product promoted, and learn fast to iterate fast. A softer measure is overall brand searches on Google or Amazon.

   
   

2. Redirect, the captive audience once developed. Ask them to test your products, and send them to the website to buy when there is a sale or a new product drop. If they’re engaged, they’ll do it - and it won’t feel pushy either.

   
   

3. Retarget, via paid media! Ideally, this audience should convert at the lowest CAC – and then become part of your CRM funnel to come through with no to low additional cost per transaction made.

If you’re still not quite sure exactly HOW you should go about building your social, hit us up anytime. We’re at meet@thebuildinc.com!