You are a Facebook fanatic, MySpace specialist and Youtube aficionado – and you are over the age of twenty-five. No, you are not experiencing a mid-life crisis. You are a social media marketing expert. As such, you know that social media can be incredibly expensive. However, there are several steps that you – and other companies – can use to drastically cut marketing costs.
The Basics
The simplest tool to reduce expenses is to make marketing more effective. Andrew Lennon, writer for The Daily Anchor, notes that effective social media marketing entails “Sewing ad offers into the very fabric of the platform in such a way that the ads actually enhance user experience. Yes, ads that consumers would be happy to see, and not only see but engage with.” Jim Tobin, Ignite Social Media consultant, places the average 2-3 month social media campaign cost at $50,000. With such high figures, marketing is too costly to support failing programs.
Slash Direct Costs
Several traditional social media marketing strategies can be much more costly than need be. Pay Per Click (PPC) and Pay Per View (PPV) advertisements can be extremely expensive, especially on first-tier networks, such as Google or Yahoo. Switching to Cost Per Action/Acquisition (CPA) advertisements, in which the usage fee is only paid when the desired action (purchase) occurs, can significantly reduce costs.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an essential tactic for online-savvy marketers. When working with programs like Google Adwords, experts suggest using long tail keywords (four or more words) to eliminate irrelevant results, listing broad words (”cattle” rather than “longhorn”), and including negative keywords (words that are excluded from search) to narrow search results listings.
Make an E-Friend
Online partnerships are successful methods for garnering customer traffic and interest. This is called “Affiliate Marketing,” and was pioneered by sites like Google and Amazon.com. For example, Amazon.com proffers a popular Associate program, and offers free Fulfillment Web Services (FWS). Other online partnerships sport similar opportunities.
Let Someone Else Blog
Research shows that over 40% of corporate blogs have generated customers. A quality blog should have SEO savoir-faire, offer customer service opportunities, and be used as a free market research avenue by developing an ardent reader base. However, writing a steady stream of interesting content fries the noggin and takes time. Using freelance writers to write blogs considerably shrinks time costs, as well as using freelance writers for periodic content updates or website introductory material.
Stop Interrupting!
In this melodramatic marketing tragedy, interruption advertisements lead the pitiable cast. Andrew Lennon writes, “[Millennials] don’t listen to the radio or read print newspapers, they gloss over magazine ads and fast forward through TV commercials, and they probably haven’t ever clicked on a banner ad.” With the barrage of commercial snippets that attack a customer every day, interruption ads are ignored. In their book “Permission Marketing,” Seth Godin and Don Pepper write: “Interruption marketing fails because it is unable to get enough attention from consumers.” Use humor, stories, and interactive strategies to capture consumer interest.
Social media marketing campaigns should not cost $50,000. Aim for advertisement effectiveness and time management – and watch costs shrink while business thrives.
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