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Are You Spending Too Much on Social Marketing? How to Trim Your Costs

January 21, 2016 No Comments

Featured article by Cher Zavala, Featured Technology Author

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Marketing experts hear it all the time: “Can we just do some social media stuff? It’s free.”

And yes, social media marketing can be inexpensive, and save your company money in the long term. A responsive presence on Twitter and Facebook can help you trim your customer service budget, for example, while promoting your content via those channels can drive more traffic to your site.

It’s undoubtedly less expensive than traditional advertising, but what many business owners and marketing professional fail to realize is that social media marketing isn’t necessarily free — and that the companies that see the greatest success from social marketing actually spend quite a bit of money on the tactic.

If you’re like many small businesses, you’re struggling to find balance between “cheap” and “effective” when it comes to marketing. It’s a line that you can walk successfully, but to start you have to stop throwing money away on social media campaigns.

Social Marketing: Where Is the Money Going?

The first step in trimming expenses is determining where the money is being spent. The most common expenses in social media marketing include:

Content creation. It takes time and resources to create content. Even a “simple” blog post requires an investment of time; more complex content, like videos, requires a greater outlay of cash. Even small businesses may use the services of a freelance writer to create content.

Content management. Someone needs to plan, place and analyze the effectiveness of social media content. According to Contently, an experienced social media manager can cost your company between $4,000 to $10,000 per month.

1. While the tools required to analyze your social media presence may be free, they still require an investment of time in order to gain insights.

Social media advertising and promotion. While content creation and management can be managed in house, without any “extra” outlay of cash, changes to how Facebook presents content to users means that many companies are forced to pay in order to have their posts seen by individuals who have already liked or followed them on the site. On average, only about 2.6 percent of your followers actually see your posts unless you pay to promote them. That’s not even taking into account social media advertising, an entirely separate tactic that can potentially cost thousands of dollars per week.

So on the one hand, yes, social media is free in the sense that you do not have to pay to open or maintain an account. However, if you want to use social media as a marketing tactic and actually turn it into real conversions, you will have to spend some money.

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Keeping Costs in Check

It’s easy to let social media costs spiral out of control. While a study by Moz found that spending as little as $1 a day on Facebook advertising can grow your audience by as many as 4,000 people in two weeks, you’ll spend a lot more than that to keep them engaged. By taking a strategic approach, though, you can increase your engagement while keeping the budget intact. More specifically, you can cut costs by:

– Creating content internally. Yes, you are still paying your people. But great content doesn’t only come from the marketing department. Brainstorm with your team about how everyone on your company can get involved with content creation. Maybe the sales team can develop a series of posts answering common customer questions, or the tech team can give some insight into unique product features. You don’t have to spend a lot of money for great content.

– Making social sharing easy. User engagement with your content increases SEO value and provides greater reach with your existing audience. When followers interact with your content, Facebook rewards you with more exposure. Create content that people will want to interact with, and make it easy for them to share it from your website or another source. Encourage them to share with a clear call to action.

– Get creative with your social media spending. For example, funnel any credit card rewards that your business earns toward boosting your social marketing; even $10 to $15 per month can give you more results. Review your analytical reports to see which areas are flourishing and which are lacking, and adjust your strategy as appropriate. The idea is to think outside of the “sponsored content is the only option” mindset and try different ways of attracting an audience.

For many companies, social media marketing is a process of trial and error. Being agile and willing to experiment and make adjustments along the way will improve your results, as will a change in mindset away from “social media is free.” Focus on techniques that keep your costs down, and the return on your investment will be high.

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