Is there a formula that tells you if it’s time for your brand to engage in social media marketing?

By Kevin McIntosh

If you know your audience is online and you’re wondering if social media marketing is for you, here are 10 questions you might ask yourself to see if you’re ready for the social media marketing journey.

1. Am I ready to participate in conversations with my audience even if the conversations aren’t aimed at driving an immediate sale?

Social media marketing differs in traditional marketing in that it’s less about “selling” and more about building relationships through online conversations and sharing of information. You’ll need to accept this truth if you want to increase your chances for success with social media marketing. The good news is, building relationships means building trust. And building trust with customers is more important than ever.

2. Am I ready to to let my audience have more and more control of my brand?

Once your brand is out there, you give up control. People can comment on it, and dice and slice your content anyway they want. However, that can be a good thing. In the process, what you learn can help you push your brand where it needs to go to be more successful. And the truth is, it’s already out of your control. People may be doing all of the above already. It’s just that with social media marketing, you’ll be aware of it.

3. Am I ready to listen to the opinions and ideas of my audience to truly learn from them and in that process, actually let their ideas impact my product / service?

Related to question number 2. If you’re learning from your audience, are you willing to implement what you learn into your marketing or operations to make improvements that better fit audience trends? The ultimate result is that you’ll create brand advocates who become your virtual marketing and PR team, telling others about your brand.

4. Can I see value in any other metrics other than actual sales, as long as the metrics indicate a trend of people moving closer to the sale?

For example, can  you see the ROI in changing an influencer’s sentiment about your brand? As stated in question 1, conversations in social media shouldn’t be aimed at making an immediate sale. So your metrics reports may show encouraging data that indicates that more and more people are moving closer to the sale, but just haven’t fully converted. Depending on what you’re selling, the process can take time. But with social media monitoring and other tools, you can measure results to see what impact your efforts are making before the sale and to see if you’re moving closer to that objective.

5. Am I OK with making mistakes and learning from them?

A while back, I was watching an online presentation by Charlotte Li of Forrester Research and author of the social media book, Groundswell. She made it clear that in social media marketing, you will make mistakes. I’ll add that the truth is, mistakes are made in all forms of marketing. But what makes social media marketing different is that your audience can easily remind you and others of your mistakes. In other words, if you posted some of your promotional materials online for viewers to comment on, you’d likely hear the truth that your promotional ideas may not be all that great. Still, when you use social media marketing to let your audience guide your marketing, the mistakes can still be minimal.

6. Am I ready to devote resources (i.e. employees, time and money) to a continual social media marketing program for at least an extended trial period?

Done correctly, social media marketing can be time intensive. However, advantages like no costs for media and the value of leveraging online word-of-mouth to your advantage can be well worth the time required. 

7. Am I ready to think about social media strategically, versus simply looking at all the cool, shiny tools?

If you simply focus on something like, “Setting up a Facebook page” or posting a YouTube video, you’ll likely be disappointed with the results. Social media is a strategic process that uses tools to accomplish specific objectives. The good thing though, is that there is a method to the madness.

8. Do I appreciate the value of identifying and engaging with a single person who can influence dozens, hundreds or even thousands of people in their purchase and brand behavior?

Because of the exponential power of influence, 10 pairs of eyeballs looking at your content in a social media context can have a lot more impact than 100 pairs of eyeballs looking at your content in other marketing channels.

9. Do I appreciate the value of being able to change attitudes and beliefs about my brand?

Sometimes, simply changing the attitudes and beliefs of an audience can be the biggest hurdle in converting them into customers. Social media marketing can be a great way to do that simply because you can often pinpoint those with the wrong attitudes and beliefs and with social media, you can engage with them before they spread their false ideas to others.

10. Do I believe that the cost of NOT participating in social media is greater than the cost of participating in social media?

Or to put it another way, is the cost of letting people say whatever they want about your brand online greater than the cost of defending your brand? Is the cost of learning what it would take to get people to spread the word about your brand greater than the cost of continuing to use traditional paid media?

Those are some of the more important questions I think marketers should consider when trying to decide if they’re ready for social media marketing. Any other questions you can think of?

-Kevin McIntosh

Kevin McIntosh lives in Nashville and has worked on the marketing campaigns of over a dozen Fortune 500 brands. His workshop, “The Social Media Marketing Journey” shows companies how to use social media marketing to accomplish a wide range of objectives.

recession lane

Originally uploaded by ZenTraveler

October 2008 changed everything. It changed credit availability for businesses and consumers. It wiped out consumer confidence. And it must change the way businesses market.

Why? Because business is now more competitive than ever.

Since October, you’ve likely experienced at least one of the following:
1. Current clients/customers have cut back spending.
2. Current clients/customers have totally stopped spending.
3. Prospective clients/customers have put planned expenditures on hold.

Furthermore, your current clients/customers may be getting more attention from your competitors who are trying to make up for their lost business as well.

If you thought business was competitive before, you haven’t seen anything yet. Recessions are the business world’s way of thinning the herd.

It’s now survival of the fittest. It’s the businesses who innovate and offer the best perceived value to their clients that will thrive in a recession.

So to keep on your competitive toes, here are 5 marketing-related questions business owners need to ask:
1. Is our marketing message as relevant today as it was before October?
Your marketing message may have worked for years. But an economic shake-up can change things real fast. What’s important to people when making purchasing decisions can change. Your marketing message may have to change, too.

2. If not, what should our new marketing message be?
Maybe it’s a value message. Maybe it’s a message that says your business is solid and is here for the long haul. Or it could be a message that reflects how your business is changing with the times to reflect the new economic environment. Look at what’s going on in your industry right now and ask how your marketing message can be adjusted to better reflect the times.

3. What new opportunities does the recession present for our business?
Are there new markets that have opened up for you? Perhaps larger clients would be more attracted to working with you than before for cost-savings reasons. Perhaps the service your business offers will now be attractive to companies who are now outsourcing for the first time due to employee cutbacks. Remember, just because some of your regular opportunities have dried up, doesn’t mean new ones can’t be created.

4. What can we do to provide greater value to our clients?
In a recession, everything becomes more value-driven than ever. Take a good honest look at your service and/or product to see what you can do to offer greater value. And make sure you communicate it in your marketing.

5. Is it time to explore new ways of getting our marketing message out there?
Some of the ways you’ve marketed over the past years may not be as effective now. That trade show that you’ve always spent much of your annual marketing budget on may not have a big turnout this year, as companies cut back on travel expenses. Perhaps this year, to get the ROI you need on marketing, you’ll need to start to leverage social media and public relations to your advantage to create digital word-of-mouth.

October 2008 changed everything. As a result, you are going to feel the competition breathing down your neck in the next year like never before.

If you want to survive this recession, the way you market will have to change.

–Kevin McIntosh

Originally uploaded by emdot

What is a customer worth to you? I ask that question, because until you understand the lifetime value of a customer, you’ll always have trouble justifying spending money on marketing.

This is how companies like Coca-Cola and Proctor & Gamble can justify spending billions each year to sell products that cost as little as 99 cents. They aren’t advertising to capture a one-time sale. They’re advertising to capture customers for a lifetime. They’re advertising to develop brand loyalty. Their annual sales don’t simply reflect the marketing expenditures they’ve made over the year. Those sales reflect the cumulative impact of advertising over several years.

For example, let’s assume a restaurant owner runs an advertising promotion that brings in 150 new customers in a week who spend an average of $14.95 per customer. That represents $2,242.50 in revenue. Next, assume the restaurant has done its job in creating a dining experience that makes customers want to come back, and that these customers come back 2 times a month for the next 5 years, spending an average of $14.95. Each customer then is worth $358.80 per year, which in five years represents $1,794 in sales per customer. That single promotion then has earned the owner $269,100 in sales over a 5 year period ($1,794 x 150 customers). That doesn’t even begin to take into account the people who they may start to invite to the restaurant for dinner, who then become regular customers as well.

A few months ago, I had a client who told me a single customer could be worth as much as $50,000 in profit to his business. Yet this client had trouble understanding why he should spend a few hundred dollars to write and distribute a press release.

If a bank announced an investment product that could yield $50,000 in a short period of time for an investment of $500, there would be people lined up for miles to purchase it.

Marketing/branding is an investment. It’s an investment in attracting and retaining customers who could possibly generate revenue for you far in excess of your investment. And that doesn’t even take into consideration the extra revenues those customers could generate for you through word-of-mouth marketing.

So when it’s time to budget for your marketing projects, don’t just think about the immediate return on investment. Think about the lifetime value of a new customer gained.

–Kevin McIntosh