Why Your Social Media Marketing Isn't Working

When it comes to Social Media, many companies know enough to realize that nearly everyone is connected to at least one social network. And if they’ve done their homework, they’ll realize that a great deal of benefits can come from interacting and advertising in the Social space. Thinking they’re already behind the rest of the pack, they hurriedly create social media accounts and, after a fury of liking, friending, re-tweeting, pinning, and posting, not much happens. How is this possible? Isn’t Social Media one of the easiest ways to create visibility and improve customer service? It is, but only if it’s done right from the start.

Problem 1: Timing is Everything

If you gathered anything from the example above, it’s probably that that particular company rushed into marketing with Social Media without any sort of preparation or plan in place. As with anything related to a business, performing research, weighing the options, and planning accordingly are vital to success. Once your business decides that entering the Social Networking realm is viable, have a detailed plan of action. Define goals and objectives, determine which social networks would be most effective for your industry and audience, and implement with a Social Media Management tool (if applicable).

How does this help me?

Not only having a plan, but sticking to it, keeps your company’s Social Media activity consistent, fresh, and (for the most part) automated, saving you time and resources. Also, clearly outlined goals give you a better idea of what future direction your campaign should take to reach its desired outcome.

Problem 2: Finding the Time

Usually a direct result of the first problem above is failing to allocate the appropriate amount of time, resources, & personnel to a new Social Media Marketing plan. Many newcomers to the digital marketing frontier often misinterpret the amount of work that goes into a smoothly running, revenue-generating digital marketing machine. A Social Media strategy cannot be implemented, maintained, and managed by a small handful of people, especially for larger companies. During the initial planning stages, it is essential to take the amount of time and work into consideration and allocate the necessary resources to the project.

How does this help me?

Having the foresight to designate specific tasks to the right individuals eliminates the risk of unexpected budget concerns and scheduling problems that can arise with workers’ other projects.

Problem 3: Where's the Data?

When all is said and done, a marketing campaign of any kind is nothing without analytical proof of its effectiveness at achieving its goal (See Image Below). Without the necessary data to track a campaign’s impact on revenue, leads, or sales, all of the effort put into it will be wasted. Thus, adding social media into a standalone analytics tool (such as Google Analytics) or one that is integrated into a prior solution (such as Hootsuite Analytics) is the best way to make the best decisions regarding your Social campaign.

How does this help me?

Having analytics data at your fingertips allows your business’s Social Media Marketing plan to remain flexible, offers the advanced ability to evaluate whether your goals and objectives are being achieved, and acts as proof of what’s working, what isn’t, and which campaign areas need improvement.

Is your Social Media Marketing campaign guilty in any of the areas above? Is there something you’ve experienced that you’d like to add? Let us know in the comments section!

Keyword Research to Improve Email Marketing Effectiveness

In the internet marketing environment, we have access to a lot of information about our existing customers as well as prospective customers. Keyword research provides information on terms and phrases that are relevant to a specific audience, but demographic and geographic information should also be leveraged to improve effectiveness of email marketing campaigns and promotions. By leveraging and testing keyword research, you can create more targeted campaigns, be more efficient with your message, and improve overall conversion rates.

Segmentation of Email Campaigns based on Keyword Research

The segmentation of email campaigns beyond demographic information can include segmenting by sales process, customer lifecycle, etc. You can use keyword research to align with your segmentation strategy and deliver keywords-rich content to relevant demographics such as Female/Male or by State (See Tables Below). Several keyword research tools such as Ispionage, SpyFu, Ad Intelligence, Google Insights, and Google Keyword Tool can provide valuable insights into keyword trends by age, geographic locations, and other demographic information.

Image 1: An example of demographics information by age & sex.

Image 2: An example of keyword research that is available at the state level. 


Keyword Targeting with Subject Line Testing

Email Marketing is still an effective tactic which should include keywords that are consistent with your SEO campaign. Implementing relevant and targeted keywords that are not only consistent with your products/services, but also with your demographics and geographic locations, will help to improve open rates, click-through rates, sharing of emails, lead generation, lower cost per acquisition, and increase profit margins. The most interesting opportunity for keyword insertion into Email Marketing is within the subject line and content of the email. The ability to implement keywords into the subject line should improve your open rates as long as the keywords are relevant to the desired target audience. In some cases, email software providers can implement subject line testing to improve the open rates and test new keywords within the subject line (as seen in the Image 3 Below).

Image 3: Shows an example of subject line test for email communications.

Content Strategies by Segmentation

Based on the information that’s available for keyword research, you can develop and test content strategies based on keyword research and trends. For example, Table 1 above shows the keyword “home mortgage loan” for females between the ages of 25-34 as being consistent with the audience. By implementing keywords and content, the likelihood of the content being read, as well as its click-through rates, social media sharing, and conversions, will increase.


More Insight into What Works by Segment

If you’re running a SEO or Pay per Click campaign, it’s important to leverage this information and not “reinvent the wheel.” Some of this information is accessible via Google Analytics, WebTrends, Omniture, etc., but you need to differentiate what works and what does not. Don’t just stop at the conversion itself. Look into the segments, subject lines, and content messages that are leading to quotes, leads, and sales. It is recommended that you simplify the reporting to more clearly align the campaigns, keywords, segments, and content strategies with completed actions on the website or within the email campaigns.

Muted Ads – Is Being Blocked Bad?

Google is always trying to give web surfers the best experience. Recently, with a change made to Display Advertising, Google has given the web surfer the capability to block or “mute” paid ads. As a marketer, initially my reaction was of fear and dread. Now, people on the web won’t just ignore my display ad, but go a step further and mute it! However, after thinking about this further, it may not be such a bad thing after all.

What is the new “Mute Ads” Feature?

The “Mute Ad” feature, which Google announced to the advertising world on June 29, is slowly being rolled out on their Display Network. This feature simply places an “X” next to the Ad Choice Logo on the top right hand side of your Advert.
If a web surfer chooses to click this “X,” then your advert will no longer appear to them, even if fit all of your targeting settings, such as placements and keywords. The first thoughts surrounding these “Muted Ads” were that they would lead to fewer Impressions and a decrease in reach.

How will “Muted Ads” Impact Your Display Campaigns?

Although getting fewer Impressions may be true, the “Muted Ads” could also mean lower costs, higher CTR (Click Through Rate), and decreased CPA (Cost per Acquisition). If you are a bidding CPM (Cost per 1,000 Impressions), then muted ads mean fewer Impressions to viewers who don’t want to see your ads – or less wasted dollars. If you do see a drop in Impressions, then overall Cost should drop with it, seeing as how you are paying per 1,000 Impressions. If you are running CPC (Cost per Click) bidding on the Display Network, “Muted Ads” can help you too. They will decrease your Impressions, but since you would lose people who didn’t want to see your ad, you should not be losing any Clicks (or at least valuable Clicks – the ones that lead to Conversions). This will result in a better CTR, which in turns will help improve Quality Score, reduce CPC, and improve ranking position. Altogether, the “Mute Ad” feature seems like it will be more beneficial than first expected. The question is, will people actually use it, or just continue ignoring irrelevant ads?

Could “Muted Ads” be Better?

In saying that I think this “Mute Ad” feature is good, I am also hoping Google AdWords will release more data around it once it is fully launched. Knowing where (which placements) an ad is being muted, or by which demographic (age, sex, geographic location) could be useful. This would enable advertisers to pull, revise, and replace irrelevant ads with more relevant ones to niche markets. For instance: An Ad may perform great in L.A. but get “muted” a lot in D.C. Knowing this allows the marketer to continue the successful Ad in L.A. while creating a new one for the D.C. area. So here is hoping that more data around “Muted Ads” is on the way.
What are your thoughts on this new “Mute Ads” feature, which enables web surfers to block specific display ads? Let us know in the comment section below.