Gone are the days of simple captions and links to fill up your social media calendar for instant gratification. Fading are the strategies of RT to Win of old, vanity metrics are being questioned and the platforms are being challenged. Digital marketing is not what it used to be, it’s now content led.
When we started out providing social media services to clients and agencies, it was entirely possible to see satisfying organic growth, engagement and link clicks from simple stock images, blog posts and link thumbnails. The golden age of being able to reach your full audience with fairly minimal effort. No wonder so many jumped in on this marketing opportunity, it was golden!
During the past 5 years, social media and digital marketing has evolved to a new, more complex, more expensive and increasingly competitive field to play on. Small business owners who spent years building a following on Facebook and Instagram and now struggling to reach 10% of those audiences because they don’t have the person power and/or budgets to compete with the big players.
So, what’s changed?
Paid Ads Taking Priority
Firstly, as mentioned the domineering growth of paid social is a natural challenge for anyone on a budget. Not to mention the multi-faceted, unnecessarily complicated set-up of these ads which can easily turn an ad budget into a pointless money burn. Without an expert on board, it’s easy to just throw money at your failing social media strategy, but without the right creative and goals you could be wasting your time and money.
Naturally, since the introduction of ads each social platform has shifted it’s organic reach algorithms in order to give us all a reason to pay them. It’s a business after all. Unfortunately, this means that you do need to have some kind of ad spend strategy if you want to make the full use of these tools and if you want to reach the full potential of the following you’ve so carefully grown. Trying to grow a social media following from zero is a huge challenge without a 360 degree approach to PR, Marketing and Events that align flawlessly with your goals.
An Increase in Quality of Content Expectations
In addition to keeping up to date with the constant stream of algorithm updates, new features, updated rules and regulations and everything topical related to your niche, the demand for constant, quality constant is higher than ever before.
Whether your marketing focus lies in paid, emails, PR or social you have to be producing constant new content. And it can’t always be the same old sales message or stock photo, it has to excite your audience, get them to engage and build your brand image; and loyalty along the way. A simple, filtered Instagram photo of a product randomly placed on your desk is no longer good enough. You’re competing for the attention of huge audiences and a vast number of competitors of all sizes. You have to stand out from the crowd.
Digital Illustration by Co-Founder @JayneKitsch
Case Study: bareMinerals UK Social Media 2013 vs. 2019
KITSCH.inc Co-Founder, Jayne started her career working in-house for beauty brands at distributors and beauty industry product development houses. During her first agency role in 2013 at London’s award-winning The Rabbit Agency, Jayne was responsible for leading the launch of the first bareMinerals UK social media and blogger outreach programmes. Jayne worked directly with the small in-house PR and Marketing team to create a variety of innovative and engaging uses of social media and communities to drive sales and awareness of this iconic mineral make-up brand. The content was a mix of iPhone shots curated in-store or on a desk, user-generated images and professional shoots or graphic design with healthy budgets and a creative team behind them.
This is what it looked like back in 2013…
The launch of #OhSoMoxie Lip Collection featuring in-store photobooths, competitions, press and blogger gifting, video and static make-up tutorials with SJ Froome and licensed inspirational quotes created by a graphic designer.
Blogger photo-shoot in a real studio with a full make-up team from bareMinerals UK including QVC presenter, SJ and featuring legendary bloggers including Laura Lou Make-Up, Hayley Hall, Epiphannie, Jemima and Ted and Away with the Fairies. The content was used on brand social as well as on each bloggers personal channels as they desired.
Live coverage, awards announcements and professional photos from the blogger shoot. This was a hugely successful campaign at the time, but when you compare with the output of 2019 bareMinerals you can instantly see how quickly the level of quality has increased.
Here’s @bareMineralsUK in 2019…
Naturally, since growing globally and being acquired by Shiseido, bareMinerals UK has a much larger audience, team and budget to play with than the 2013 version. Nonetheless, the principles of creating engaging content in a variety of mediums remains key. The visuals now look more like those you’d see in a glossy magazine or billboard rather than the spontaneous, natural approach of old school social media. And yes, that’s not cheap or easy.
The Demise of Vanity Metrics
For a long time, many of us found it difficult to measure the return on investment (ROI) for social media in particular, which is why vanity metrics gained ground and we all pushed for more likes, comments, views and shares. They showed growth and engagement, all good things to measure, but it’s not where we’re at now.
With Instagram hiding likes and the rise of fake followers and false stats, we have to take vanity metrics (likes and follows) with a huge pile of salt. Just because someone double tapped or followed at some point in their journey, does not mean they are still engaged with that account. This is why it is so important to approach any marketing or PR activity with clear goals. It’s not always easy to predict what you want to gain, but you can usually make some general guidelines based on past analytics and future hopes.
With metrics in mind, we should also consider what we hope to gain with any content we create. Do we want people to comment? Click? Share with a friend? Sign up? Or do we just want to make people laugh? These are all valid goals with a journey to map out.
Great quote from my chat with @dirktherabbit a while back, we talk about #influencers, vanity #metrics, #marketing & lots more. Let me know what you think! https://t.co/1y0rekobku pic.twitter.com/tQuCiWe4Ef
— Promote The Hell Out Of It! (@PromotePodcast) November 19, 2019
Why Do You Need a Content Strategy?
If you’re running a PR campaign, you need a story and photos.
If you’re running an email campaign you need incredible copy and images.
If you’re running a direct marketing activity, your design and photography has to be excellent.
If you’re running and SEO campaign, you need to be writing brilliant, long-form blog posts regularly.
If you’re running social media, you need enough quality, original content to post every day.
That’s a lot of content, in many different formats right?
If you’re not willing to commit to creating quality content regularly for your business or project, you’re going to have problems with all areas of your marketing or PR whether that be online or offline.
If we consider the requirements of best practise social media in 2019, you should be creating a mix of quality blogs, video, audio (podcasts) and static content. And if you’re following the rules of the iconic Gary Vee (we certainly don’t agree with everything he has to say, but this makes sense) then you should be aiming to produce 30+ pieces of “micro content” for every pieces of key “pillar content”, so every time you have something newsworthy that’s 30 possible pieces of different content you might need.
Alongside each of those 30+ pieces of content is the need for a caption, description, upload time, scheduling strategy customised to each of the platforms you’re going to place that content on. This is no longer a one person, part-time job.
You need people who can create high quality video, photography, copy, podcasts, blog posts and press releases on a regular basis. One bad choice could result in an embarrassing social media takedown or a ill-worded headline. Content marketing is so key to your business, you can’t afford to waste your time or money.
Where to Start With Content Marketing?
Sorry, didn’t mean to overwhelm you there. Let’s get back on track and give you a few expert tips on where to get started when plotting your upcoming content needs:
- Map out your key goals, launches and audiences so you can understand what you need to achieve and within what time frames.
- Establish what types of content will resonate best with your audience and personal/brand values.
- Find a trusted team that can support your goals through consistent quality content creation and seeding.
To summarise, you need to commit to Content Marketing if you are going to have success with any kind of marketing or PR activity. The quality and style should reflect your personal and business values so as to best engage with your ideal audience. If you can’t commit to creating this content yourself, you need to find yourself a team that can help you create your vision.
If you’re still feeling overwhelmed, the KITSCH.inc duo have 10+ years experience each across marketing, PR, content production, events and creative. We can help on one-off projects, strategy, implementation and on-going retainer work. We’re also able to create bespoke training and workshop packages to help better equip your teams to tackle your marketing and PR goals. Find out more and click all our links on our About page.
Co-Creator @wearefoodscouts & @KitschInc. Digital Marketing & Creative Direction. Illustration, writing, creativity & style. Fan of films, TV, cartoons, colourful hair & clean beauty. Blogger since 2009.
