social media marketing

13 Feb 2017

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The Real ROI of Social Media Marketing

Sticky Post By Mhd On February 13, 2017

“How much revenue will it get me?”

For the past few years, the above question has been the most common objection I hear from business owners and decision makers whenever we are discussing marketing their businesses on social media channels. To be realistic, this concern makes much sense. After all, hard earned money is being paid and logic expectations must include a good return for it.

According to hubspot, 92% of marketers in claimed that social media marketing was important for their business, with 80% indicating their efforts increased traffic to their websites. The issue here, is how to realize the importance of social media marketing and in what terms?

Do you agree that a successful business is not about sudden hyip lucky shots, it’s about sustainability in different aspects from sales, to marketing, to customer service, to finance and HR..? If yes, then we have now a good common ground to start our journey to demonstrating the real ROI of social media marketing.

According to my experience, I summarized the 3 most recognized social media powers that supported the sustainable growth of my clients’ business as follows:

1) Building Emotional Ties with Customers: The two-way communication that strongly differentiates social media from other media is a massive opportunity for business who care for building long term relationships with their customers. Using the right tone and context in answering questions, objections and even complaints from angry customers can enhance customer loyalty and keep your market share immune to competition. By sending personalized messages and greetings to your audience can show care that emotionally connects your brand with your audience leaving an impact that is hardly broken. Because we make sure to always use a lovely and humanitarian language when interacting with clients’ audiences, we’ve witnessed so many cases where followers defend the brand when someone posts negative feedback. This turns your audience into loyal sales people who will forgive you when you do something wrong, recommend your products to others and refuse the temptations of competitors.

2) Boost Brand Recognition: A healthy social media activity implies consistent messages being sent to a look-alike audience who share common interests, needs, life-styles etc.. This means that your brand will be viewed, mentioned and talked to by this audience. What does this mean? It’s the glory of FAME! Your brand will become more and more famous and will stay at the top of mind of your customers. YOUR SALES PEOPLE WILL ADMIRE THIS. A sales person for a famous brand has a much easier task to do than the sales people of unknown or new brands. Especially when your social media marketing includes creating content that is going viral!

3) Prospecting and Lead Generation: This is where we move from qualitative results to quantitative ones and it’s where our customers usually start feeling comfortable towards the investment they did. This needs two steps, the first is patience, and the 2nd is even more patience! The hit and run scheme won’t work here, and I believe it works no where except for dealing in drugs and arms. The process of building interest towards your products and services comes only after the awareness stage where we have to take our time smoothly presenting our product as a solution for a need that we have to address in different ways because it’s significant for every individual we are approaching. YES EVERY INDIVIDUAL! 10K followers for your page is 10,000 human beings with different cultures, lifestyles and needs however similar the audience may seem. That’s why reaping leads out of social media is a result that comes at the end of good activity and not an activity by itself. The good news here is that it happens, it happens a lot, and they will keep on coming when served well both online & offline.

Social media have been taking over the marketing industry few years ago, and I believe it has no end because it’s about human to human interaction. The digital platforms are only tempting channels that mainly connect people, and they are doing their homework neatly and nicely. Social media is an opportunity for those looking for a sustainable business growth especially for baby brands who are trying to find their place in a market conquered by big brands with deep roots.

DON’T MISS THE OPPORTUNITY!

Mohamad Bajouk
Marketing Consultant/ Trainer
BrandLift

07 Apr 2016

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Big Data = Mighty Marketing

Sticky Post By Mhd On April 7, 2016

Since long, marketing depended much on insights collected from competitive analysis,market research, customer behaviors, and more. We all heard companies bragging about the data they own and seducing retailers and marketers to sell them categorized information about markets and individuals. In the past few years, the importance of data boosted after introducing the fancy notion of “Big Data” and it became an era itself that captivated us all.

What is Big Data anyway? Is it really that BIG?
Data was always taken care of and usage of data isn’t really that new, but after introducing digital media and socially connecting the world on a micro level, the concept gained momentum. Consequently, huge data like images, interests, behaviors, clicks, tweets etc.. emerged and needed to be collected and structured in order to become useful in business activities.

“Without data you’re just another person with an opinion” – W. Edwards Deming

The simplest definition I found for Big Data was in an article written by Lisa Arthur posted on Forbes:
“Big data is a collection of data from traditional and digital sources inside and outside your company that represents a source for ongoing discovery and analysis.” Click here to read the full article.

The availability of this data enabled tracking people’s personal activities like how much time they spend surfing the internet and when they are there, the spending on online shopping, what are people interested in and looking for, and much more. This allowed marketers to tailor the suitable content for the right audience minimizing wasted dollars and efforts and even explained what products can be offered.
I see Big Data as if you’re sitting in your office receiving calls from people clearly telling you about their needs and when they want them. No need to guess or use the “trial and error” approach. Possibilities are infinite!

My Own Experience:
A friend of mine, Ali Rebai – a real Big Data Guru – introduced me to Big Data and I was really inspired and provoked! Few months ago I started educating my clients about Big Data and we started recording activities about their own customers. Activities included the frequency and time of visits, their social media presence and the type of content they share, their lifestyle, brands they endorse, cars they drive, what food they like, where they live and many others depending on the industry of my clients. The information was categorized clearly in simple excel sheets and outputs where AMAZING!

Although these activities aren’t as big as the real big data since they didn’t need any complex software to be analyzed and processed and I totally understand it, but we succeeded in introducing new products, opening new branches, tailoring the right content, improving the attractiveness of offers, defining weak points and planning ahead for the future.

Overall , what I can say from my “primitive” experience is that it’s really exciting. I became more enthusiastic about collecting data and started to taste its sweetness! If the minimal usage of data was that fruitful, what would happen if data was structured and used on a big scale using the suitable technology!

I can confidently say that Big Data is really BIG!

Mohamad Bajouk
Marketing Consultant& Trainer
BrandLift
Beirut – Lebanon

07 Apr 2016

Sticky Post By Mhd Permalink

Stop the Shout Marketing on Social Media

Sticky Post By Mhd On April 7, 2016

You are in a busy street, you head to someone randomly, hand them your business card and start explaining your business to them! How did that sound?
Well, it’s the same when you use your social media pages to promote your services to everyone without connecting and engaging with them first to break the ice and winning their interest!

“Social Media is about the people, not about your business” – Matt Goulart

We always face this dogma with our dear clients. Trying to sell their products and services comes first when we are discussing together their social media content strategy, and this is why we work on changing their priorities:

– People on social media aren’t there to shop, they are there to enjoy their time, learn, connect with people they know and follow topics that interest them.

– In order to attract more subscribers, Social media platforms are always biased to the user’s side and tend to show users what interests them as a content. If your content is always promotional, your users won’t appreciate it and you’ll lose their interest. This will lead to very low visibility for your content.

– As Maya Angelo said, people may forget anything you said or did to them, but they will never forget the way you let them feel!
This is why social media is a perfect place to deliver an experience rather than delivering a product. It’s more about being effective in marketing than directly selling your products.

Social media is a very effective way of marketing, but we shall never forget that it’s about being “Social”. promoting your products can be one of the goals of your presence there, but connecting, engaging and building a strong bond with people stays the major goal!

Ideas, comments, questions? Feel Free!

Mohamad Bajouk
Marketing Consultant & Trainer
BrandLift
Beirut – Lebanon

social media marketing

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