November 3, 2021

Frustrated with social media marketing? Me too! Frustrated with social media in general? Me too! We’re not alone. In just the last year I’ve chatted with countless small business owners, colleagues and clients about their challenges with social media marketing. Don’t get me wrong it’s still an important aspect of any SMB’s plan but it is becoming more and more difficult to not only gain enough Followers to make an impact but even getting the Followers you have to engage with your content.

We can attribute this to any number of things: social media algorithms; the fact that these social media companies are now publicaly traded and have to answer to shareholders; or just the simple fact that there is just too much competition for our customers attention. Whatever the case, it’s never been more important to diversify your digital marketing efforts – doing only social media marketing just isn’t enough. Here’s why…

Social Media is No Longer (And Never Really Was) Free

I may not hear it as much as I used to but one of the long running themes I often heard from potential clients was, “Why do I need to pay for social media marketing when social media is free?”. The truth is, marketing your business on social media was never free. Even back in the early 2010’s when most businesses were first jumping on the social media bandwagon, social media wasn’t free. It cost business owners and marketers their time and their creativity. Now with the declining organic reach numbers I can confidently say social media is not free. If you’re just getting started and want to make any impact at all you need to allocate at least a small portion of your monthly advertising budget to social media ads.

Chances Are You Don’t Have a Viral Product/Service

The other refrain I often hear from potential clients regarding social media is “…But I saw ‘XYZ’ business on Shark Tank last week and they made all their money from social media and didn’t spend a dollar on ads!”. Look, no one is a bigger fan of Shark Tank than me, if they made 100 episodes of Shark Tank each year, I’d be watching 200 episodes of Shark Tank because I’d probably watch them all twice! The problem is, not every business has a unique product or service that has the potential to go viral on social media. Most of those Shark Tank social media success stories involve a business “building a better mousetrap” and unfortunately not all businesses have done that.

46% Of Product Searches Start on Google

I know what you’re thinking, how has he gone through two examples of why only social media isn’t enough and not mentioned the most visited site in the world – Google! If your entire digital marketing strategy is to focus on social media you are literally missing out on the 84% of people who use Google at least 3x a day. Not only that but over 46% of all product searches start on Google. In my opinion, Google (and Google Ads) is actually a better place to allocate your digital dollars because most of the searches on Google are intent or action-based. What that means is when someone is searching for “criminal lawyer windsor” they are actually looking for a criminal lawyer in Windsor. Think about that type of advertising vs. social media where no matter how specific you get with your targeting, the chances of someone seeing your ad in their News Feed right when they need a criminal lawyer is almost zero.

You Have to Reach Your Audience Everywhere They Are

In order to have success with any digital marketing plan your strategy needs to include being everywhere your audience may be, which may include: a website, search engines, social media and even emails. As much as some marketers would like to try to convince you that email is dead, 99% of people check their emails daily – multiple times! While it may seem at this point that my purpose with this blog was to steer you away from social media marketing, that is definitely not the case. I feel that social media is an important part of your digital marketing strategy – key word being part.