In the seventh episode of Business Banter by SkillsLab’s Jack Kosakowski, we speak with Jason Sibley, CMO at Howdoo.io. Jason talks to us about what the future of social media looks like.
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Samsung, Google, HP, and IBM have something in common.
These are some of the brands that Jason Sibley is involved with.
Working currently as CMO at Howdoo.io, Jason is a well-known marketing expert.
With a vast experience of big enterprise campaigns for Fortune 500 companies,
He is the perfect person to have a conversation about the future of social media.
Along with Jack Kosakowski, CEO at Creation Agency, Jason is ready to drop some serious wisdom.
Fasten your seat belts coz you’re at the right place if you are a digital agency owner, an online consultant, or a social media enthusiast!
The current state of social media marketing
Just a few years back, social media platforms use to offer a decisive competitive advantage, especially for digital agencies.
But things have started to become difficult.
Ever-increasing competition and a general sense of saturation could be some of the few potential reasons.
It’s difficult to maintain your competitive edge and deliver massive results, especially in an increasingly noisy environment.
This should not come as a surprise. Every proven tactic saturates with time.
Take email marketing is an example. There was a time not too long ago when a well-crafted email use to get a 50% open and 25% click-through rate. Such figures are almost impossible in today’s day and age.
Social media marketing has gone through the same kind of transition. Over time it has become more and more challenging to bring people towards your page (traffic), and then to convert them.
So you need to change the strategy. To begin with, there are two things that you need to focus on:
- Discover new social platforms with less competition (so you can keep qualified traffic at a low cost.)
- Consistently try and improve your cost per conversion (so you can remain profitable.)
Why is it becoming difficult for agencies to get quality traffic?
The ability to get well-qualified traffic at low cost is an essential capability for agencies. If the cost of traffic is going up and the conversion rate is going down, you are losing the game.
… and that’s precisely the problem for most agencies. The cost of acquisition is rapidly going up, but the conversion rate is drastically going down.
Most audiences are becoming mature (and sneaky), and they don’t want to give their details. They want your lead magnet but without offering anything in return.
Maybe they don’t want to welcome you into their inbox, or they don’t want anybody to call them for an appointment. It’s a natural behavior.
All of this can be seen as a by-product of market saturation… and with breakages and drop-offs throughout the funnel, the client campaign no longer remains profitable (making zero financial sense.)
What’s the solution?
To solve these common problems, you need to revisit your entire approach. If you give away valuable, user-friendly content, the audience would come to you when they need help.
To begin with, structure your content in a way that you don’t seem pushy, and you don’t try and convert them in the first touch. Maybe wait for 4-5 touches till you ask what you need.
The Facebook campaign going straight to a landing page with a form on it would NOT work anymore. It’s almost seen as cheating and manipulation. If you think about it, people who clicked on the ad were looking for information, not an unwanted conversation (… and the conversion is bound to be terrible.)
Instead, try and be innovative. Experiment with live chat on a landing page. This will help you become useful, and you can answer their queries at the right time.
The fastest way to get their email address is with the help of a webinar. Webinars are bound to perform well (because an email is a basic requirement to register for a webinar.)
So it is recommended to craft a valuable webinar at the end of the funnel, which is a profitable strategy used by most successful digital agencies.
The point is that webinars are still an amazingly effective way to get people in your funnel. If you have done right, you get the highest quality needs at the lowest possible cost. If that’s not enough, you can also repurpose the webinar content into other assets.
What should be the roadmap for agencies?
With brutal competition all around, don’t be the kind of agency that hides behind fabricated numbers. You should be confident and transparent in providing real results to your clients.
Clients today like to work with a marketing agency that understands the concept of selling. Figures like cost per acquisition, sales conversion rate and appointment conversion opportunity should be readily available even before the client’s request.
First, when you understand sales, you can have an integrated approach while selling results and profits (not just hollow leads and dreams.)
Second, agencies should know how to build a brand and then use that brand to drive demand. The best way to create brands is to provide top value. Then you can build authority and credibility.
You should also know how to use influencers the right way. The influencers would also help you produce collaborative content (which is the best way to ethically steal the audience.) You might have to bring in a lot more effort and budget to the front end.
Third. Don’t blame the medium. Blame the message. Find out what your audience cares about. That’s where the benefit of social media comes into the picture. You have access to easy-to-use social analytics, which can be used to know what your prospects want.
Old platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn still work well. But, the rules have changed, and you need to go through your audience demographics and analytics to discover the right message. That’s how you tweak your content based on the environment.
Top agencies know how to hack content for their clients. That’s one of the primary reasons they do well even under changing circumstances.
How to bet on the right horse?
Consider Facebook. The real problem with FB platform is the low demand among younger generation… and with limited new users joining in, the time people spend on Facebook is also going down.
The only way FB is getting new audiences is from the acquisition of platforms like Instagram. So it’s essential to understand the early warning signs and manage your strategies & tactics.
For instance, fast-developing technology like Blockchain is undoubtedly going to revolutionize social media. Blockchain-powered social media platform Howdoo could be one of the real game-changers.
With a decentralized approach, Howdoo offers 100% control over data, privacy, and monetisation. Contrary to other platforms, creators can easily monetize their content and stay profitable on Howdoo.
Most importantly, these creators are allowed to have a more significant share of profits. No monopolies. No bureaucracy. Just 100% transparency – so content creators get to see the tangible benefits of offering better value with each post.
With rising acquisition costs on FB, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other big names – it’s important to keep up with the trends and know what’s going to work for your agency tomorrow or in the near future. That’s how you stay ahead.
Conclusion
BIG social media platforms are not dead. It’s just that platforms like Howdoo offer a better opportunity for creators to monetize their content and pocket profits.
So you can still work with every platform, but stay careful about the platforms that no longer offer the best return on investment for your efforts.
As social media marketing people, you need to be showing the way to your clients. You should know what is coming next.
This means you should never stop to look for the next great thing. Always stay ready for the next seismic shift. It’s just around the corner.
Now we’d love to hear from you:
Have you tried any new social platforms?
If so, how did it go?
Let us know in the comments section below.
