How the Social Advertising Landscape is Changing – Part 2
Messaging as a marketing strategy is still in its infancy and can be a hard sell, as the GDPR rules mean advertisers have to be able to demonstrate a clear opt-in from consumers in order to communicate with them. If a brand offers great content or special deals to message recipients this can turn the messaging channel into a lucrative one, which keeps the user in the app from initial communication through the purchase; given the developments in social commerce this seems to be the way that online shopping is headed, at least in some markets.Dedicated brand apps are less attractive to consumers who have to exit the platform they are on to download an app to complete a purchase – with social commerce everything is literally at your fingertips.
There is a big clue to how important messaging will become in the social landscape, and that is Facebook's plans to integrate messaging across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The three channels will remain as standalone applications but they will sit on top of a cross channel infrastructure, which allows brands to connect with their user base across all three platforms very easily, as well as send messages between the platforms seamlessly.
Facebook is also looking at how marketing on the platform works and they are developing new tools for advertisers to manage and optimise their ads. This means marketers need to be responsive to these changes but also to view these within the bigger picture of their marketing strategy.We know that messaging will become a more lucrative marketing channel in the future, but we also need to be marketing with the tools we have available now and not lose sight of where we want to be.
Armed with an overview of how the social media marketing world will be changing in the future, combined with existing data on user engagement, brands can create a comprehensive strategy for their marketing activities over the next two or three years. Given the shifts towards privacy as well as demand for high quality content which is useful and interactive, it seems that brands will have to work harder than ever to build a consistent presence across multiple social media platforms which their customers actively want to be involved with.Simply building a brand page and running paid adverts isn't going to compete against similar companies who are embracing the social world with more foresight.
Success on social media in the future will require a much more cohesive approach at the brand level, which then appeals to the user base of each platform. There may well be a lot of crossover, but a consistent message seen in multiple places, strengthens the place of the brand in the user's life. Brands need to build an audience of people who are already customers or who are likely to become customers and engage with those people, rather than targeting broad demographics in a scatter gun approach. Social platforms already offer a high degree of targeting for ad campaigns so take advantage of this to promote messages for existing customers and potential customers to the right people, bringing them into the fold and turning them into qualified leads.
Brands also need to really look at the big picture of their social marketing activities – where does this fit into other marketing activities?What happens to your customers once they have made a purchase? Do they remain active in your social spaces? Can repeat business be encouraged by creating a presence in the social world that users can connect and engage with? In-app purchasing is also something which will take off, so brands need to start looking at how they can not only market their products and services socially, but sell them on the same platform as well.How easy this is depends on the offering, but as social commerce develops more options will become available, opening it up as a sales channel for a wider range of businesses.
At Parua we offer full service digital marketing encompassing social media marketing as well as paid search, organic search, web design and reputation management.We work in the big picture as well as within the niche areas so working with us has your marketing covered from every angle.If you're concerned about the future of your digital and social media marketing activities contact us today and let's get your strategy sorted for the future.
