Today I read a TechCrunch article by Josh Costine relating the news that Twitter and Facebook were attributed tiny percentages of Black Friday sales (source: IBM's Black Friday report).
McKinsey recently released a report called The Social Economy saying that up to 1/3 of consumer spending is likely impacted by social shopping.
So what gives? All my good marketers out there reading this are nodding knowingly. We all live this every day.
Attribution isn't "real" and there are many challenges with it (learn more here). It doesn't tell the buyers' actual behavior taking them from awareness to purchase. It just shows their last click before purchase. It is definitely an important thing to know, but it's also not the whole story and it can't be the sole driver of your marketing strategy.
I like Google's Zero-Moment-of-Truth (ZMOT) construct because it clearly articulates that "something" needs to triggers buyers to go and search. It has to be on the person's mind for them to actively go and visit a search engine. And, you know a person must be fairly far down the funnel once they type in your product's or brand's name into that search box.
What is this mythical, mystical "something" that triggers a buyers to go and search? It's not a mystery - it's your integrated marketing strategy and programs. It isn't magic, it's just marketing.
You know need to be where your customers are, with compelling messaging and ads and content relevant and engaging enough to persuade them to take the next step. And their 'steps' aren't linear. It can take many touches as the buyer researches, compares, asks his social network, views it in a store, etc. ZMOT study the average number of touches at over 10! That may not be true for every brand and every product - but it's never just one.
At this time, it is hard (perhaps impossible) to know "precisely" the sales impact of your social channels. Yes, it makes our job as marketing leaders tougher, but that's why you're there! If marketing were simply a numbers game, an engineer would have automated it by now.
So continue to set your marketing strategy and allocate your (always too limited) resources - optimizing appropriately where you can, but always keep in mind that attribution is just a tool - it's not marketing.
Today's TechCrunch article from Robin Grant confirms what all of us marketers have been talking about for awhile...that fewer and fewer people are actually seeing our Facebook posts! For all those people who were engaged enough to "like" our page? Too bad, because our posts are not showing up in their feed anymore....
But I'm not wringing my hands, or gnashing my teeth. I get it. I get why Facebook is doing this.
From a consumer experience perspective, the content in the user's stream needs to be compelling and relevant. But, perhaps more importantly, this provides Facebook increased opportunities for monetization.
As a marketer and business executive, I can't get mad at Facebook for this. Facebook is a public company - it needs to be showing its investors regular, "up and to the right" movement of its top line revenue each and every quarter.
So now it means I will likely need to pay to insure my content is seen by my target audience on Facebook. And I ask myself - is my target audience there? Do I want my content there? Do I want my target audience to see and engage with and share my content there? Yes, of course I do! So, yes, I will invest to accomplish this.
How much will I invest? Like everything else, that is determined by the business goals and the performance of the investment. Since social marketing has always been an integral part of the marketing strategy I plan to approach it the same way I would with any new idea - start with testing and increase investment as we learn what works.
So please, don't waste any more time or energy bemoaning how Facebook is changing. Start with the fact that you know your target audience is there and you want to reach them there. And then do what you do with every other media: allocate a test budget, review the results, optimize and repeat.
Earlier this week TechCrunch published another article about "freemium". Written by Jules Matz and Daniel Barney, it addresses that pressing question of: Should Your Startup Go Freemium?
Having spent years running marketing for freemium, SaaS businesses, I love reading and talking about this very topic! And this article does a great job of walking through the various metrics and levers that need to be thought through before selecting a freemium business model for your business.
I often compare what it takes to manage a freemium, SaaS business to a pilot flying a plane. The pilot needs to watch all of the dials and levers in the cockpit at all times as each provides insight into one key function that is helping to keep the plane in the air.
Similarly, with a freemium business, there are multiple areas - across product experience as well as up and down the marketing funnel - that need to be actively measured and managed. The business can't over-correct on any one element to the exclusion of the others else "the plane" will fall out of the sky. Of course different areas may need more attention than others at any given time, but in the end, it all needs to work together.
Future Deep Marketing Thoughts posts will cover each of these areas in more detail.
