Social Media Marketing is NOT a Direct Response ChannelFrequently I speak with Chief Marketing Officers (CMO’s), Business Development Specialists, Product and Brand Managers regarding Social Media engagements and they always ask: “How many customers am I going to get directly from my Social Campaigns? What’s going to be my CPA, my ROI and my ROAS? What Immediate sales
will I get?” To this I respectfully respond: “Stop! Don’t look at Social as a direct response marketing channel.” These marketers often react in shock with a quizzical twist because they are used to hearing what they want which is: “Hey, all of our programs are going to get you crazy, mad sales dude, right away – mate.”
Why do I disillusion these Marketing officers at the risk of them not being interested in engaging social communities? I tell them this because Social Media is simply not a channel to look at every small user action as it relates to specific return on every dollar spent. It’s not Direct Response (DR). In many ways, it may not even be an outright “media buy”. With Social it may be important to discard concepts of CPA and traffic and other media buying models. Why?
Events in Social spheres are sometimes tough to track and tie-back, but more importantly, Social is not about individual sales nor is it about the individual. It’s about creating groups and momentous group action – to move the tide and let the waves grace your shores. The return will always be there if you approach your campaigns in a well planned manner and with the right intentions. The sales will come from connection, association, buzz, referral, love and fuzzy feelings of your brand, and lifetime value of clients. It’s a bit about buzz, a bit about brand loyalty, some SEO, and a whole lot about reputation management.
It is true that Marketers (including, Your’s Truly) are able measure specific actions taken by users in the Social Media sphere. There are plenty of products, methods analytics software and tools to handle events and actions on-line, but currently no one single tool is really able to tell you down to a CPA basis what a Social Media campaign is going to deliver. Tying it all together can be more expensive (and expansive) than the campaign itself.
So mostly, I tell my CMO buddies, it’s time to start thinking about Social from the point of view of connecting with the community and reaching out to start new conversations or join existing conversations taking place on the Internet. This is scalable, it has return on investment and you shouldn’t fear it. Just don’t look at it as buying traffic or buying sales; It’s NOT.
If you are after the CPA model, stick with your PPC, CPM and affiliate work. Social is not about “buying traffic” or “H.I.T.S.”(How Idiots Track Statistics) to your website. Social is not about making people click your BUY NOW buttons on the first go-round.
Social is about the knock-on positive, long-lasting, organic/SEO, bookmarking, tagging, forwarding, viral sharing, brand, search and actual social benefits. It’s about the consistent long term placement of your brand(s). Social is maintaining your brand and your reputation. In its best form it multiplies over time with compound growth. It’s all about acting like a human and networking in it’s traditional form; being a part of the discourse, part of the conversation, meeting people and not sucking people into an E-commerce funnel. In Social, it’s the shared experience among groups and audiences that provides value to your bottom line.
Others who’ve discussed the subject elsewhere are Hollis Thomases at ClickZ and Marc Meyer at Emerson Direct.
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I think what you’ve just pointed out is particularly powerful. The social web is about group momentum, not specific action or responses. I think I may have touched on something similar (but in a negative light) in a recent post regarding the recent Creative debacle.
Thanks for stopping by!
Jake,
I do this full-time for a living, too. Our whole company does. But I only partly agree with you. I agree that social is different, and that in many ways it’s about branding. Plus, what’s the ROI of a trade show, or a press release? Few really know.
At the same time, my clients are carving out some percentage of their limited marketing dollars (even those who have millions have limited dollars).
If we as an industry are going to have it mature, we can’t live on the “don’t track this, it’s different” answer for very long. What we do is online, which offers us better opportunities than most to do some tracking.
I certainly don’t have all the answers yet, but it’s one of the key things we’re working on with our clients.
Keep up the good commentary.
~Jim
@ Zach – Thanks for stopping by 10e20 blog.
@ Jim – Thanks for your comments and I totally agree with you on your points – the focus with any effort is always on ROI ;-). When campaigns are properly executed ROI is there for sure, BIG TIME…and I think you would agree that the branding value in this channel is sometimes well above the return of other channels; that’s why I love it so much. This is more for some marketers who are used to traditional “signals” and really what we need to be looking for are some “new” signals or sets of signals. It’s also about the “approach” and mindset that marketers take when entering social which is really important. In Social, there are so many positive signals to look (editorial mentions, positive conversations started, knock-on SEO positives…sales etc.) at in most cases that it can often be difficult for marketers to capture the total picture.
Jake-
I agree that this is a difficult arena to apply traditional tracking methods too, and I also agree that as social evolves it will become an easier realm to keep tabs on…however…
I want to caution those from corporate America to be mindful of what to expect when tracking a social campaign. More so than most vehicles, in social media you will only get (usually only a portion) of what you put into it.
You sum it up nicely here:
The return will always be there if you approach your campaigns in a well planned manner and with the right intentions. The sales will come from connection, association, buzz, referral, love and fuzzy feelings of your brand, and lifetime value of clients. It’s a bit about buzz, a bit about brand loyalty, some SEO, and a whole lot about reputation management.
What I’d recommend is to start backwards and track those actions taken to contribute to the conversation. How many users respond to your comments on Digg? When you invite friends on Facebook to use an application you’re using, how many accept? Start with simple metrics and measure your reach. Then when you feel trust is built, cautiously (and I emphasize cautiously)throw in items that will begig to provide an ROI.
Enjoyed the read. For some clients, this model is easier to comprehend because they understand the value of “connection, association, buzz, referral, love and fuzzy feelings of your brand” right away. For other clients, a harder case has to be made for their ROI before they make the investment. I agree with Levi that simple metrics such as measuring your reach is a good place to start.
@ Levi – thanks for stopping in. I do agree on most every point you make.
@ Leslie – thanks for stopping in as well. I agree with your points as well to a large degree.
Reach is extremely important and we see a long reach in most every case.
Interesting read. Although not always the case, with online metrics it can be quite clear which online means are generating the buzz and delivering potential and future customers (depending on the lead time) to the website. However I completely agree that it is difficult to predict the “success” of a campaign but that is the nature of public relations whether online or offline.
Excellent Jake. Still there are many outcomes for a single social media. As per my research I conclude that its all depend upon the campaing which you are promoting, social media on which you work and finally the way in which you are performing the task.
great written, awesome. the way you explain things is great.
Initially I wasn't interested in social media. But reluctantly I got in and found out that sales come from connections we make over there. However, social media might not be what some traditional marketing officers want to engage in. They want quick response and results, rather than what social outlets bring in the long run.
Jake,
Insightful post. For what it's worth, we view CPC and PPC as the stone that's thrown into a pond. We know how heavy it is, how we got it, where we threw it. Social media is the ripple that CAN occur from the stone's throw. A little harder to see where it ends, but an effect you can make happen over and over.
Our marketing strategy takes this analogy and makes it a reality for our clients. It also makes it easier for them to understand the measurable results from the somewhat more subjective ones.
Thanks for the great info. I was a fan and believer in SEO. I didn't believe in social media. But recently I found out that social marketing is giving me exceptional result for some campaigns. After all I don't think we should only depend on search engines to control our life.
In social media if one is connected in a group (that resembles with your company) then it is better…One can build good network there and promote his brand there easily…Social media marketing is all about perfect community…
I can't tel you how many times over the year I have reread and quoted this article, Jake.
But WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
"If you let Direct Response enter Social Media we'll give you NOT 1, NOT 2, BUT 4, 4 Snuggies. That's right. All for $19.99. http://www.directresponseforsocialmedial.com"…
I dunno, you can fit it into 140 characters…
just kidding, I just hope that one day Twitter will have an exclude filter so we can block them in mass.
The title said it right. I know a lot of conservative marketing gurus who frown at social media. But some are finding out how wrong they are.
Hey, could we know more about some important points about it rather than leaving us to think?
Many people have misconceptions when they want to go into social media marketing. Such people think they are going to get tons of customers from there.
The problem is that a lot of us want quick and direct result. And this is not possible, and so many fall off the ladder when their expectation fail.