Hey there, my fabulous listener, welcome to episode 210 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast.ย This one I am going to push your thinking when it comes to your marketing budget!
Thank you for lending me your ears today โ I know you have lots of choices, so I sincerely appreciate me being one of them!
If youโre enjoying this podcast โ Iโd love you to take a screenshot and share it on your socials and tag me in it.ย How cool would that be!
Donโt forget you can get the show notes for this podcast at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/210
Before I get started on todayโs episode โ how did you go with last weekโs episode? Episode 209? If you didnโt listen into that one โ then once you are finished here โ slip back there for even more small business made simple GOLD! It was all about launching with Russell Pearson โ one of my favourite eps for sure.
But onto todayโs episode.
We are talking about paid marketing strategies today and probably more so around paying to be found on social media โ eg/ Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads etc.
I recently did a workshop, and in the free Q&A time, the question put to me was, โhow do I bet the algorithm on Facebook and Instagram?โ
My answer was rather short and a little blunter than I think the questioner thought the answer would be.
My answer.ย You canโt.ย You simply canโt.
And frankly, if you are posting and producing content on social media with the intention of trying to beat the algorithm, you will fail over and over again (for most of us anyway โ every now and then, something or somebody will go viral โ but thatโs the exception, not the rule!).
As a small business owner, you should forget the freaking algorithm exists.ย Stop thinking about it.
Letโs look at this completely logically with our business and marketing hats on.
You are using someoneโs business FOR FREE and expecting to earn money.ย You donโt want to spend money, but you want to earn money from someone elseโs business โ a business they spend millions, maybe billions on each year, and you want it for free.
Logically it just doesnโt make sense, does it?
If it were a newspaper or radio or tv station, you canโt get that for free, and yet we believe or have been taught or conditioned to think we can get it for free with social media.
And letโs put it out there โ many of us do.ย Many of my leads come from social media, and many of my clients come from social media.ย Perhaps a mixture of free and paid over the years โ many touch points for sure!
But my point is that the odds are stacked against you.
Meta (Facebook parent company) is a business that earns money from their product โ and their product โ sorry to tell you โ is YOU.
You are the product that Facebook and Instagram are trying to sell.
The more โyousโ they have, the more ad space they can sell to people and perhaps people like you!
So not only does Meta sell you as the product, it expects you as the buyer too.
Itโs freaking crazy when you start thinking about it too much โ which I am not going to do because I have a โcleanโ podcast and donโt want to go down the rabbit hole of swearing like a truckie or wharfie about Meta (those who know me well, know how restrained Iโm being โ I am NOT a fan of Zuk)
And to flip the thinking here again โ I want you to look at your business model โ REALLY look at it.
If you could, letโs just say, beat the algorithm, could you handle the business?ย
I often laugh at emails and DMs I get that say โLet me help you get over 300 leads a day into your businessโ โ because 300 leads a day would turn me insane.ย My business model couldnโt handle it โ I would be rocking in the corner after day 1!
So, if you look at your business, ask yourself this question
โhow much more business can I handle?โย or if youโre a new business you are probably thinking 99% more โ so ask yourself a set of different questions
- How much do I want to earn this year
- How many hours do I want to work each week
Once you know the answers to those questions, you know around how much marketing you need to do and know if going viral is really the thing you are aiming for or whether thatโs just a good vain metric youโd like to have in your arsenal!
Also, use your insights and analytics to make good marketing decisions.
When to post
What to post
Where to post
So many business owners I work with have a โthingโ for Instagram and use that platform the most, but the reality is that Instagram brings them very few sales and very few leads or traffic to their website โ so in essence, they are marketing in the wrong place to get sales.ย We know this to be a fact because we look at the data, and Instagram just doesnโt stack up.
So back, probably, to the original intent of this episode, if you are trying to use social media for free and are getting frustrated with your lack of traction, sales, or leads, my advice is
- Look at your data, like I just mentioned above and get some clarity around whatโs working, whatโs not and marketing goals
- Set aside a marketing budget โ yep, some cold hard cashola and get yourself a paid marketing strategy.
For some more information on Facebook/Instagram ads โ go back and listen to episodes 32 and 42 of this podcast.ย Links are in the show notes
www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/32
www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/42
To finish and recap โ you canโt beat the algorithm, you shouldnโt be trying to beat the algorithm and you need to make decisions based on marketing facts (using digital data) and have a paid marketing strategy and invest money into your business.
Social Media is becoming a pay to play place (or really is if you look at Facebook and Instagram), so rather than ignoring this, embrace it and invest some money into your business, in your marketing.
They say your marketing budget should be around 10% of your turnover โ how does your marketing budget stack up again?ย Yes, I said turnover, not profit!
Iโd love to chat more about all this โ itโs a complex topic because we see people or think we see people beating the algorithm, and we want a slice of that pie โ but do we REALLY want it?
Personally, and no offence to those who do this, but dancing and singing and pointing on Instagram to go viral just isnโt my thing.ย Iโd rather have my followers than 50,000 of them because I was unauthentically dancing and singing.
Work out what you really want, what your business really needs and then letโs chat.ย Book a discovery call with me http://bit.ly/Discoverwithjenn, and letโs get your marketing humming today โ why wait any longer?
Otherwise, letโs chat in my Facebook group โ Like Minded Business Owners.ย If youโre not a member, come join!
See you next week on the podcast for episode 211!
But in the meantime, letโs hang out on social and get social on social โ youโll find me on Instagram, Facebook and my fav LinkedIn.
Oh and before I go, do you have a subject youโd like me to chat about on the podcast or a guest I should interview?ย Please get in touch โ DM me, or email jenn@jenndonovan.com.au โ thank you!
But whatever you do,
โฆโฆ..remember small business peeps, as my opening song says, thereโs no point in dreaming small!
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