What you need to know!
Is 2020 over yet? It’s safe to say that in most aspects of life, this year is one of those years to put aside and forget about. From a business perspective, however, 2020 is going to be the biggest and best year yet for many businesses! Some of this success can be attributed to the strange market situation that we found ourselves in, but the other main factor is social media! Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram drove tons of new sales this year. At Venture Creations (VC), our clients saw amazing returns! This is not by accident either, careful planning paired with expert knowledge of social media ads allowed VC to hit 2020 out of the park!
To help you make 2021 a great year, we have put together some helpful tips to help guide your planning.
This seems like a simple question to answer on the surface, but a lot of companies struggle with it. There are 2 main options: in-house or outsource. In-house seems like the obvious choice, but in fact it is not always a good idea. Hiring a single person or small team is expensive and it is difficult to find the correct level of experience. Not to mention, the person doing the hiring has to know more than the position they are hiring for to make sure that the new hire is skilled enough.
Outsourcing is a great option for most businesses and it is usually cheaper than having in-house staff. By cutting out the cost of a full-time employee with benefits, a company is able to put more money directly into ads. This leads to more sales/leads! At VC, outsourcing social media to us also means that you gain access to a very experienced team who is focused solely on social media! Everyone has their own strengths in marketing, and having a team at your disposal who are experts in social leads to much better results! Versus hiring a person internally who is supposed to wear many hats and will be unable to effectively be successful at all aspects of marketing. Another aspect that is invaluable is the immense time savings with outsourcing! Time that can be used in other areas of the business that are lacking.
What are our goals? Not having goals is like trying to hit a target without being able to see it. Sure, there is a small chance you might get lucky and score a hit; but there is a larger chance you miss altogether! Key metrics that companies need to have goals related to vary slightly, but are based around sales/leads. Specifically, for e-commerce, companies should set ROAS goals so that the people executing on the social ad strategy know where they need to be. Our clients that give us baseline ROAS goals are some of the most successful, because it allows us to scale budget in real time to make sure that we are always meeting or exceeding target returns.
There are so many social media platforms out there! Realizing that a company does not have to be on every little social media site makes it easier to focus on the major ones that will drive 95% of total sales. We recommend Facebook, Instagram, Google Search, and YouTube. We find that the bulk of dollars should still be dedicated to Facebook and Instagram as they consistently provide the best and most trackable returns!
Most businesses have an idea of when their main season is. However, businesses tend to err on the side of caution when determining what season to spend most of their ad dollars in. At VC, we often find that our social strategy allows us to extend a business’s season! Social media gives us the ability to scale budgets and continually test what is working the best. This means we can push boundaries that lead to even more sales!
2021 Social Media Planning Checklist
Now that you know a little background on what needs to be considered with social, here is a list of actionable items.
✅ Set Social Budget
✅ Plan out ad spend by month
✅ Decide on in-house or outsource approach
✅ Take inventory of current photo/video assets
✅ Set photo/video budget
✅ Plan out approx. timing of photo/video shoots
✅ Determine content strategy (posts)
✅ Post Frequency
✅ Who is creating/posting
✅ Who is monitoring comments/messages
Venture Creations has the capabilities to handle every aspect of social media! If your company would like to improve their sales/social presence, don’t hesitate to get in contact with us! To learn more call 616-863-8510 or email (email@example.com or firstname.lastname@example.org)