Behind the Ad!

I had a great conversation with a digital marketing agency last week that are looking to use SMR Social for the social media side of their business. Their clients are mainly B2B and the lady I spoke with said something that really resonated with me. It was something along the lines of

“Even though you’re advertising from one business to another, it’s still people that are reading your ads.”

Separate content from advertising

Here at SMR Social we like to separate our work into different sections. 2 of these sections include Content and Advertising. 

Content: The content side of things is the advert that your audience will actually be seeing and reading and interacting with (hopefully!). This is where you really need to have your audience in mind. Imagine them sitting at their computer or scrolling through their phone. What can you say that will make them listen. What will give them enough value to take the time to read your content and give you the opportunity to express to them why they should be interested in what you have to offer?

Advertising: This is the side that’s all about the figures. How many people are you reaching, how many of those people are engaging with your ads, how many people are clicking through to your website and how many are turning into actual customers? If you spend too much time in your advertising accounts, you become very focussed on the numbers. Which is fine, but as soon as the numbers aren’t looking too good it’s easy to forget that it all starts with content…and perhaps that’s where you need to improve first before wondering if you’re targeting the wrong people.

So remember no matter what your business is and who your target audience is, each time that number increases in the ‘reach’ column of your reports, an actual person has seen your post. Did they stop to read, did they share it with their friends or click on the link to read the full article on your website? If not, don’t jump straight to blaming it on your targeting or the social network that you’re using…ask yourself if you would have stopped scrolling if you saw your post!