There is an Arabic proverb that says “Give the bread dough to the baker even if he eats half of it.” Basically, what this proverb means is that you should give the job to a person who knows how to perform it best even if it will cost you a bit more. Nowadays, big corporations pay a lot of attention to social media, known as digital marketing, for it is evident how crucial it has become in the world of marketing.
For marketing specialists there is a marketing strategy named Destination Marketing Organization (DMO). This strategy has become common recently amidst the cuts in the public sector expenditure globally on marketing, which requires seeking greater value in the way limited marketing budgets are spent. This is when social media comes, as it gives the opportunity to reach out to the biggest audience, or even to a global audience, with limited resources.
The influence of the Internethas been sensedover the retail sectorwidely, particularly with intangible products or information dissemination. However, this in no way means that internet is only helpful in promoting intangible products.On the contrary; physical products’ retailers are gradually realizing more and more that the consumer of today is different from what they knew twenty years ago. Today’s consumer is well-informed, inquisitive and empowered. The internet, particularly this segment of it known as Social Media or Web 2.0 has given consumers much more power, information and options to choose what suits them best over the market process. Not only that, but it has also given consumers a ready feedback mechanism that the service provider or retailer can no longer neglect.
Now after presenting how fundamental digital marketing is for your business, the first response that might jump to your mind is “this sounds feasible and I can do it in-house, I can just hand the Facebook and Twitter accounts to one or two employees and they will do it!” Actually this is not the case. Social media is not just about posting a family photo album on Facebook, liking a post here and commenting on another there. As a matter of fact, you need to penetrate this world of its own, to leverage it and know how to make the best out of it. “Still easy, I can bid a few bucks on a paid ad for my Facebook page and promote a couple of posts, it will barely cost me anything.” Again, this is not the case. From proven experience, you can access a countless number of pages out there which have hundreds of thousands of “fans”, but they merely gain a few likes on their most popular post, if any.
The world of Web 2.0 is like any other specialty; it has its own masters who know exactly what works for your business better than you do.
Web 2.0, or social media marketing goes way beyond Facebook and Twitter. The company first starts with you on a “strategy plan”, just like any strategy plan in a marketing sector in any big corporation. This one, however, is more specialized and online-specific. Yet, very comprehensive and covers your digital marketing plan over the course of six month, one, two, or even three years, depending on your own preference that the company can tailor the plan based on. Hiring a consultant to make you this strategy plan alone will cost you several thousand dollars anywhere in the world. And that is even without touching on the actual social media work.
Other than Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, what social media channels do you know? Do you know how to handle them well? Are you sure which channels fit your business better? Where would you find your target audience? Do you even know who your target audience is? The digital marketing company would answer all of these questions and more.
After agreeing on a set, organized and well-studied strategy plan, it will go into the stage of implementation. This by default should mean that the digital marketing company, who is a master of implementing this plan, will see to it that your accounts, which have at this stage been launched or rebranded by this master, are well-taken-care-of. All posts, tweets and material will be scheduled and published on the perfect timing for each, based on studies, experience and paid third party metrics that are designated to optimize digital marketing reach and influence. The company will also take care of all the digital work for your campaigns, designs, events, and milestones to publicize your product in a way that will best-serve your goals. Not only that, even the paid ads and promoted posts will be a matter that you will no longer worry about, as your new digital marketing friend will take care of it all in a way that willcreate a genuine effect for your accounts and attract a real audience.
If you want to calculate how cost-effective all this process is, you will find out that by handing all your social media business to a specialized digital marketing company you will not only save yourself a lot of money; but actually make your brand name significantly bigger, and have just the professional image that you need, similar to the theme of your company or business. Only then, you will realize that “the baker” did not eat half of your “dough”, but actually brought you a considerably bigger revenue than you would have gained without an expert in baking your own digital cake.
