I am associated with a few clients who regularly seek my assistance in promoting their brand or gaining more viewership for a particular event.
Now, first off you need to understand two things.
What is the aim of your digital marketing campaign?Does the budget allotted suffice to achieve the particular aim?
Let me put this straightforward and tell you all that nothing happens without a sufficient budget in digital marketing. No reliable social platform supports the same, be it Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Blogs or even SEO.
Now, let me share a case study.
Back in December, 2017, a local standalone mall in Bangalore approached me for their January Shopping Week which was to be during the festival period of Pongal, Makar
With a budget of 5 Lakhs, they wanted at least 5,000 people to visit them on a daily basis for the entire week.
They had set an aim and had given a sufficient budget to play with.
I took over their Facebook and Instagram handle, and started off by first increasing their page reach and followers for a week. The target audience was of limited to a circle of 60 kilometers in and around Bangalore. I know, for a fact, that, people from Mysore, Tumkur, Mandya and other towns will come to Bangalore during the festive vacations. and I focused on these towns as well.
Through constant monitoring of Facebook ads, and some engaging posts which included mainly giving away free Paytm cash upto 100 Rupees, displaying the store collections and a few funny memes, the page reach had increased by 3000% in a week. I had spent only 48,000 in Facebook ads and another 2,000–3,000 as giveaway in Paytm cash. The client was already happy but the job had just begun.
Now, I focused on the youth. By this time, even the mall’s Instagram account had gained some followers. Running the same Facebook ads, for the next three days, I invested hugely in Instagram post promotions. There were a few beautifully shot pictures of the mall, and I utilized them with a few relevant hashtags.
Of course, all this while I had given my SEO team, a few keywords to work on like “Best Place to Visit In Bangalore During Makar Sankranti” and it really helped in the long run.
After 10 days, the social media presence of the Mall had increased tremendously. I had played around with only 90,000 INR /- so far. There were numerous inquiries dropping in from people asking the dates and offers and the client was super happy by now. Yet, I told him the job is not even half done.
The funny thing about Internet is people get excited very easily but to convert their excitement into a desired result is quite difficult. If 100 people follow you on the internet, only 2 or 3 of them will turn up in the end.
It was almost New Year now, and I promoted an offer of 40% off on a few retail stores for whosoever likes the page and checks in at the mall with his friends.
We had more than 1200 Check ins on January 1st and 2nd but the thing to keep in mind was that particular post had been promoted and viewed by more than 90,000 people in Bangalore alone. Only 1200 turned up, of course.
In the last week, I started targeting individual audiences. I still had spent only 1,40,000 of the total budget. I segregated my social media audience into 4 groups. The youth: 16–24 years, the housewives, the working class, and the Uncles & Aunts: 40 + years.
Each group was targeted individually with offers, free Paytm cash and cashback offers. Each group has a definite taste and choice and the posts catered to it accordingly.
In the last two days, I spent almost a Lakh promoting the shopping festival on the mentioned platforms and still had spent only 3,20,000 INR only.
By the time, the shopping festival started, we had reached an estimated 4.5 Lakh people, with numerous post engagements, messages and interactions.
The Mall had an average daily visitor count of 9,000+ and most of them had cashback offers and coupons from the Facebook & Instagram accounts.
Always remember the aim of the campaign so that you can select an appropriate target audience. Of course, you need to know what content to use with your audience, which is the toughest part, and finally have a budget for post promotions.
The client was happy of course as even after all the hefty promotions, he was still left with almost a lakh of his prescribed budget. I had to pay the SEO team, a video editing team and a photographer as well.
You need to have a laid out plan with contingencies and adherence to a social calendar.