If you feel like you’re pouring too much time, energy and money into your socials – and getting less and less in return – there’s an easy fix.
Stop.
No, not “in the name of love”, “to collaborate and listen”, or for any reason involving hammers.
Just, stop.
Take a step back, and look at the bigger picture. Ask yourself “is this the most profitable use of my time right now?”.
Because often – it isn’t.
You’ve got a marketing to-do list a mile long – but you’ve only got the capacity to get a handful of those things done any time soon.
And social content will only deliver genuine ROI when it’s part of a well-oiled machine.
For us – that well oiled machine often looks a bit like this.
Now I’m not here to teach you to suck eggs – so i’ll assume anyone reading this has seen a funnel or two in their day (and how you eat breakfast is your own business) – but here are the stages as we use them.
Right at the top of the funnel we Entertain – with relatable content that’s inspired by your ideal customer’s pain points.
Then we Capture the people who that content resonates with – either with an Irresistible Lead Magnet that gets them on your email list, or with custom Ad audiences built from people who’ve engaged with specific posts, or visited specific web pages.
(Failing that, I have a spiky gladiator net that works a treat).
Next, we Engage those people – with emails and Ads they actually want to interact with. Instead of sending them running for the hills, these drive them towards your sales pages.
And finally – of course – if the sales page is doing its job, we Sell.
Cash money, baby!
(Well, digital money mostly, but you know what I mean. Baby.)
Your prospects generally start at the top of the funnel and work their way down, but when we’re building (or fixing) a funnel we flip that on its head.
We start at the bottom – nearest the money – and work up. And THAT’s our golden rule.
But why? Well – i’ve got two great reasons for you.
Firstly – the gains you can make at the bottom of the funnel will snowball. Say you focus on doubling conversions on your sales page, THEN you double click-throughs on your Ads, THEN treble the conversion rate on your opt-in pages so you’ve got three times as many people entering your funnel. So to speak.
Sales haven’t just gone up seven-fold – these multipliers stack – and two times two times 3 = 12 times the sales.
Secondly – and this is huge – the work you put into truly understanding your audience as you’re building out your sales pages – what matters to them, what motivates them, what drives them to action – all feeds into your content at every other stage, too.
Invest heavily in social content before you truly understand your audience? It’ll absorb your time, your energy, your capacity and your money – and give you very little in return.
(Sounds a lot like having kids. At least, according to my mum…)
Start giving it serious attention AFTER the other pieces of the puzzle are in place – and your social posts won’t just entertain and engage – they’ll agitate the right pain points, and help SELL, too.
So if you’re ever spinning around, consuming more caffeine than oxygen and feeling overwhelmed by all of the things you know you need to get done, remember this simple rule for deciding which thing to get done next.
Start nearest the money, and then work up.
Because as surprising as this might be to hear from someone who runs a Creative Agency with a big social focus – social media isn’t always the best place for you to focus right now.
If you’re wondering what the well-oiled marketing machine should look like for you and your brand – and you like the idea of having TV’s best comedy writers helping you entertain, engage and sell…
Why not book a virtual coffee with one of the team?
https://whitelabelcomedy.com/contact/schedule-a-call-wlc
We’ll bring the oil.
Adam