How do Beginners start social media marketing? (2023)

How do Beginners start social media marketing?

Business

A Guide For Beginning Social Media Marketers!!

What is the definition of segmentation?

Segmentation is the process of dividing the broad market into groups based on certain predefined characteristics that often relate to consumer behaviour. Marketers choose a segment to learn which groups of consumers will respond to their marketing attempts, engage in behaviours like purchases, or give reviews of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with products or services.

What is a persona andwhy are personas important?

A persona is afictional profile that represents groups of similar people in a target audience. They are important because they help a marketer figure out how to reach people on a more personal level; by delivering the right messages, offers, and products at the right time.

Segments are used to forecast market interest for a product or service; and hence determine the target market, whereas Personas help allow understanding the target market; on a more emotional and behavioural level.

What is hyper-personalization?

Hyper-personalization leverages artificial intelligence and real-time data; to deliver extremely relevant and customized content, product, and service information to each user. This approach takes personalized marketing a step further.

Together, all these tools can help marketers achieve accurate customer targeting. Moreover, the data they gather allows firms to win in micro-moments by being there for the consumers at the right time.

What are the various elements you need to look at, to create a persona, to represent a segment?

To create a persona, it is important to narrow down to a segment using four key elements: Geographic, demographic, psychographic, behavioural.

• Geographic elements include city, country, local code etc.
• Demographics include age, gender, languages spoken etc.
• Psychographic elements include, specific interests like people who read a particular magazine or watch a particular show, and even broad categories like relationship status, fitness and wellness habits, preferred music genres etc.
• Behavioral habits can be either social media related, purchase related or mobile usage related. They include sub-segments like the connections of the person, the operating system on the consumer’s device, the device they use (iPad or iPhone), etc.

Name	Bella Thompson
Age	23
Occupation	Digital Content creator for her travels
Hobbies and Interests	Health and fitness, travel, vegan, socialising and meeting new people, Exploring new restaurants, Watching reality TV
Favourite Brands	ASOS, H&M, Forever 21, Zara, Urban Outfitters

I created this persona after reading about Zara’s target segment. The brand describes its target demographic asyoung (18-35 year old) adults, who are price-conscious with a mid-range income. More specifically, they segment their product line by women’s (60%), men’s (25%) and children (15%). Their psychographic is that they are sensitive to fashion trends. Their behavioural habits include the tendency to use various social media platforms such as Facebook, twitter and Instagram.

Should you consider more than one persona? If yes, why and how?

It is better to have more than one persona, and in fact a brand can and should have numerous personas. This then allows for hyper personalization of each persona. This is because a brand targets various personas even in a small target segment. Zara targets various types of consumers and sells a variety of clothes such as formals, vacation wear, daily attire, athleisure etc, it would be ideal to have as many carefully researched personas for Zara to improve their marketing. However it remains crucial to understand how precise to make each customer persona, to maximize the effort-to-return ratio while delivering thepersonalizationyour customers expect.

What isPorter’s 5 forces? How should you use it and why is it important?

Porter’s 5 forces are a simple but effective tool used to analyse thestate of competition in an industry. It is important to understand these five forces affecting the industry, to adjust brand strategy and stay ahead of competitors. For example, it can be used by a brand to take advantage of a strong position or improve a weak one; and avoid taking missteps in the future. Hence, the collective strength of these forces determines the ultimate profit potential of an industry. The five forces are: competitive rivalry in the industry; bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitution and threat of new entrants.

Look at Porter’s 5 forces model and illustrate it using the electric car segment vs. regular cars. Includes my Aha Moments

Porter’s 5 Forces analysis of Tesla, an electric car company:

• Competition in the industry: There is high and intense competition amongst the rivals ranging from start-ups, traditional car companies and companies switching to electric vehicles. The competitors seek to alter pricing and have differentiators restricting Tesla to penetrate markets easily and have high profits since Tesla finds it difficult to develop a singular niche no other company can imitate. However, Tesla continues to differentiate in the 4 Ps of marketing: product, place, price, and promotion. They allow Tesla to find a competitive advantage.
• Threat of substitution: If we place Tesla in the automobile industry, it only has a 1.2 of the overall market share. However, it is essential to segment it and place it in the electric vehicle market wherein it has a 14.55% market share. This makes Tesla a prominent name. However, this yet isn’t enough to make Tesla a market leader and it must continue leveraging its brand loyalty to maintain its competitive advantage. Tesla a loyal following due Elon Musk who is a popular face and proves to be a free marketing campaign for Tesla. Unlike its competitors, like Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz that are spending billions of dollars on marketing campaigns to have their latest cars on all platforms.
• My Aha moment: I didn’t know that there was so much competition in the electric car industry and I expected Tesla to have a greater market share just because it’s the most well-known electric car company in my opinion. I then realised, it’s due to Elon Musk’s fame that Tesla is so popular. I was also surprised to see how Tesla doesn’t spend on advertisements and yet is so popular. I decided to test it and conduct my own google search. When I googled the best luxury electric car to buy, I saw paid advertisements by other brands like BMW. However, as I scrolled a bit more, I saw that organic ratings place Tesla models in the top 5 luxury cars to buy. For reference, I have attached the two screenshots:

• Bargaining power of suppliers: Suppliers have high bargaining power since there is a limited supply chain network. The electric vehicle industry is new compared to the traditional car industry. This is why suppliers have higher power in the electric car industry comparatively. The majority of Tesla vehicle components come from select German suppliers. Hence, in case of disruption in the German economy, it would negatively impact Tesla’s production. For example, COVID-19 was one such negative scenario. Regular car companies do not face such barriers and find it relatively easier to switch amongst suppliers when needed, since there are many more suppliers available. Hence, to shorten the bargaining power of Suppliers, Tesla tries to diversify suppliers to avoid shortage and production delays. Also, it seeks to shorten its supply chain network by constructing its own Gigafactories across the globe.
• My aha moment: I was surprised to learn that a company as highly reputed as Tesla will yield high bargaining power to its suppliers. I thought that they would easily be able to replace their suppliers in case of a disruption in the supply chain network since suppliers would be honoured to work with Tesla to build their reputation.

• Bargaining power of buyers: Consumers have low bargaining power since Tesla segments its vehicles with premium pricing for high end consumers. Tesla is in the luxury market because the low end market deals with intense competition. Tesla has developed sustainable competitive advantages to differentiate its products. For example, it has unique technology and offers unique services that cannot be replicated by others like Starlink network. Comparatively, in the regular car industry, buyers have many more options to buy from even in the premium category and hence have higher bargaining power.
• Threat of new entrants: Tesla faces a high threat of new entrants in the electric car industry due to low barriers of entry. Tesla’s competitors include Electric vehicle start-ups, fossil fuel powered vehicles; and traditional auto companies that are now switching to manufacturing electric cars instead.

Search engines represent close to half the digital media spending of brands. What is the importance of search in marketing?

Search is crucial to marketing in today’s digital world; since the most important thing a marketer can do is ensure that the consumer can find what you are selling. Hence, search engines are of utmost importance since they are the “find anything” magic; that allow marketers to target consumers who are actively searching for something with a desire to purchase. Search engines connect buyers to the sellers.

Why are keywords important?

Keywords are words and phrases a user selects to direct their search. Hence, keywords in turn allow brands to increase their search engine optimization and make sure brands are speaking the language of their audience. For each brand, there are a set of keywords that are relevant. For example, when brands first get started, they can use keywords to refine their marketing message. As they grow, keywords can be used to help the brand get found online.Brand-specific keywords can also help a brand learn about the search presence and ad strategies of your competitors. For example,searching branded keywords related to researching a product can help highlight search ads that your competitors are running.

What is Search Engine Optimization or organic search?

Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the effort of a brand to raise a website’s organic ranking. Organic ranking is the unpaid ranking that appears in the centre of a page; when people search keywords or phrases, so that the site appears on the first page when the engine returns results to a searcher. Marketers try to boost their rankings by changing their sites to rank higher in the search engine’s results returned by that search engine’s algorithm. Since organic ranks are not sold; the marketers try to understand the algorithm and redesign their websites to gain top rankings for their brands or push them to create more authentic and relevant content.

And how is it different from Search Engine Marketing or paid search?

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is the use of targeted paid ads in the same searches to show how creative messages perform against selected target keywords. They are used to increase search visibility. In the past, SEM was a term used to describe both SEO and paid search, but now it is more distinguished and almost always refersonlyto paid search marketing. In the following screenshot we can distinguish between an SEM (The first screenshot of a paid ad by Expedia and Booking.com) and an SEO (The second screenshot of hotels.com and TripAdvisor).

How would you know when to choose SEM vs. SEO or vice versa?

The strategy used depends on the requirement of the firm and what stage of its business cycle it is in. SEO is a cheaper alternative since it is primarily based on research and hence a growing company with smaller budgets could make use of it. However, to remain on top of the organic rankings, they would have to produce authentic content which requires consistent hard work. It also provides more credibility to a brand when it’s growing. It allows a brand to build its long term reputation.

SEM, however, is a tool that is costly but yields quick results since it targets a market segment that the brand has determined. Hence, it allows either a well-established brand or a growing brand choosing to spend on advertisements to find consumers more willing to convert. It allows a brand to grow its reach in the short run. However, in the long run the brand would have to create authentic content to maintain the trust of consumers as otherwise there might be distrust amongst consumers who tend to be wary of paid advertisements. Therefore, both initiatives are useful and it is important for the brand to strike the correct balance of SEM and SEO for an ideal marketing strategy.

What role does each of them play in search marketing? Illustrated through examples:

Examples of SEM:

• I was searching for scented candles; and I saw how a well-established brand like Sephora is using paid advertisements to increase traffic from the search channel. It took me to a website wherein I could scroll through the options. I experienced an I want-to-know moment.
• I was looking for shoes on sale and NIKE had a paid ad that highlighted its sale. This is because the campaign has a short life cycle for a limited time; and hence there isn’t enough time to let SEO gain traction. In such a case an SEM campaign would help to get on top of the search results pages asap.
• While scrolling on Instagram, I saw an advertisement for Skin Laundry, for various facial procedures. I was looking for dermatologists in New York which is why this advertisement popped up on my Instagram. The firm managed to be there in what I want to do and I want to know for a moment.

Examples of SEO:

• I was looking up a blog about traveling to Paris since my mother is going there. I wanted to see authentic content to gain travel inspiration. I saw blogs with organic rankings pop up on my mobile phone. Moreover, someone writing a blog is likely to not have a massive budget to spend on SEM and also, people want relevant content when looking at blogs. I would personally distrust a paid blog. Hence, the best way for blogs to flourish would be through authentic content and organic rankings as we can see for the travel to Paris blogs below.
• While continuing my search for scented candles, I saw that Sephora also came up as an organic search on the first page as I scroll further down. This is because studies show how ranking on both the paid and organic search results pages result in incremental clicks overall.Hence, in such a case, a simultaneous SEO and SEM campaign is beneficial.
• On my Instagram, I saw one of my favourite influencers post about a Supergoop sunscreen lotion. This is organic content since they didn’t pay the platform but paid influencers to show their fans following their products. This definitely influenced my consumer journey and made me experience and I want to buy a moment.

What are walled gardens?

A walled garden is any closed platform or closed ecosystem where the technology provider has significant control over the hardware, applications, or content consumers can access. In digital marketing, brands provide this limited set of technology or media information to users with the intention of creating a monopoly or secure information system.

What role do they play in digital marketing?

One key reason brands should be cognizant of walled gardens is because brands need consumer insight and data to identify which campaigns of their fared well. However, almost 65-70% of all US digital ad spending goes to Amazon, Google and Facebook. The following pie charts created by eMarketer reflect this information:

These brands have created walled gardens and hence; companies that generate ads on one of these platforms find it really difficult to gain transparency on how the campaign performs. While many marketers are spending more and more on these platforms, they are understanding less and less about their customers because walled garden campaigns can’t be tied back to the brand’s CRM database. Brands end up getting an aggregate view of how their campaign performed rather than an individualized view that provides clarity into the campaign’s performance. Marketers identified extracting audience insights from walled gardens as their greatest challenge when it comes to identity, according to an August 2018 study by Winterberry Group.

Why do brands/companies need to be cognizant of them?

Hence, certain brands might want to reconsider how much they spend on platforms that create walled gardens when their priority is to gain consumer insight. For example, as discussed in class, brands like Nike do not sell on Amazon since they wish to retain and prioritise their consumer insight that Amazon is not willing to share.

How can they navigate them? What is their significance?

Similarly, other brands can choose other platforms or their own platforms to sell their products on. They can go to independent AdTech companies like OpenX, Index Exchange, LiveRamp and Pubmatic. While independent ad tech companies don’t have the data or scale of the big 3 firms we saw above, they provide a number of advantages to the brands and marketers they work with like transparency, data ownership and better support. For example, OpenX brands its company as an anti-thesis to firms that monopolise on data and create wall gardens in order to attract clients:

2 examples of a walled garden

Example 1 of a wall Garden: Apple’s App Store is perhaps the most well-known example of a walled garden. While the store boasts the ability for users to download more than 2.2 million apps onto their Apple smartphones and tablets, users cannot find those applications on the App Store that fail to meet Apple’s extreme standards. Apple claims that this walled garden eliminates apps that are buggy, potentially contain malware or do not adhere to the company’suser interface/user experienceguidelines. Hence, they manage to serve the best possible apps to their users and allow users to have a good user experience with the App Store.

Example 2 of a Walled Garden: Certain social media applications, like Twitter, are another good example of a walled garden. When someone posts a link to something on Twitter, the Twitter application opens the webpage within the Twitter app itself, rather than opening an external web browser like the Safari app on an iPhone. This is mainly done so that the user never has the opportunity to leave the app and is more likely to continue browsing Twitter after the article has been read.

In turn, the longer a user remains on Twitter’s walled-garden platform, the more opportunities there are to place advertisements and other promoted content in front of them. I tested this out by opening a link on my Twitter feed. I saw that it took me to a browser on Twitter itself. There is a done option in the top left corner that takes me right back to my Twitter feed once I am done browsing the link:

What in your opinion is the future of walled gardens?

I think that companies will start to look for solutions that deliver greater transparency, data, margin control and overall autonomy. They will seek out independent AdTech firms instead over a period of time. Especially in light of the pandemic, ad budgets have been reduced and companies will need a much greater need for clarity over every dollar spent on media.Independent ad tech provides businesses with such ad solutions since innovation allows them to compete with the big 3 tech giants. For this reason, even companies that didn’t used deal with advertising businesses,like Oracle, have acquired their own ad platforms. Another example is Adobe, which bought TubeMogul in 2016 for$540 million. Bigbrands likeNetflix, Kellogg’s, Unilever, Procter & Gamble Co. and Intel are massively bringing their media purchases in-house because it is the ultimate way to achieve independence; and media-buying control in the realms of the walled gardens.

Micro Moments have fundamentally changed the way we should look at consumer journeys. Do you agree/disagree?

Aconsumer journey isa detailed representation of the consumer buying process; which is the steps customers take on their way to making a purchase. It sets out every interaction they have with a brand beginning from awareness, consideration and ending at the final decision.

Micro-moments are tiny moments of importance that occur during our consumer journey. They occur when consumers intentionally pick up a device to find information about a purchase they have in mind; or they want to do something, discover something or watch something. Consumers today tend to follow the mobile-first approach; since our mobile phones are always in our hands and most easily accessible.

These micro-moments are vital to the consumer journey as they influence what consumers buy by subtly impacting their preferences and influences purchase decisions. Micro-moments tend to take place when a consumer will pick up a device and search the internet or social media sites to find out information about a purchase they have in mind. The mobile phone is changing how brands communicate with customers—from the way they identify key moments of opportunity to how they create a great user experience.

Brands can use data and identify trends can provide insights as to what topics and types of content the customers are looking for. This will allow them to gain customers’ attention early in the decision-making process by creating content that suits the micro-moment need. This data also helps to create content that resonates, engages and is tailored to the conversion touch-points of the customer journey. In addition, it also aids in personalized ad-targeting. It is now increasingly important for brands to be there, be useful, be quick and connect the dots between what consumers want and what they can offer. The brands who achieve this are the ones who can win in the micro-moments.

illustrate what micro-moments are and why are they important?

The five types of micro moments:

I-want-to-watch what-I’m-into: Consumers use video platforms like YouTube very often to be inspired or entertained. Hence, it is essential for brands to learn about the passions and interests of their viewers so that they can capitalize on video searches, and show up in the right videos to make sure they can “be there” in consumers’ micro-moments. People prefer watching videos of any form (YouTube, reels, tiktok etc.) to entertain themselves and get information on what they are interested in. YouTube is the number 1 platform 18-34 year-olds choose to explore their passions. Not only in the videos, but brands should also expand focus from just who their buyer personas are and should instead realise what they want. They should show up on both organic listings and shopping ads on YouTube.

I-want-to-know- When a consumer is just learning, exploring, or researching, brands can delight consumers by showing up with the right kind of messaging that is relevant to what they’re researching. A consumer’s curiosity in such micro-moments can be triggered by anything and also satisfied at any time. Most of the initial research is conducted on smartphones to look at something they saw offline. 65% of online consumers look up more information online now versus a few years ago. 66% of smartphone users turn to their phones to look up something they saw in a TV commercial.

I-want-to-go- These micro-moments occur when someone is trying to look for some place in their area to visit or is visiting a new place. They begin by conducting a local search through either navigation apps like google maps or just a general search. For these moments, local businesses need to have their local presence beefed up by seeking to have positive reviews for their brand and also a robust localsocial media presence. Also, it would be ideal to have a high organic ranking on sites like Yelp to be considered by consumers.

I-want-to-do- This moment occurs when people are searching for specific details while doing a task for inspiration and ideas. It’s mostly when people search for ‘how to’ content. 91% of smartphone users turn to their phones for ideas while doing a task. 100M+ hours of “how-to” content have been watched on YouTube so far this year. This is because when people want to learn how to do something, they typically look at videos. Brands that own a significant presence on visual platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Tik Tok, or Facebook will reap the rewards from these micro-moments.

I-want-to-buy- These are moments when consumers are set up to buy a particular product or service. Then, the only step left is to assess prices, compare products and make a final decision. The companies must be there at the precise time with the accurate information to allow consumers to quickly buy their products. This is the last part of the consumer journey as the user has decided to purchase something they had initially intended to become aware of. 82% of smartphone users consult their phones while in a store deciding what to buy. 29% increase in mobile conversion rates in the past year.

How do we see them in action? Use abrandof your choice to illustrate the two micro-moments that you are highlighting.

In order to illustrate these micro-moments, I have chosen to go through my consumer journey of purchasing from Revolve. Revolve is an online store that sells many high-end boutique brands’ clothes and accessories. The two micro-moments I experienced were I-want-to-know and I-want-to-buy. An I-want-to-know moment is when a consumer is still exploring and researching but isn’t ready to purchase the product. They are looking for more information and comparing products. An I-want-to-buy moment is when the consumer is ready to make a purchase and is trying to determine what to buy and how to buy it.

While scrolling on Instagram, I saw how an influencer was wearing a long pink dress that I really liked and I instantly wanted to know where to buy it because I wanted it. Due to Instagram’s new features, I immediately could click on the link she tagged on her dress that allowed me to view the shop. I was immediately taken to Revolve’s website on an Instagram web browser. This connects with the walled garden concept, wherein after my purchase I could immediately go back to Instagram and not leave the app. Revolve was there in my I-want-to-buy moment.

On the Revolve site, it showed me instantly the price of the dress and allowed me to choose my size in it; and let me either buy it immediately or add it to my cart. I chose my size and chose to buy it immediately. Since my payment information and billing address is saved on Instagram; it was all auto-filled on the website and I could immediately purchase it. In fact, in the span of a small screen I was shown all the important information; about my purchase like the estimated arrival time, charge for shipping, my payment method etc.

However, I wasn’t ready to make my purchase yet because I realised I wanted to browse through more options that I couldn’t access on Instagram. This was my i-want-to-know moment that I surprisingly had after my i-want-to buy moment. This often happens since sometimes as consumers, we change our minds and want to look at more options. Hence, I took a screenshot of the dress and used goggle lenses to find the dress online. Instantly, I could spot revolve and I opened the dress on Revolve actual web browser. 2 things that delighted me were that firstly, there was a promotion going on that day that I couldn’t see on Instagram’s browser. Also, as I scrolled below the dress I saw similar options like my dress of choice which allowed me to make a more informed decision of what I wanted to buy as I could evaluate amongst many dresses.

As peryour consumer journey, is the brand getting it right or wrong? Where are they missing the mark? What can they do better?

As per my consumer journey, I think Revolve has a very good digital presence; and gets their micro-moments right by being there in my micro-moments, at the top of the search. However, I wish that there wasn’t an Instagram walled garden; and that I could have been directed to Revolve’s official website via Instagram. This would have saved me time as I would have been able to see more options while making my purchase.

Also, I would have liked on the Instagram browser to have an option to change my delivery address; since I wanted to get it shipped elsewhere. However, my Instagram auto-filled it for me and didn’t allow me to make edits to it; unless I went to my settings and changed it. Lastly, I now know that I wouldn’t buy revolve products straight; via an Instagram link since I cannot view any available promotions on that day as well.

Business

References:

https://www.brightedge.com/blog/understanding-the-micro-moment-customer-journey

https://marketingcommunications.wvu.edu/industry-insights/marketing-communications-today-blog/2021/06/24/are-walled-gardens-the-future

https://certainwidetest.xyz/?utm_campaign=3R60Iq_6TwnSLaZnPTupNSKfvhj857wOWHP26RZmXuw1&t=main7d

https://getlucidity.com/strategy-resources/create-porters-five-forces-in-6-steps/

https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/walled-garden

https://www.kevel.com/blog/what-are-walled-gardens/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/insights-treasuredata/2019/05/01/the-path-to-personalization/#756f76e7a76b

https://www.convinceandconvert.com/research/hyper-personalization/
https://www.acquia.com/blog/creating-personas-vs-customer-segments-whats-difference#:~:text=Segments%20help%20 to%20forecast%20 market,individual%20 customers%20 within%20that%20 market.