On 27th June, Hydrogen partnered with BIMA to host several events to mark Social Media Day. The first of these was focused on the age old question: how can you create ROI?
While most associate Return on Investment (ROI) with monetary value, there are plenty of ways to calculate it: from brand awareness to recruitment.
We invited senior marketing professionals from Arnold Clark, Worldwide Cancer Research and Netball Scotland to share their insights: and have pointed these down to five top tips for any marketers looking to create results from social media.
1: Know your objectives and your budget
You can’t create KPIs or deliver ROI if you don’t know what your boss or your client wants.
As Laura McLachlan, Director of Marketing and Fundraising at Worldwide Cancer Research, put it: “You need to know what you want to say before you start on social media!” If you don’t know how to measure success, you won’t know if you’re successful.
2: Tailor your content for your audience
To create ROI, you need an engaged audience, so make sure you focus on what they want, not just want you like. If you love creating video, but your audience lap up still images, you need to change your approach to engage them.
3: Hard sell doesn’t deliver best results
For Kevin Gilmartin, paid social media specialist at Arnold Clark, different channels have different focuses. “Twitter is not for selling cars, it’s for engagement with customers.”
For him, customer retention and recruitment are the key focuses for social media.
4: ROI isn’t always monetary
“Digital marketing doesn’t need to be expensive- content is key, not cost!” That was the rallying cry of Claire Nelson, CEO of Netball Scotland.
With a limited budget, her #ChangingTheGame campaign for the Strathclyde Sirens performed extraordinarily well. What was the result by the time the opening game came around? Four and a half thousand people at the Emirates Arena, new sponsorships and the Sports Team of the Year award!
5: Realise it is long term
With retention being key for all three speakers, ROI isn’t a ‘one and done’ result. Engagement on Worldwide Cancer Research could lead to future donations; attendance to a Netball Scotland game could lead to buying merchandise; and clicking an ad about a car on Arnold Clark could end up with a sale…but they could all take months to see the results!
For further information on the event, and more tips from our speakers, check out our Social Media Day blog.
A huge thank you to Anna Doyle from BIMA for helping organise the event, and to all our speakers and attendees.