The fourth and final of our guest speakers in this 2nd cohort of Digital Marketing at General Assembly was none other than coffee & beer master Jason Dominy. I met Jason in person in his office at The Dalton Agency last fall after we engaged in numerous digital conversations. Jason is a firm believer in 2Dto3D conversations.
Last night, Jason joined us at Ponce City Market to teach us about Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook & Display Ads: what they’re good for and what they’re not good for.
Jason started us off with a primer on the power of digital media advertising. We used to be “on the ground” with advertising, and could only go where paper could take us, but now we can go anywhere we need to in order to get our audience, and rise above all the stuff on the ground.
So where do we go in digital marketing? You go wherever your audience is. You can even go everywhere, but you don’t need to, because your audience isn’t everywhere. You determine where you go (by which we mean what ad channels and social networks we use, by learning where our customers are, what channels they use the most. There are dozens of tools to find this answer, but the easiest and most effective method of finding this information is to simply talk to your customers.
Then create great content that your customers will like. But how do you know what type of content they’ll like, share, and engage? The best types of content are the types that we want to see in our timelines. Do you want to see what you’ve created? If not, change it. We’re all bombarded with content, so we need to market differently so that we stand out from the spammy noise makers.
We don’t have a lack of content. We have a lack of quality content.
Twitter is good for…
- short updates
- quick engagements
- real time info
- Quotes
- Easily digestible content
- targeting – amazing how granular marketers can get with twitter; e.g., if people follow a certain twitter user, target their timelines; and it’s not very expensive.
The best Twitter ads don’t come across as ads. You get the audience’s attention with something that stands out.
Twitter is not good for…
- conversations
- posting lots of information
- overall reach for single tweets – tweets get served to all followers, but not everyone can see it.
- posting out just marketing
The average lifetime of a single tweet is measured in seconds, so it’s helpful and very much acceptable to post several times during the day the same content, even several days in a row at different times. You can’t do this on Facebook because their timeline algorithm is different. Also, sponsored tweets sit up near the top, so they may get seen more, but they’ll also get ignored more.
Finally, if you have an egg as your avatar, you’re doing it wrong.
LinkedIn is great for…
- connecting B2B
- recruiting / hiring
- search – their blogging platform gets far more engagement
- providing a great background for your business
- targeting
LinkedIn is not good for…
- connecting with your fans
- total reach
- paid ads
- tracking
Display (aka banner) Ads
Display Ads are great for…
- targeting
- tracking
- catching attention
- budgets
Display ads not great for…
- people who hate banner ads
- your grandparents
- bang for your buck
- formatting – specific sizes for specific places on specific web sites
- x marks the spot – we’re trained to click the X to close the ad
Retargeting
Retargeting is great for…
- re-targeting those who already visited you
- tracking
- catching attention
- reminding
- success
Retargeting is not good…
- because it can be a little creepy
- because it can backfire
- because it causes brand fatigue
- because your customer can’t turn it off
Facebook is the most cost effective method of paid marketing today. Jason puts out ads every day for $20 and reach 8,000 people or $30 and reach 25,000 people. Really cost effective and hyper targeted.
Facebook’s organic reach: if you have 20k followers, Facebook determines who sees your content and how often they see it, so now you really have to pay to play. That said, Facebook is still ridiculously cost effective to advertise.
Knowing all of these channels are out there, available, and relatively cheap, you should find out where your audience is, and then put your money where your audience is.
Thanks again to Jason Dominy of the Dalton Agency for taking time out of his Tuesday night to educate a group of future digital marketers. If you ever need help in that area, or in making a great cup of coffee or creating a great batch of craft beer, Jason is your guy.
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