A universal problem that business owners face is the issue of getting your product or service in front of enough of your target audience to eventually warrant enough purchases to see sustainable growth.
The topic of reach, however, is focused at the top of the funnel during the ‘awareness’ phase of the consumer journey. This refers to some of the earliest touchpoints a prospective consumer will have with your brand. Reach is essentially how many people are exposed to your marketing efforts. Every pound you spend on digital marketing must be focused on reaching as many of your prospects as possible. I will share with you how to do this below.
Understanding The Consumer Journey
Before we worry about reaching people online, let’s go back to the start and place ourselves in the world of our target consumer. Consider where our potential customers have come from, where they are now and where they want to be.
The reason we start with this is because it will help tailor your digital marketing efforts to one persona that you can speak to. This will result in consistent messaging across relevant digital touchpoints to help gain an ROI you can shout about.
Organic vs Paid Social Media
Organic Social Media
‘Organic’ refers to the standard posts seen on social media feeds. When thinking organic, think of it as a way to showcase your business to a potential customer who checks you out before they buy. Organic allows you to set the vibe of your business and add a personal touch through user-generated content.
Although this may sound great for reach, it is a common misconception, and the main drawback of organic is its low reach per feed and story post. Posts reaching just 8% of their total following can be considered to have ‘good’ organic social media reach.
Paid Social Media Ads
‘Paid’, in contrast to organic, ultimately lets you control the goal of your posts, who sees them and the user interaction data, amongst other benefits. These are often referred to as ‘paid ads’; however, they are not traditional adverts. Paid ads are blended into organic content on user feeds, reaching a considerably higher volume of leads and converting consumers for your business.
Distinguished through labels such as “sponsored,” “promotion,” or just “ad”, paid media is a strong strategy on all social media platforms for increasing reach. It is up to you to decide which is most relevant for your business.
- Instagram is best for reaching Gen Z and millennials, particularly for aesthetically pleasing products, including clothing, accessories, and home decor.
- Facebook can be used to target Gen X and Baby Boomers who are local to brick-and-mortar stores in the area.
- LinkedIn is perfect if you operate in a B2B setting and you want to reach other businesses that could benefit from your products or services.
Overall, social media has become an essential tool for businesses regardless of size. If you want to increase your reach, then paid social media is the way to go.
Organic vs Paid Search
Search Engine Optimisation
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is categorised as organic search. It is the process of optimising your website to improve its rankings in the search results. SEO is a long-term process, but the result is more eyes on your website, making it an effective method for increasing your business reach.
SEO is a hands-on approach to increasing reach because it requires perfect content and UX while showing users and search engines what the page is about. It also requires a constant stream of authoritative content, which can be challenging to maintain.
Pay-per-click
Pay-per-click (PPC) ads on search engines such as Google are undoubtedly an effective way to increase the reach of your business. Similar to paid social media, ads are catered to your goals and can be as broad or as targeted as you set them. Not only does this increase brand awareness, but it is also a cost-effective way to extend your reach because you only pay when your ad is clicked on.
PPC ads are usually pushed to the top of the search results page, providing immediate results that are not possible in the same time frame as SEO. Furthermore, PPC ads allow you to capture seasonal demand more effectively because of the initial point made. This will be useful for Q4 when events such as Halloween, Black Friday and Christmas demand attention.
This being said, there are some challenges when running PPC campaigns. It can take a while to learn the Google ads platform and the best practices, so a Google ads agency may be best placed to launch and monitor the ads.
To Wrap Things Up
The overall best practice for search is to combine a blend of SEO and PPC to not only increase your overall reach but to capitalise on upcoming seasonal demand as well.
Considering effective online strategies to increase your business reach as a whole, paid social media should also be considered. Whilst the paid strategies require investment, the ROI can be staggering and it is often quicker in gaining results than organic.
