EPISODE 128 of the Boom Your Biz Podcast.
When head office is out of touch
Sonya:
Which is, yeah, to add insult to injury. They're wanting Sarah to then export it into a Excel sheet that then sent to head office where everything is run through them, which is hilarious because literally the day before the client had said to you, you know what, Sarah? You're nailing it. I'm so happy with everything. I don't even need to have a meeting with you anymore. Just run with it. You've totally nailed our brand. You know what we're doing. You've got it under control. There was a comment in that email from head office about one particular post not being on brand. Now, if I look at the term on brand, if we look at the bare basics of that, we look at fonts, colors, things like that. Technically it was on brand. When people throw out the term on brand, they usually generally then mean, oh, it's not our tone or it's not in line with our values or something like that. When essentially they're just going, oh, we don't like this. And can I just say, guys, this is not offensive content. This is not outlandish in any way.
Sarah:
It's not controversial jokes. It is pop culture. It is part of our everyday slang. It's what we say to each other and not offensively say to each other. There's no swear words, there's no rude jokes, there's nothing like that. It is just having a bit of fun showing off what they do.
Sonya:
Will you tell me a little bit about in comparison, what the head office content is like? And maybe we can pause if you need to go find this information, but maybe just compare the engagement they're getting or the crickets versus some of the results that you've been achieving for this client.
Sarah:
Yeah, I mean, from what I've seen of their content, we do get sent some stuff that they make that we're allowed to post if we want. It's something that the client has actually identified to me going, it's not what we want to post. It's pretty boring. It's pretty bland. Some of the information isn't even that accurate. So it was more stock images and things that really don't represent what they do in day-to-day life. So it was sort of like, okay, well that's not really content we're going to use, but if there's an idea that we like, maybe we can take some inspo from that. But ultimately we'll do our own thing. And if there is anything that pops up in that content that we're like, yeah, let's post it. We're happy with that, awesome. But otherwise their content is very much ticking a box.
Sonya:
And that's what we see with so many companies, isn't it? They just tick the box, oh look, we've got three posts out this week. Go ask.
Sarah:
And even if it's one post a week, it's very much that here is what we do, here is some words about it, and that's it. It's really not hitting the idea of sharing the idea behind the brand or the brand itself, or even the people behind the brand. It's just photo text, tick the box. We've done some social media stuff, guys. We are a full on brand.
Sonya:
That's about it. Yeah, I think it's funny. I think personally I love working with service-based businesses because it is so much about the business owners, the people and the people that they collaborate with their clients. You can't be a faceless organization and succeed as a service-based business on social media in this day and age, in my opinion. And I think if you are franchising out your business, you probably need to have some really strong social media guidelines and things, but also realize that these people need to get their own faces and their names out there. And it almost feels to me a little bit like head office is cracking down on that and a brand being built about these people. So I just have this little feeling that it's not so much about your content, Sarah, it's about the fact that they're getting recognized. And it was really interesting. They actually just won an award and a comment was made about how fantastic their social media was, which I'm wondering if that kind of brought it to the attention more kicked off the magnifying glass. Yeah, the general manager. Now I've just pulled up here and just bear with me one second. Tristan, I might get you to edit out this little pause while I search.
All right, so I've just pulled up one of your reports over the last couple of months, and these starts are absolutely insane. So when we're looking at social media reporting, particularly the organic side of things, that really is about the top of funnel, the brand awareness. So we're wanting to build that relationship. We're wanting you to be discovered, and we're wanting to people to get to know and trust you. So we're not so much looking at metrics of how many people click through to the website and made an inquiry. That's where advertising strategy comes in, lower down the funnel, and we've got an element of that happening as well. What we're looking for is the number of engaged users. How many engagement are you getting? Impressions, if your following is growing, what's your reach looking like? So if I look at this report in particular, you have an engagement rate on some of these both of over 50%.
That's insane. If we look at Facebook's average, 3% is pretty standard. And if I look at the top audience, it's like bang on the target market. So women age 45 to 54. So for this particular trade and what they're selling, that's typically the demographic. That's the one making the decisions or pushing for this kind of service. Now if we look at your Instagram, you're even getting a ton of comments. It's a pretty small following for a page. You've grown it substantially in a very short period of time, but you are getting a ton of comments on here as well. Each month I'm seeing month on month, your impressions, your engagement, your reach is growing, sometimes by up to 40% per month. And even your Instagram posts are getting around 30% engagement. There's a post here for 38%. Insane, absolutely killing it. And everything that I'm looking at here is really on brand. So when I say on brand, I'm talking about the colors, fonts, the style of the imagery, it's all in line with their brand guidelines. Just nailing it. Sarah, well done.
Sarah:
Thank you. I think it's been great to see their results because we've actually seen the outcome of those results too. They're constantly getting inquiries through not only the Google advertising that we do for them, but they've actually had people directly relate back to their social media saying, we saw you on social media, we would like you to help us out.
Sonya:
And that's the thing. I think we've got to remind people as well that this is, we're looking at a full funnel strategy here essentially. So we don't have a lot of control over their website, unfortunately, being a franchise, and look guys, if you are thinking of starting a franchise, please think about all of these things. You have very limited control when it comes to the marketing. So when we're wanting to do things like install pixels or tracking on the website, sometimes you just don't have access to that to be able to track the results of you are spending money on marketing with an agency, but we're using a system where the content is personality field. It's really showcasing what they do, who they are, what they're all about in a really genuine relatable way. We've then got some advertising pushing out their social media posts to the target market locally and off the back of that, we also have some Google ads running.
So generally, if someone engages with social media and then decides to Google and then they see that company on Google, there's already that brand recognition there. It makes that conversion piece a whole lot easier. So you're kind of getting them at every point in their buyer's journey, which is fantastic. And it doesn't have to be, I think people sort of mystify these funnels and make it this whole big thing, but it's literally about just making sure you hit them in every decision step along the way. And that's thinking about your buyer behavior. What are they doing? They're scrolling through social media, they're Googling for a business, they're checking out the work, they're submitting an inquiry form. It all comes down to that. Something I do want to touch on, Sarah, that we just spoke about before was a lot of companies tick a box when it comes to their social media, and I feel like this is very 2015, which it's crazy. That was nearly 10 years ago, but it's such a thing where businesses just post for the sake of posting, or they're using really generic, boring stock images and it's just crap and it's boring, and you may as well just not bother. To be honest, if a business is feeling like they're in a little bit of a rut with that, and yeah, they're not getting the engagement and they're not really sure what to do, what is some advice?
Sarah:
I mean, you can quite easily just go and post a photo of your project that you've just recently completed or a image of one of your team members and things like that, and just talk a little bit about yourselves. But what really will engage with your audience is that people behind the service, people behind the product, who are you? What do you do? Why do you do it? When people go on social media, they're not there to read about your product and go, alright, that answered all my questions. I'm now going to purchase this product. They're going on social media to find out why do you do what you do? Do you love it? Is it to fix a problem? Is it because that's what you're good at? They don't go on there to have a look at a product and go, I want that exact product. They want to know what you can do for them. Are you going to help them design it? Are you going to help 'em tailor it to them? It's to sell yourself without going X, Y, Z. This is what I do. It'll cost you this much. Give us a call. We can do it.
It may be for people who are looking for a product or a service, but they don't need it right now. They may not be financially able to, they may not be ready for it, but if you are creating content that engages somebody, you might be the perfect person to just stick in the back of their mind. They've got the content, they thought about it, it was funny, it was engaging. They loved it. They had a laugh. They remembered your brand. They remembered the color of your brand. Then when they're finally ready to go and book in for a facial, they're ready to finally purchase your product. They're finally ready to commit to a big spend design heavy construction project project. You are the first person on their mind when they're scrolling through social media. They see your brand, they see your colors, they see your posts. That's what really will catch them. If you're just ticking a box and putting up a photo and putting in some words together that have no meeting or strategic planning or a message, it's going to fall through the cracks. They'll read it, they'll move on. They may not even read it at all.
Sonya:
They're probably not going to see it. To be honest
Sarah:
With the algorithm.
Sonya:
They're probably not even going to see it because Facebook and Instagram will have gone, oh, no one's really liked stuff before. We're not really going to show it now either.
Sarah:
Yeah, and using stock images, if it's something where you don't have that image, sure you've got something, but it's something on the page. But is it really conveying the message you want to see for a business that even if you're a one man entertainment band, having a photo of you can really sell the message, even if it's just you. But if you've got a team behind you, you've got a social media resource, you've got the people who make your product and service special. So you need to sell that rather than the whole package of this is what we do, this is why it's a whole package. It's why we do it, not just what it is.
Sonya:
Very, very well said. Any other thoughts that came up when you first got this feedback from head office?
Sarah:
I mean, it's hard not to take it personally,
Sonya:
Even though don't take it personally. No, you're doing amazing.
Sarah:
Can't take It personally. The results are speaking to themselves.
Sarah:
I've almost got to see it in the reverse psychology sense going, I loved it too much. They're jealous. It's one of those things where it's an opportunity to develop the message. If it's not quite what head office is thinking, maybe it's an opportunity to show them an alternative
Sonya:
And look, maybe it's a foot in the door for us potentially to be like, well, would you like us to do all of the franchisees social media?
Sarah:
Even just, we can help you out. We can do a bit of a support package. We can put something together to show you how they should do it. Set your guidelines. Because if you don't, as a franchise, if you don't have a way of showing what you expect on your social media, if you don't have a, here's an example post. This is what we like, things like that. Well, how are your franchisees going to know what to post? You can follow the brand guidelines as long as you use the colors correctly, as long as you represent the brand correctly, and as long as you use their text and logo correctly, well then that's fantastic. But what is that? Is that making sure it's a certain millimeter to the edge of the picture? Is it making sure every picture has your brand on it? You've really got to outline that for franchisees, and if that's something that even for businesses across Australia, it is something that you can put together quite simply with your brand guidelines for social media. This is an example post. This is how to do a call to action. If you want things uniform, you need to say what you want it to be.
Sonya:
Or some franchises actually say no, you're not allowed to have your own social media pages. So again, if you are considering opening a business and you want to do a franchise, make sure you look into all of these things. If you can go and have a chat to other franchise owners, probably not ones that the franchise themselves have referred you to, because that they're just going to say everything that they want you to say, want them to say. But yeah, ask these questions around the marketing piece. Yeah, it's interesting.
Sarah:
It's an important aspect of your business, and if you don't have the control over it that you need, it can really hinder your business.
Sonya:
Absolutely, and look, anyone listening to this, if you are feeling like you are stuck in a rut with your social media, if you're looking to outsource it, Sarah is your gal, just get in touch with us at hello@linchpindigital.com au, or you can actually book a call with myself on the website to explore what that looks like. We do offer a package where we do an audit and a strategy for you as well. We can set you up with some templates if you do want to manage it yourself. Sarah, thank you so much for coming on and having this little rant with me. I think it's been very cathartic. It's been quite nice getting it all out.