Every business has to have strong marketing objectives to grow its brand and make more sales. Common marketing objectives include improving brand awareness, customer loyalty, customer engagement, and product attractiveness.
Most businesses will determine their marketing objectives after calculating the category development index (CDI) or brand development index (BDI). Once they have these calculations, they can decide on the media objective, which will help them achieve its marketing objectives.
Media objectives involve reach and frequency. In simple terms, reach describes how many people see your advertisement, product, or service. Frequency, however, refers to how many times someone sees this advertisement, product, or service.
For example, if a business launches an out-of-home ad, such as a billboard on a highway, the frequency will be high if multiple people drive past the billboard daily on their way to work.
Over the last decade, social media has changed how reach and frequency work, as there are now so many different channels that businesses can infiltrate to achieve their media and marketing objectives. Because of this, companies must know their target audience and how to target them in the right places.
In this article, we will explore some examples and provide important information on how to target audiences on social media and increase online social media reach and frequency.
The Social Media Evolution
Let’s say a video game company wants to build brand awareness among its target audience (ages 16 to 24) on social media. As such, they will want to increase their reach by integrating online advertisements about their games across different channels. What should the company do if they don’t know which social media channels this target audience favors?
Without this information, the company may spend too much time or money investing in an area that will not increase its reach or frequency. This is one of the most damaging things a company could do when trying to meet its marketing and media objectives because it can set them back days, weeks – even months.
Going back to the example, the video game company can conduct qualitative or quantitative research or look at secondary data in order to find out this information. Qualitative research could include setting up focus groups or interviews and secondary data includes reading different news articles and other pieces available on the internet that have relevant information to the company.
For example, in October 2022, ExpressVPN’s technological age quiz found statistics that the video game company could use to build its social media strategy. While the purpose of the quiz was primarily to inform users of how old they are based on their technology habits, the accompanying article also stated that 14% of Americans between the ages of 16 to 24 spend five hours per day on YouTube, and 11% said the same about TikTok.
This information can give the video game company a head start about where to focus its quantitative research – ultimately finding that it’s best to advertise its games on YouTube and TikTok to attract its target audience.
Another way a business can increase its social media reach and frequency is by focusing on its social currency. Forbes’ social currency article states this element is vital in marketing, and that’s because a brand with high social currency means they’re adding value to their target audience’s social media lives. This high currency can be achieved in various ways. For instance, social currency has five dimensions, two of which are conversation and utility.
Let’s say a running shoe company wants to increase its social media reach. They could create a Facebook group to encourage customer conversation or make YouTube videos showing the best insoles for certain running distances. The latter would be part of the utility dimension of social currency.
Lastly, entering into sponsorships with online influencers can also help businesses increase their social media reach and frequency. By sponsoring an online influencer, the company automatically gains access to its audience base, increasing how many people come across the company’s products or services.
It is important to mention that if a company wants to go down this route, it must ensure a sponsorship fit. For example, the video game company can sponsor an online Twitch streamer because they are involved in the same industry, but it would not make sense for the video game company to sponsor a fitness influencer on Instagram. That is known as a ‘typicality fit’ in the world of sponsorships.
A Growing Market
Social media usage grew exponentially between January 2021 and January 2022, moving from 4.2 billion users to 4.62 billion. According to Smart Insights’ article, this marks a YOY growth of 10.1%. Social media has become a lucrative business for companies trying to increase their reach and frequency.
Still, because of the number of available channels, these businesses must know their target market and which platforms are the best to reach them on.