2022 Budget Talks

This week, we did the final rounds of marketing budget discussions with some of my clients. Sharing a few of my observations and suggestions, especially around social media.

1. A lot of people consider ‘Monthly Social Media Management’ budget as a must.
2. An internal team member taking care of social media as a side role should be considered as a budget, too.
3. ‘Content Creation’ and ‘Advertising’ budgets are also a must. Hiring a social media agency doesn’t mean you don’t need to produce content. You need to produce content and you need to distribute that content.
4. Some brands have separate teams (even separate agencies) for social media moderation. One for scheduling content, another one for responding to customer comments. I am in favor of centralizing social media moderation. Posting, listen & respond, engaging with the audience should be done through one team only.
5. Distributing the content: Social media channels are no longer ‘free’ platforms for brands. Organic reach is extremely hard unless you have a highly engaged audience. If your organic reach is not high, you must distribute the content through ads.
6. We’ve increased (almost doubled) the video production budgets across all my clients. I suggest the same for everyone.
7. Please don’t confuse ‘influencer marketing’ with ‘influencer advertising’. Paying an influencer just to post a few images is like buying an ad and its influencer advertising. Influencer marketing involves building a strategic relationship with that person and thinking longer term.

Onwards to 2022. Good luck :)

Happy Sunday, Itir