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6 years ago, when we first started ripplemark, digital marketing in Egypt was still in its infancy. While we had countless brilliant global references to learn from (think WebFX, HubSpot, Disruptive, Conversion XL, Jon Loomer, etc), it was extremely difficult to find quality sources of information that is relevant to social media and digital marketing in Egypt. Even with the huge range of social media agencies in Egypt at the time, the number of agencies providing social media and content creation services that followed digital best practices was alarmingly low at the time.
6 years and multiple paradigm shifts later, and some of the same mistakes are still being made by professional social media agencies. This is not to say that digital marketing in Egypt hasn’t undergone a significant overhaul over the years and we definitely do not mean to discredit the few agencies that provide quality social media and performance marketing services.
Still, whether you’re considering outsourcing your digital marketing or you’re the owner of a budding social media agency with limited resources and expertise, this article is meant to drive you in the right direction when it comes to your social media strategy, what to expect from social media, and how to properly leverage each of the different social media platforms to get the very best out of your campaigns and online presence.
It’s important to know what you can and can’t achieve with organic social media in order to temper expectations, and more importantly so you’re aware when a potential agency or freelancer is overpromising.
What is organic social media marketing good for?
A lot of the time, and especially in the past before the COVID-19 pandemic woke business professionals across the country up to the importance of digital marketing, we receive briefs from potential clients that include objectives, strategies, and personas that are not aligned and are based on different demands and requests coming in from the different departments within their business.
For example, we’ve received a brief from a potential client where the objective was to increase revenue by 10% month-over-month using a strategy that consisted of purely organic social media. We’re not here to discredit the importance of content or engagement to a brand’s positioning, retention, and customer loyalty, but as an agency that prides itself on full transparency with its clients, we simply don’t promise what can not be done.
Accordingly, we want to clear up some misconceptions about organic social media. Organic social media marketing, done right, is extremely good at (keep in mind organic social media is a long-term effort and you’re unlikely to see significant results right away):
- Being a great way to directly connect and engage with your audience.
- Establishing a personality for your brand in the perception of your audience.
- Being an open platform on which your business can share useful information and position itself as a thought leader in its industry.
- Gradually building a loyal base of customers and brand advocates who engage with your brand consistently.
So wait, what is organic social media NOT good for?
Now we know some things that social media marketing can help us achieve, but we also need to understand what it is not good for. A few things that can’t be achieved using a digital marketing strategy that is made up of purely social media are:
- Consistently increasing purchases, conversions, and revenues.
- Effectively and quickly scaling a business.
- Reaching completely new audiences and convincing them to make a purchase.
Check out this great article that shows why organic social media is not the way to go if you’re looking to grow your business’ digital revenues.
What are most social media agencies in Egypt doing wrong?
For any proper data-driven digital or performance marketing agency, the problem with these agencies that overpromise and underdeliver is that they gradually chip away at the market’s trust in digital marketing agencies in general. This makes the task of persuading potential clients to invest in services provided by proper data-driven agencies tougher than it should be, as more and more businesses fall prey to these agencies. This is definitely detrimental to all social media agencies in Egypt and the industry in general.
The technical aspects social media agencies in Egypt routinely get wrong are:
- Not leveraging data throughout their marketing efforts, or leveraging the wrong data (i.e. vanity metrics).
- A lack of understanding of funnels and customer journeys. This leads to adopting a marketing methodology that closely resembles that of traditional mass-market “shouts” that are good for building awareness but lacking when it comes to leading customers to take action or make a purchase. We call this impression-based advertising.
- Reporting on and taking actions based on vanity metrics such as reach, likes and follows. This leads to overspending that does not necessarily yield revenue i.e. the bane of any entrepreneur.
- A lack of understanding of the intricate differences between industries and the best practices and strategies for different industries.
- Not keeping up with the latest trends in digital marketing. The digital marketing industry moves at a mile a minute with dozens of new updates and experiments happening every single day, and any digital marketer who does not stay on top of these will eventually fall to the wayside.
- A lack of understanding of product-market fit (PMF), and its importance: you can’t sell a bad product!
- Overpromising by setting baseless expectations such as: “1 million impressions for just $100!”
- A lack of understanding of social media platforms and the types of content best-suited for each platform.
As digital marketers operating in 2021, there really is no excuse not to know these things. There is such a wide breadth of online tools and learning resources available that anyone can learn at least the basics of proper data-driven digital marketing without having had a formal marketing education.
As an agency whose mission is to spread information and enhance the understanding of digital and performance marketing in Egypt, we believe that we need to be part of the solution. If you’d like us to dive into your business and discuss how we can help you achieve your objectives, fill out our contact form and we’ll get in touch with you!
