If you have been living in a social media free bubble then you won’t know we have released our 30 days of marketing tips. For those who want to rewatch it choose your preferred platform below:
We hope we have offered something unique and different for you. If we did, please let us know. It’s fantastic to hear.
But what did we learn?
1. Tiktok for eyes
If views are your main matrix, then TikTok is your go to, we had 2.5 times the views from TikTok than we did on LinkedIn or Facebook.
2. It’s shared on likes.
Facebook and LinkedIn generated very similar likes. However, we were disappointed with the lack of interaction across all platforms. Especially on videos that did well, so much so we put out an extra video to remind people and added it to the descriptions.
3. Interaction is low
Getting comments was also difficult, we didn’t share the content on our own personal social media. We decided not to as the last campaign had a lot of comments from family members rather than business interactions! Without it though, interactions were low. We’ve dug deep on this and aren’t sure why. We were honest with ourselves. What’s the reason…
- the content isn’t good enough.
- the content is too long and people forget to like or share
- the content is good and there is no need to respond
- the content was posted at the wrong time
- only those who want to engage at engaging.
With that in mind we decided to do some research on each point. Here’s what we did and found out
- The content isn’t good enough.
We spoke to different types of people we expected to watch the content at different levels of marketing understanding what they thought of the tips and did they help… The consensus here was the content was good and explained in layman’s terms well. Not from people at a high level, however. Which is fine, we said small business owners, entrepreneurs etc. It’s definitely not aimed at marketing directors, apart from maybe as reminders.
- The content is too long and people forget to like or share.
We also asked them if it was too long and why they didn’t share. It’s fifty fifty between “no length is fine” to “Noone said “too long”, maybe people were just being kind! But nothing came back as “wow… Too long and I just skipped”. Think we were good at around the 30 seconds to 1 minute mark.
- The content is good and there is no need to respond.
See above, same people, quick fire questions. Didn’t really get anything clear here, apart from a “sorry I was just busy”. Maybe there is something in that.
- The content was posted at the wrong time.
We switched up the time from 10am to 11am then to 1pm. It totally bombed at 1pm and 11am wasn’t great. So, we went earlier at 9:30am and 8:30am. No huge differences to 10am if we are being honest. Pre 10am basically is good.
Possibly a more problematic issue was down to the months in which we posted. November and December are tough times, retailers are busy with Black Friday and Christmas, B2B people are busy with Black Friday and Christmas as consumers. We also started posting after the budget when businesses maybe looking elsewhere, especially considering the extra potential bills they are taking on.
- Only those who want to engage at engaging.
Now this is interesting because the people I asked who just ghosted my questions – maybe they didn’t want to pick fault, maybe they didn’t like it. It could be the other way, maybe they’ve run away to write a marketing plan out. Difficult to know. We had some constants throughout liking and commenting, so they were considered people who wanted to engage
You are getting the views, why is it such a problem?
Yeah ok, we get it, stop being so vein. We got around 1,000 eyes per video. One video spiked at 4,300 views across all platforms. But interaction gets more views as it satisfies the algorithms. Our ethos here at Fo4 is to help, we want marketing to be at the forefront of business. We can do this relatively inexpensively and we can give out tips to people to get them on track.
Interactions help us understand where our content is at, so the self-improvement as we went along wasn’t there to help out. We also mixed up the humour and involvement of Jasper which did move interaction a little bit, but not to the levels we wanted. We also blatantly asked. Alas we just think people are too busy.
What else was there to learn?
Well, timing and self-discipline is incredibly important. The videos need shooting, sound from the mic needs to be good, the intro and riff needs editing in. Then the subtitles need placing in… Basically don’t leave it to the last minute, as we may have done a few times. We did manage to get into a rhythm the longer it went on, but there were some moments of panics when we were busy with our day to day and project work.
You become other people’s content, I saw particularly on TikTok and Linkedin examples of where you have become the subject. In one particular, it was a video advising not to shoot a video as I had been doing for the last 20 days. I mean, the alternative suggestions were incredible, but also we just didn’t have time to improve on where we were. Since the start of this business we are outputting 3.5 times more work, so to get a video everyday and alternative angles etc, just wasn’t practical.
What was the need for 30 days of marketing tips?
Well, like any business, we have a desire to stay in business. We have purposefully moved a couple of clients on to people who can serve them better, yes, we make sure everyone has value an if not we find it elsewhere. So straight up, we needed to fill that void with new clients and create two strong leads.
We got two. Which we converted into clients – and stayed in the vision of people we had quoted for and then converted, so KPI check. Smugness, check (especially after being critiqued!)
Would you do it again?
Absolutely, we gained so much:
- 2 new leads
- 4 new clients
- Conversations in the street about it
- Amelia got to video edit and gain more skills
- We achieved on average 1000 eyes a day on the Father of 4 brand
- I sent some videos to clients to help them out
- We stayed in the mind of people we had previously quoted
Should I do it?
Yes, but it does eat into your time unless you are happy to go without the extra video intros and subtitles – or you have an AI that does it for you. Even if you are camera shy… just go for it.
Come on then, give us some stats
Sure, how’s this for a list:
Biggest video view: TikTok – 4011 (November 11th)
Lowest video view: TikTok – 285 (November 26th)
Total hours my face was watched: 62 hours 56 minutes and 51 seconds
Most views: TikTok
Least views: Facebook
Most interactions: LinkedIn
Most shares: LinkedIn
Worst performing video see below
Best performing video see below
Offline conversations with people in real life about the videos: 16
New connections/followers across the board: 52
Best video:
Worst Video
What would you do differently?
OK, be more organised, get footage filmed way in advance so the video work can be better. Definitely choose a better month when people are less busy, maybe a February or May. The next set of content should probably bring more value to people, something along the lines of how to prompt ChatGPT, do your own SEO work etc. But a little more in depth stuff but for the decision makers we need. It will for sure show off more knowledge but be a little more helpful. Else… not a lot more than that.
