social media content isn't marketing
I see a lot of people who are extremely active on social media and they’re telling me (the viewer) that marketing is exhausting and they’re so tired of constantly promoting their product or their brand. And their content looks great, but then I’ll hop over to their profile and find myself at a dead end. No website link in bio, or there’s a link tree but it’s driving me to the third-party product page.
I’m going to hold your hand super tight when I say this: If you’re posting on social media and telling yourself you’re marketing your product/brand… you’re not.
Social media isn’t marketing. On its own. It exists as a facet of marketing, something that you leverage during a specific phase in your traffic funnel. When you’re posting your meticulously curated and on-trend content, what you’re doing is building awareness. You’re putting the product or your brand or whatever you’re wanting to convert out into the world and you’re saying “hey, look at this super cool thing!” And maybe you’ll reach a smaller percentage of your audience that sees that and wants to know more about your product, your brand, and then what?
Then what?
If you don’t have a link to your website or any place for them to do anything with their curiosity, you’ve missed a potential opportunity. They’ve scrolled on. They’re lost to the algorithm, and you can only hope that by the grace of that same algorithm you’ll be granted a second chance with them (and hopefully have a clearer funnel for them to follow).
I’m passionate about having a marketing funnel and being intentional about it. Do you have one? If you’re trying to sell something, you should. If you’re posting trendy videos and calling it marketing, you should definitely have a funnel.
What does a funnel look like?
You need to start at your product or the action you’d like your desired audience to take and work backwards from there. Maybe it’s, purchase a book from your website because you have a higher profit margin there as opposed to Amazon.
Purchased book on website →
Landed on landing page with a clear CTA (call to action) →
Clicked the top link on your LinkTree from your TikTok bio →
Viewed your profile after a specific piece of content where you mentioned (in the caption or the endcard) the CTA (find it at the link in my bio!)
And this works for literally everything.
Don’t have a website store? Drive them to Amazon instead. Make the funnel path intentional and clear in its steps.
CTAs are your friend, people like being told what to do next, especially when the purchase intent is already there.
I can count the number of times on two hands that I’ve tried to make a purchase somewhere and the process was too hard or the steps were muddled and I just gave up. You have a narrow window of time to capture that purchase intent, so use it wisely.
Want to grow your newsletter list instead? Change the funnel steps. The conversion action is now signing up for your newsletter. Work backwards from there.
Do a pulse check on your marketing today. Do you have a funnel? How easily can you remedy that? Maybe it’s just adding a link to your bio for today. Need more help figuring out how exactly you want your funnel to work? Book a strategy session with us and we’ll happily build the plan with you.
— Natalie
LAHO is a marketing and communications agency helping founders, businesses, and creators grow relevance and revenue. Think PR with punch, marketing with mood, and the strategy a vision board would hire. We execute cohesive strategies across earned, owned, and paid media to build influence with intention through senior-led storytelling and smart distribution. Need strategy, content, PR, or ads? Reach out here.
