SAAS MARKETING GUIDE BY: JUSTIN TALERICO The direct value of a social audience is as a content marketing distribution channel. Social networks are especially effective for promoting webinars and other events. They are least effective at lead-generation. Perhaps the most significant indirect value a social audience has is for social proof — prospect validation of the number of followers, current activity, and brand voice. Self-directed prospects define their journeys that often begin with key social networks or third- party user-generated content/review sites. Only those who pass those initial litmus tests earn deeper time and attention. It may be easy to get caught up in the tide of purchasing fake followers to inflate counts. Remember that smart buyers see through a disengaged audience as a farce or a strong negative reflection on value. In either case, the judgment is more damaging than having fewer, but very real and engaged, followers. Build a real audience for real business value. PAID ONLINE MEDIA The two primary categories of paid online media are search and social. Search engine pay-per-click is the most ubiquitous spigot of traffic and leads. While paid social — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram — are more use-case specific. In both cases, paid should only be used to amplify organic. If that guidance is eschewed, paid acquisition will e much more costly than it should be and overall customer acquisition cost (CAC) will suffer. Paid Search Paid search can be a surgical source of leads with intent. It can also be a waste of time and money. The distinction lies in how paid search is executed. As a strategic, focused and very narrow tool in the marketing arsenal, paid search will deliver qualified, self-selected leads with intent. This assumes specific, strategic keyword choices combined with narrowing rather than widening ad creative. Each ad group becomes a miniature funnel that qualifies by its structure and execution. Surgical paid search is laborious with higher soft costs — research, measurement, creative, and management — and lower hard spend. The flip side of the surgical paid search coin is volume. Shotgun-style, broad-match campaigns will attract clicks and result in false- positive results in all but the most mass-market situations. Wide paid search spends more on clicks but requires less soft costs. Since clicks are rarely the business objective, wide paid search is rarely a recommended, capital-efficient acquisition channel. 25 Execute Better. Grow Faster.