No such thing as a free lunch: why you should build your contact database at every opportunity

Written by Matt Hardy, Digital Director & Joint Managing Director, The Real Adventure Unlimited.

Social media platforms have created a myriad of ways for brands to connect with their consumers, so brands have naturally jumped in with both feet. As a result, major social networks continue to introduce new advertising features, developing their platforms to further establish them as vital marketing tools for the brands they support and generating revenues for their investors.

History has repeated itself enough now for us all to recognise the pattern of a typical social platform: launch as free to all; build a sizeable user base; open up features for free brand connection; introduce paid features for brands; change the rules to reduce the free reach; watch the cash roll in. Bingo.

The evolving nature of media platforms

So, remember when you spent all that effort gaining Facebook fans? And now you’re only reaching 2% of them organically? And of course, your brand has been working hard to grow followers on Instagram, right? Aaaaand you’re just about to experience the same thing on Instagram.

Recognising that Instagram is the platform consumers engage with most, brands have put big budgets behind creating the perfect engagement strategies, using a mixture of organic and paid methods. And that’s no bad thing. But the necessity for the big platforms to monetise to deliver a return to their investors puts a short timeframe on the success brands can have before the rules are changed and their previous strategies are rendered obsolete.

Don’t build your house on rented land

Those of you who are regular listeners of PNR’s This Old Marketing podcast will have heard that phrase many times. And it’s wise advice. By relying too much on driving your consumers to platforms you don’t control, you are putting your long-term ability to engage at risk.

Does this mean we should ignore social platforms? Of course not – they’re still excellent tools for reaching the right audiences and showcasing a brand’s personality. It just means brands need to focus more on the bigger picture of how social can aid their wider objectives.

Robert Rose, Content Marketing Strategist and host of the aforementioned podcast suggests brands shouldn’t aim to build a huge pool of audiences on platforms, but should use them to flow audiences into owned spaces. In other words, part of your strategy should be to use the reach of social platforms to drive people to somewhere that you can capture 1st party data. Once you’ve got that, your relationship with your audience isn’t jeopardised every time platform owners change the rules.

Interestingly, Avinash Kaushik, Google’s Digital Marketing Evangelist, is doing just that. In a blog post about rented vs owned platforms and audiences, he speaks about how, after growing his Google+ following to 500k people, several tweaks to the platform resulted in his average engagement count being 12 people. Yes, 12! (Ok, “it is Google+” I hear you say, but even so!)

So, what’s he doing now? He’s using social to drive people to his owned platform (his blog) – and adjusting his strategy to get people to sign up to his email newsletter – ie capturing 1st party data, growing his contact database. This gives him full control of his content and allows him to set his own rules, instead of having to re-strategise to outsmart algorithms.

A brand’s owned assets, including its contact database, are increasingly becoming the only things they can rely on for long-term value so every opportunity should be taken to give people a compelling reason to sign up to a contact database. Social platforms are a great space to engage people and start the relationship, but by no means should be the end point in the journey.

If you’d like to know more about how to enhance your database, please get in touch with us.