Gone are the days where Aussies sit around the television and endure three minutes of back-to-back ads between their favourite shows. Audiences are now becoming more drawn to content where they’re exposed to less or even no ads.

Moving away from cold, hard advertising is about building relationships. Your audience doesn’t want to be bombarded, they want to be gently nudged into a conversation. They want to be invited into marketing and given the opportunity to decide whether or not they want to be engaged.

A problem that business owners and content creators battle is the tempting opportunity to make Facebook ads about their products and services whenever they see fit. This might work in small doses but, when you have too many of these ads running, it can be counterproductive. There’s a good chance that you’re going to repel your customers.

Why we need to be smarter with Facebook Ads

Customers don’t like being told what to do. So how do you create content that works like an advertisement, but doesn’t feel like one? What is the best way to engage with prospective audiences?
We’re back with Nick, who explains why creating marketing in forms that aren’t just ads will benefit businesses in the long term.

1. Create sponsored content

Sponsored content allows your audience to decide whether or not they wish to engage with you. For example, creating videos that work to inform and teach audiences can be used as subtle advertising. At Missing Link Social Media, we create videos that teach social media marketers how they can get the best results out of their marketing. This works as a great brand awareness tool for us. Should that same user need help with their social media marketing down the track, ideally we will be the first on their mind.

2. Do not just sell, sell, sell

Audiences don’t want your products and services bombarded in their faces. Trust us, it’s not effective. When utilising brand awareness in your content, you can be friendly and approachable when reaching out to people. It’s in those critical early stages of the buyer’s journey, where you have to be gentle with your approach. Consider also offering a value-add to new users who have just been exposed to your brand as a gratitude gesture. Making friends never hurt anyone!

3. Be authentic to your brand

Finally, always stay authentic to your brand message. Much like our conversation with Nick on creating authentic video content, it’s imperative to always reflect your own values and ideals in your marketing messages.
Audiences don’t want to be lied to, so displaying yourself as a certain type of person, but acting against it, will show a disconnect in your marketing and content creation… and work to your detriment.

Get creating

To market to audiences, you don’t always have to have a carefully planned advertisement with all the bells and whistles. When you start creating content, be it in video, image or text form — always offer something authentic and valuable to your audience. It’s up to you whether or not you want to put some advertising spend behind these posts, and get them out there to a wider range of people. In any case, staying authentic to your message is the best starting position to be in.

Have a question? Leave it below for me to answer.