EFPG took the decision to stop using radio as a means of advertising a while ago. We thought it was expensive and we were doubtful as to whether it was effective. Also, to relay our vision to our clients (both present and future) is not easily done squeezed between George Ezra songs.
EFPG’s aim is to be a lean mean pension machine – we cut down on our operating costs so we can afford to offer pensions with lower fees and no commissions. Obviously we cannot spread this message if we are paying a small fortune to do so.
The obvious solution was to switch to social media.
Currently EFPG posts a blog on our Website which we then post on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. We use a free version of Hootsuite which enables us to schedule three posts on all three platforms. As we do not intend to annoy people by constantly bombarding them we just need to set up the schedule once a week.
Our aim is not to simply sell via Facebook as people would quickly get tired of seeing the EFPG logo with a boring sales pitch beneath. Being a Facebook user myself, when I see an advert I feel like my privacy has been impinged upon. So what we attempt to do is mix some sales-orientated content with interesting content that in a roundabout way illustrates our core values; namely transparency, low costs and quality advice.
Currently we only boost our posts on Facebook (due to the demographics of Facebook users). By “boost” I mean we pay for our posts to appear on people’s news feeds. In the last week we spent the princely sum of £8.28 and our posts reached nearly 6,500 people out of whom 300 people actively engaged with them. We have seen 25% increased web traffic compared to last month since we boosted our posts. These figures came from the Facebook native analytics tool – Insights – which allows us to see what content we post is effective and what is not. I’m sure we will look into Twitter and Instagram a bit more seriously in the future but for now getting to grips with Facebook and creating content is enough.
Considering more than two billion people use social media every day and the average person spends 135 minutes per day on social networks it is unsurprising that the number of small businesses advertising on Facebook has doubled to 50 million in recent months.
A final point to consider is that although you may be attracted by spending only £8.28 a week on advertising and engaging with 300 prospective clients, there are additional costs. You have to pay someone to create content and that content must look and feel good. So if you don’t have members of staff that have the requisite skills or suitable software, you will have to pay someone else to do this for you.
I hope you find the above of interest but unfortunately EFPG cannot advise you on social media marketing – just pensions, investments and protection plans.