What happens when a chemical engineer graduate with a background in accounting launches a digital media agency?
The answer: you get Crowd Media, which was launched by Judy Sahay [feature image] more than six and a half years ago.
Crowd Media is the parent company of online media publication CROWDINK and social media and influencer tool CROWDSHARE.
With her background in accounting and engineering, Sahay places great importance on achieving ROI and offering an analytical/data driven approach to social media marketing.
Speaking ahead of this year’s SMB Digital virtual event, powered by CEBIT Australia (QUICK: register here: https://www.smb-digital.com.au/agenda), Sahay explained how she uses her mathematical brain to achieve results for clients through social media.
“Data is really important to drive anything,” she says.
“Whether it’s driving sales or global business or the bottom line – it depends on the type of data you have … In our business, we look at data in a number of ways, for instance, we look at traffic data, personal identification data, demographic, location, behaviour data … it can tell you a lot about a person.”
She gives the example of launching a broad Facebook campaign, only to find out it is mostly women clicking on the ad after a few days.
“Why target men anymore? Data is essentially going to help you be more precise about where to market, when to market and how to market,” she says.
It is this simple but calculated approach to social media marketing that has helped Crowd Media achieve results for its clients.
Getting social
Sahay is particularly interested in helping SMBs reach their target audience at the best price possible.
With COVID-19 seeing Facebook advertising prices drop by almost a third, there has never been a better time for smaller businesses to utilise social media, she argues.
“Social media is really important because your customers are there,” she says.
“They are talking about you whether you like it or not. They’re already talking to your competitors. Now, how do you engage with them?
“Right now Facebook ads work really well. Companies can create ads and set themselves very strict ROIs they want to achieve. The average business can set up their own Facebook ad. They don’t need to go to an agency like us.”
For small businesses in particular, emerging social media platforms like TikTok present an opportunity to build a following fast.
“The market is there,” Sahay says.
“More people than before are now at home and on social media, so the cost of social media advertising is lower and you’re getting a higher reach so it’s silly not to be there. It’s a free platform and yes you need to advertise if you want to get a higher conversion, but you can still sell things for free on the platform.”
Influencing opinion?
With social media continuing to establish itself as an effective marketing channel, influencer marketing is also growing in popularity.
With these ‘influencers’ often holding a follower base upwards of 1 million, influencer marketing has been seen as an expensive – if not unattainable – avenue for smaller businesses.
Sahay explains that this is no longer the case.
“In 2019 and 2020 there has been more of a focus on macro and micro-influencers – where it’s worth looking at partnering with someone with 10,000 followers so SMBs can access that kind of market,” she says.
“I’ve noticed post-COVID many influencers are struggling to find work so rather than actually paying them they’re looking for fresh content and contra deals. If you’re a small business owner and you’re looking to market a product – say a fashion line or a beauty product or anything in that realm – you could easily contact an influencer and ask for a free shout out where they will promote your product for free in exchange for your product, which is a really cost effective way for a SMB to get their brand out there.”
Catch Judy at SMB Digital on the panel discussion, How will technology affect the talent of the future. SMB Digital is a virtual event for SMBs looking to achieve more for with digital technology. See the full line-up here. https://www.smb-digital.com.au/agenda
