How to isolate right content platform from clutter to reap maximum ROI

Apart from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, there are hundreds of platforms in the market today offering boost in scale and reach for the brands. While simply sticking to a couple of these is not enough for the brands, selecting a few to get the best return on investment isn’t exactly a cakewalk either.

With a multitude of social and content platforms to choose from, it can be overwhelming and confusing for the brands to pick exactly the right ones, as each can possibly serve a different purpose and user base. Being present on the most apt platforms will not only help in getting the right message across to the right audience, but will also lead to bigger ROI.

Shyamala Ramanan

Shyamala Ramanan, Business Head, Mia, said that it is always the consumer's perspective that matters.

“What content our consumer is looking for, what is the platform that she/he would be visiting and what mood they will be in while watching that particular content. So, while choosing a partner/channel for branded content we first identify the audience that they are catering to and the quality of the impressions and reach, rather than just the numbers. We also need to understand the brand fit, and how the content can be most relevant to the consumer,” she said.

The Mia brand has worked with platforms like Voot, and social media channels, like Curly Tales, in the past to boost awareness.

Joy Chatterjee

Before the brand chooses any platform, it has to understand the genre it belongs to, said Joy Chatterjee, General Manager, Sales and Marketing, Mankind Pharma.

“For Manforce, which targets males and promotes sexual well-being, Mankind always chooses a platform that has men as its primary audience. There are various tools that help it understand the overall reach of a particular platform, and within that it finds what the bifurcation of their audience is. As per this data it further decides which platform it should go ahead with,” Chatterjee said.

Laalit Lobo

Bombay Shaving Company, meanwhile, looks at three parameters, reach, resonance- average engagement by the platform's users/community for branded content-, and relevance, said Laalit Lobo, VP, Marketing, BSC.

With new platforms coming in every day, it is important for brands to pay attention to the data and harness its power to make a more informed choice.

Umang Puri

Umang Puri, Creative Director, North- Zoo Media, said that when it comes to making a choice, it starts by understanding the stage at which the brand is in its journey. Some platforms may be too niche if the brand hasn't established a digital relationship with their audience. It is followed by understanding who their audience is, where they are, what role the platform plays in their life, and whether the brand can find a solution there.

Nikhil Sharda

According to Nikhil Sharda, EVP- Creative and Digital Communications, Scroll Mantra, one should consider niche platforms that cater to its audience rather than generic high-traffic platforms.

“KPIs should be- quality over quantity; one should have a live analytics dashboard for the article/content and a social media comment box to engage with people later on. No matter which platform you choose, it's imperative to be on all of your audience touch points. Each communication needs to have a clear CTA, and ideally should be pointing to your own assets - website/app/blog, whereby you could start building your own little community. Platforms are considered after analysing the kind of traffic that they elicit, the audience analysis of the traffic, and if there is a synergy in the audience of your brand and the platform, then the platform is the right choice, regardless of the reach,” Sharda said.

There are various factors to consider while choosing the right content platform, and most of it centres around the audience that the brand is talking to. While scale and reach are important parameters, is the cost incurred in using these platforms also considered?

Importance of costs and rates while selecting the platform:

According to experts, it’s important for brands to consider their ROI when they are choosing a platform.

Puri said that knowing tangibly what brands are getting back is imperative when building a content strategy for these platforms. A good digital burst should be a balance of some trusted platforms, mixed with a bit of experimentation.

Chatterjee shared that for Mankind, cost and rate are very important, and every platform helps them understand the cost per article that they would offer, followed by the number of page views they are committing to, and the cost per page view.

“It is quite important to understand what we are paying for, and if we are getting the efficiency and accuracy that we have expected out of it, '' said Ramanan. She added that while it’s not as simple as calculating CPM, but it also includes audience affinity to contribute to the business growth.

Performance is the key in the digital medium and every choice that brands make, in terms of the kind of content, or where it will be hosted, will always have performance associated with it.

Sharda said that content marketing strategy needs to have a built-in ROI.

“The costs are definitely important in terms of the returns you expect from the platform and returns are based on the objective one wants to achieve through the platform,” he said.

Lobo stated that if the content partner has a differentiated offering with a highly valuable user base, then it can command a price higher than the average market rate.

But, apart from tangible costs and reach, should intangible parameters like relationships with the platforms also be measured?

Relationships with content platforms:

A strategic long-term association is always preferable, as one can get better rates as well as the ability to learn and get better with every successive campaign, Lobo said.

“Long term associations are also important to build IP and create a habit among users,” he added.

Even though there are various platforms that work on campaign-based associations, but Chatterjee too agreed that one should not look at only short-term goals.

“When we do long-term association, there is continuous flow of content involving your brand, talking about the benefits and why it is better than other brands available in the market. Short term associations help to increase the traffic for a particular time period- an immediate traffic, download leads but that is for that particular period,” he said.

On various long-term associations, Chatterjee added, his brand has seen an increment in brand searches and eventually people land up on the website.

Echoing the same view, Ramanan shared that one should start associations for long-term relationships, because the consumer of today always keeps these things in her/his subconscious. In addition, storytelling becomes easier when some awareness has already been built up in the past. However, with the fast-moving content world one might need to address the dynamics and take calls on how to modify the association.

Brand sometimes has to consider the intangibles at play. With the help of data, brands sometimes have to consider the long-term benefits of being on channels and exploring possibilities there, said Puri.

“Look at Wendy's on Twitter or Pepsi on TikTok- where the brands are almost synonymous with the platform itself. They are building something which is far bigger than just ticking the boxes of being present on those platforms,” he said. However, Puri added that short-term bursts on newer platforms can work too.

Choosing the right content platform is based on a lot of hits and misses. Especially in the hyper content ecosystem, where there is no one size fits all. Sharda advised brands to have a short-term association with the platform and based on the results of it determine whether it would be profitable for them to enter into a long-term relationship, which can also turn out to be cost-effective.

Pawan Sarda

Pawan Sarda, Group Head- Digital, Marketing and e-commerce at Future Group India, said that while audiences and the cost of these platforms matter, nothing really works on a short-term basis. It is not just about building a relationship with the platform, but with the audience on it, and nothing like that happens in the short term.

“You have to build the relationship and invest in it, keep creating content and that is when audience see a value,” he said. The company closely works with Facebook, Instagram, and ShareChat to connect with audience in tier-one and tier-two cities.