Author: Franz Malten Buemann

In 2021, despite an ongoing global pandemic, we experienced several advancements in the field of digital marketing. Some of these have made our jobs easier, while others — like Apple’s iOs 14 update — meant that we had to get a bit more creative.  In this article, we’re going to take a look back at…
The post Digital Marketing in 2022: Lessons from 2021 appeared first on Benchmark Email.

Ideas for social content can strike at any time (does anyone else think of them right before going to sleep?) but they’re rarely fully formed or immediately ready to share. You might need to create a new video, flesh out some copy, or run your idea past another person. Plus, there are just about a hundred ways to save posts for later: spreadsheets, word documents, notes apps, post-it-notes, written on your hand — we’ve seen it all.When the content is polished up and ready to go, you would then copy it over to a social media management tool or directly to your social accounts. There are two problems here:You have to download and upload media from one place to another, which is annoying and time-consuming.There’s room for error when you’re copying things over. Did it copy over correctly? Did you schedule it for the correct time?At Buffer we’re on a mission to make this process easier for you, starting with some major improvements to our drafts feature.The new drafts experience in BufferWith the new-and-improved drafts experience, you’ll be able to:Plan and save content ideas for later across your devices. You can create drafts on mobile or desktop, and they’ll be synced together.Add drafts to specific time slots in your calendar, so that you can plan out your social schedule ahead of time.Save and schedule drafts with any Buffer plan, including our free plan.Our goal is to help you jot down your ideas, revisit them, refine them, and schedule them — all in one place — in your own time. Read on for more details about how it works!Create drafts from anywhereIt doesn’t matter whether you’re using the Buffer mobile app, the calendar view on desktop, or the traditional queue view – if you’re composing a post, you’ll have the option to save it as a draft or add it to your queue.Create drafts from anywhereSave or schedule draftsSometimes you may want to add a draft for a specific time in your calendar, and other times you may want to save a draft to a backlog of ideas instead. Scheduling drafts works the same way as scheduling posts. You can click on a slot in your queue or calendar to create a draft for that time, or you can create a custom time for your draft. Drafts with scheduled times act as “placeholders”; they will never be published until they’re added to the queue as a finished post.Turning a draft into a finished postYou can review your drafts for a channel by going to the queue and opening the Drafts tab. Once you’re feeling good about a draft and it’s ready to be scheduled as a post, simply add it to the queue. This will “confirm” the draft as a finished post, and it will be published at your chosen time.Turning a draft into a finished postCollaborating on drafts as a teamIf you have a Team or Agency plan, you can set up permissions for your team members so that they can submit drafts for approval before they’re published. Account owners and team members with full posting access can edit all drafts, delete all drafts, and move all drafts to the queue. Team members with restricted access are can edit their own drafts, delete their own drafts, and request approval for their own drafts.Drafts are freeWhile collaboration workflows are available for Team and Agency customers, if you’re a “team-of-one” and use our Free or Essentials plan, you’ll still be able to save, edit, and schedule drafts.Drafts are freeMore to comeContent creation is THE hardest part of a winning social media strategy, and drafting content is just one small step in that process. Helping you create quality content is going to be a big focus for us this year, so stay tuned for more features and updates.Do you have any questions or thoughts about the new draft experience? Tag us in a tweet – we’d love to hear from you.Happy drafting! ✏️

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If you ask marketers about their 2020 content plans, most will tell you they had to pivot because of the pandemic. In 2021, many said the same thing, as the world adjusted to this new normal.

We surveyed over 600 media planners this year and 99% of marketers who have ever pivoted their content plan did so in 2021, with 39% of them pivoting three times that year.
So how are they budgeting in 2022? Let’s find out.
How much are marketers spending on content marketing?
According to HubSpot Blog Research, 39% of marketers surveyed say they allocate 31-50% of their total marketing budget to content marketing.
This tells us that brands are leveraging content marketing above many other marketing strategies, as they put at least a third of their funding in it.

Wondering exactly how much? Most marketers surveyed (26%) said their quarterly content marketing budget ranged between $40K to $80K.
The second-highest figure was $100K-200K, reported by 16% of marketers surveyed, then $201K to $300K by 14% of respondents.
The specific amount tells us less about how much importance brands place on content marketing and more about the cost of this strategy.
It would be easy to think that all you need to do is write a few blog posts and that’s it. The truth is there’s so much that goes into content marketing, from copywriting and designing to research and media buying.
If you don’t invest time and money into it, you won’t get much back.
What Content Planners are Budgeting For in 2022
Before we can understand where marketers’ content budgets are going, it’s important to first review their goals.
When asked their top goals for their media planning strategies, 33% said it was to engage and grow new audiences.
The second highest answer was maximizing the return on investment (ROI) of their content.
The remaining goals are as follows:

Understanding which channels/platforms their audience spends the most time on (30%)
Analyzing the effectiveness of their content marketing strategy (29%)
Measuring KPIs across media channels (28%)
Understanding which channels or platforms are most effective for sharing their content (27%)

With this in mind, it makes sense that roughly 53% of content planners said conducting market research was their number one media planning investment in 2022 – either to find the most effective channel to reach their target audience or understand the demographics of their target audience.
Because so many marketers want to expand their audience base, conducting market research is the most fitting strategy. How can you market to an audience if you don’t know them?
Running an audit of their content to inform their media planning strategy is another popular investment for this year, revealed in our HubSpot Blog Research. One of the biggest challenges marketers face is understanding the impact of their content marketing efforts.
An audit allows a marketer to review their content, analyze performance, and determine high and low performers.

Which media channels are content marketing focusing on?
With so many channels and channels to consider, marketers say the biggest challenge of media planning is determining the most effective media mix.
Based on HubSpot Blog Research, we know that 84% of media planners leverage a mix of organic and paid media.
In the past year, many marketers have also dipped their toes in new social media platforms and features when pivoting their strategy – two in three media planners specifically.
Instagram Shops and Facebook Shops were the top platforms they tried. With Meta adding so many advanced shopping features to these popular social media platforms, it’s no wonder marketers want to leverage them and increase their revenue.
When asked “Which media channels do you plan to invest the most in this year? ” 14% said paid social media content, which marketers surveyed say, offers the highest ROI and the best engagement of any channel.

The second biggest investment in terms of media channels is organic social content, which is used by 43% of media planners. In addition, 9% plan to invest in it more than any other channel in 2022.
Email marketing came out on top as the most leveraged media channel, used by one in two media planners, and offers the third-highest ROI. Its use is also forecasted to grow this year, with 22% of content planners planning to use it for the first time this year.
In the past two years, we’ve faced so much unpredictability, which has kept marketers on their toes, to say the least. This year, it seems content planners are cautiously optimistic and equipped with strategies that will help them grow their audience.

Every year, a new digital platform emerges. In the last year alone, Discord, Twitter Spaces, and Twitch have all become very popular with consumers all around this world.

Now, social media marketers are faced with this issue: Should you curate content for each platform and its audience or should you save some time and cross-post on multiple platforms?
In this article, we’ll discuss the do’s and dont’s of cross posting, the benefits of this strategy, and some tools to help you leverage it.

Who can get the most out of this strategy?

Small brands with a limited marketing budget
New brands that haven’t produced much content
Social media marketers that want to focus on strategy instead of posting

Benefits and Drawbacks of Cross Posting
Cross posting is a time-saving measure that allows you to share your content with a wider audience without having to put in the extra effort.
The main benefit of cross-posting is that it saves you time. Instead of creating separate pieces of content for each social media platform, you can just share the same content on all of them.
This is especially helpful if you’re short on time or if you’re managing multiple social media accounts.
Another benefit of cross-posting is that it allows you to reach a wider audience. By sharing your content on multiple platforms, you’re increasing the chances that people will see it and engage with it.

While cross posting has many benefits, there are also a few drawbacks to consider.
The first is that not all platforms are created equal. What works on one platform might not work on another.
That’s why many marketers prefer to tailor their content to each platform and its specific audience.
Another drawback of cross posting is that if some users follow you on multiple platforms and see the same content, they may get bored and stop paying attention to what you post.
As with every strategy, you have to be flexible in your approach.

Cross Posting Mistakes
Now that you know what cross posting is and how to do it, let’s take a look at some mistakes you should avoid.
One mistake to avoid is reposting the exact same content on every social media platform. Just because you can cross-post everywhere doesn’t mean you should.
Your followers on each platform are likely to be different, so it’s important to customize your content for each audience. More on that in the next section.
Another mistake I often see on social media is brands posting content featuring watermarks from other platforms.
For instance, when you upload a video to TikTok and save it, the brand’s logo will automatically appear on the video. Instagram recently announced that it would deprioritize videos with the TikTok watermark to avoid recycled content from its competitor.
This practice also compromises your video quality while signaling to audiences that you’re focusing on other social platforms.
Here’s an easy solution: Edit and prep your content on a third-party platform like Canva or iMovie then upload to the respective platform to add additional elements like filters, sounds, and captions.
That will not only keep you from getting shadowbanned but also preserve the quality of your content, as it’s only being uploaded once.
Best Cross Posting Practices
When it comes to cross posting, the most important factor is the quality of your content. This might seem obvious, but it’s important. If your content isn’t good, people won’t want to read it or share it, no matter what platform it’s on.

Once you have great content, the next step is to tailor it to each specific platform. Now you might be thinking, “Is the whole point of cross-posting that I don’t have to tailor content to the platform?” The truth is that while cross posting takes the bulk of the work out, you’ll still have to do some customizing.
This means seeing which platforms deserve which approach. For instance, TikTok and Instagram Reels are both short-form video platforms. This offers an easy cross-posting opportunity.
However, posting a TikTok video on Twitter may not work as well since the latter is mostly text-based. As such, maybe Twitter and Facebook could be a better match-up.
On Facebook, you might want to include a photo or video along with your update whereas you could use the copy only for Twitter.
The key is to make your content engaging and interesting based on audience behavior on each platform.
And finally, to make cross posting easy, consider using software. There are a number of options available, let’s cover that next.
Cross Posting Software
Now that we’ve discussed the benefits of cross posting, you may want to look for tools that will facilitate this process.
First, here are key features you’ll want to look out for:

Scheduling – The best cross posting software will allow you to schedule your content in advance so you can set it and forget it.
Customization – As we mentioned before, it’s important to tailor your content for each social media platform. The best cross posting software will allow you to do this with ease.
Analytics – It’s also key to track the performance of your cross-posted content. You’ll need software with advanced analytics so you can see what’s working and what isn’t.

Let’s take a look at some tools that will help you do it.
Hootsuite

Hootsuite is one of the most popular social media management platforms. It allows you to schedule and publish content, track who’s talking about your brand, and measure your performance.
It also has a feature that lets you cross-post content to multiple social media accounts with just a few clicks.
Buffer

Another tool you can use is Buffer.
Like Hootsuite, Buffer lets you schedule and publish content, track your brand mentions, and measure your performance.
It also has a cross-posting feature that makes it easy to share your content.
Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a third option for those looking for a social media management platform. It has all of the features you’d expect, like the ability to schedule and publish content, track your performance, and engage with your audience.
It also has a cross-posting feature that lets you share content on multiple social media platforms.
When done correctly, cross posting can be an effective way to grow your online presence. Just make sure to avoid the mistakes we discussed and use one of the tools we mentioned to make the process easier.

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