This week, financial software company Intuit bought email marketing mega-hitter MailChimp for an astonishing $12 billion (yes, that’s billion with a ‘B’) and it got us thinking… Why? What is Intuit going to do with an email marketing firm?
In an article to their investors, CEO of Intuit Sasan Goodarzi says, “Adding Mailchimp furthers our vision to provide an end-to-end customer growth platform to help our customers grow and run their businesses.” Still, it’s a pretty big deal (literally) to help grow the company’s small business wing.
Sadly, we don’t all have $12 billion to try new ideas and grow our businesses. However, we also got to thinking about some of the less-than-common marketing options in the digital world. Many of our clients use the big four platforms–Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn–but there are plenty of other social and digital opportunities out there.
Let’s dive into a few of the less common options that can help businesses expand new ideas:
Snapchat
Let’s look at some Snapchat stats:
- 293 million annual users
- 60% of users are between 13 and 34 years old
- Average session time of 30 minutes per user
- Roughly 4 billion photos and 10 billion videos are sent every day
- 60-70% of users are female
- 82% of U.S. teens are Snapchat Users–slightly more than Instagram
- Consistently more users overall than Twitter
- 76% of users are also online shoppers
So what do these stats mean? There are some obvious benefits for Snapchat marketing. It’s a newer, more authentic way to reach a younger demographic. It’s also a unique way to connect in a less competitive atmosphere.
TikTok
If you’re unfamiliar with TikTok, these stats might blow your mind:
- An estimated 1 billion (again, yes, with a ‘B’) monthly users
- 2.6 billion app downloads worldwide
- Over 130 million monthly users in the United States
- Percentage of users by age:
- 10 to 19: 33%
- 20 to 29: 30%
- 30 to 39: 16%
- 40 to 49: 14%
- 50+: 7%
- An average of 52 minutes of use per day per user
- Available in 154 countries
What do you do with this information? Start learning how to shoot and edit fun videos! This can be a difficult hurdle to overcome for some businesses because business TikTok accounts and personal accounts are very different. While TikTok influencers can follow trends more easily, businesses must either pay to use content or follow strict copyright regulations. And, while some campaigns start at $50 a day, they can get very expensive, sometimes excluding opportunities for small businesses.
So, r/AITA, or do we rarely hear about marketing initiatives on Reddit? Let’s look at the stats:
- 430 million monthly and 52 million daily users
- 25% of U.S. adults use Reddit
- 2 billion comments shared over one year (2020)
- Over 122 million mobile app downloads in the U.S.
- A 2.1x increase in 2021 over 2020
Perhaps the biggest reason Reddit isn’t as popular with marketers and businesses is… it’s not very welcoming for organic promotion. The app promotes authentic users and doesn’t respond well (or offer opportunities) to brands. However, while this can be difficult to navigate, Reddit can be a great tool to research your customers, find trending ideas, connect with your audience, and even get more traffic to your website. But, you do have to be an authentic contributor and invest real-time in the platform to gain real traction.
Should you use one of these platforms to attract your audience, or should you stick to the tried and true paid and organic methods? It really depends on your audience, your business, and the time and money you are willing to invest. Want to get in touch with a digital expert to discuss your options? Hit us up: r/AMA.