We have already discovered what the Pareto principle is and how it can be applied to various industries, including marketing strategies. This time we will shed light on how to lay a successful foundation in a brand communication plan using the 80/20 rule.
Deliberately implementing the Pareto principle in your company communication will be an investment. Not only it brings income to the company from social network communication. It also helps, in the long run, to organize the teamwork more clearly and increase productivity.
If we compare a communication plan with the Pareto principle, in theory, 20% of the company’s communication gives 80% of the desired results. From experience, we can say that maintaining such a balance requires skill and coordination of the activities of different departments, which should be adjusted in the plan. Such planning requires a strategic approach, and we recommend reading the previous article for more productive activities.
Let’s return to the communication plan. The best ratio between promotional content and organic and customer-generated content is 80/20. What does it look like in real life?
Let’s imagine:
We have a client for whom we create a content plan for the month ahead. Given that the customer wants us to communicate every working day, we consciously focus 20% of the content on sales or brand promotion. For example:
- product benefits;
- sales-based content;
- brand promoting posts.
Sales-based content means that a company’s content includes a call-to-action aimed at promoting a purchase or generating leads. Only two out of ten posts should be directly targeted to sales. In terms of volume, this is one post a week on social networks. The rest of the content includes engaging posts, stories from everyday life, and informative and entertaining content.
So, why do we plan so little sales promotion content? We try to recall the primary goal of social media – that they are social, and the main goals of communication should be these three e’s.
1️⃣ entertain
2️⃣ explain
3️⃣ educate
We advise entrepreneurs to try to get closer to their followers in the 80% of communication. The rest of the content can be sales-y – a bonus, a gift, etc. Following this communication balance, new followers will be genuinely interested in your products and services. In addition, they will be less likely to unfollow after the end of just another promotional contest.
