How to Compete with Big Brands
I can’t believe that small brands are stealing consumer attention away from big brands, without paying a dime. And I can’t believe that my brand is one of them.
I'm comparing three brands in this post: KitKat, Rue21, and my small e-commerce brand. I should get destroyed, right?
Big Brand Advantages:
Big brands have countless advantages over smaller brands, most of them being tied up to their brand recognition and crazy spending potential. But where would my small brand have an edge? Let’s take a look.
Big Brands on TikTok
KitKat’s TikTok has 115,000 followers. Their last 10 videos received between 5,100-8,700 plays.
Rue21’s TikTok has 394,000 followers. Their last 10 videos received between 2,500-22,800 plays. Rue21 is crushing KitKat on TikTok.
My small brand’s TikTok has 54 followers. My last 10 videos received between 302-22,800 views.
My top video outperformed KitKat’s, and matched Rue21’s.
Rue21's videos are carefully crafted with 20 cuts, professional editing, professional lighting, several models winking at the camera, a marketing team behind every decision, and costs money and time. So how did I even do that?
Let’s take a peek at their Instagram.
Big Brands on Instagram
KitKat’s Instagram has 1,000,000 Followers and they posted 3 reels in October, receiving 23,000-45,000 plays. They’re crushing it.
Rue21’s Instagram has 894,000 followers and they posted 5 reels in October, reaching 9,150-17,700 plays. They’re not as good as KitKat on this platform. Every Reel just looks like an ad.
My small brand’s Instagram has 234 followers and I posted 14 reels in October, reaching 34-18,300 plays.
My top post in October outperformed Rue21’s, even though they have 3,820 TIMES more followers than me. So how does something like that even happen?
Small Brand Advantages
Because I'm a one-person team, I have the advantage of speed. I don't have to run my ideas by 10 people and have it changed 3 times before it's finally approved. I'm allowed to be silly. I'm allowed to take risks with content. I’m allowed to jump on trends without trying to be overly safe. I’m allowed to post whenever I want.
That higher output and higher speed of execution gives me data quickly, which allows me to make data-driven decisions. The ability to pivot at a moment’s notice allows me to change strategies and take advantage of recent algorithm changes.
Social Media Changes Quickly
I understand that social media isn't the same as it was 5 years ago. Algorithms and consumer behaviors change.
Facebook's organic reach is down to 1.52%. Pokémon has a whopping 7.5 Million likes on their Facebook page. Yet they still have posts with less than 20-30 comments. That is actually disgusting.
Let me say it again. A 92 BILLION dollar company spent the time creating a post for less than 30 people to comment on.
Facebook Reels
Of all of the videos that Pokémon posts, I couldn't find one REEL. Yet while Facebook organic reach is down to almost nothing, Facebook prioritizes pushing out its reels to more consumers[1]. Instead of imitating big brands that throw away money, I plan on making my life easy and working with the algorithms, instead of fighting them. I’m actually very excited to take advantage of Facebook Reels while there’s still great reach potential.
Consumer Attention is Shorter Than Ever
I like to create content where the consumer attention is, focusing most of my effort into where the highest returns are.
As of today (November 2023), people are consuming short-form vertical style videos like never before. If you’ve played on your phone recently, there's a high chance that you got caught doom-scrolling through TikTok, Facebook Reels, Instagram Reels, and even YouTube Shorts. I know I have.
If that’s how I act as a consumer, why would I pretend that people act differently when I create content for them? If I skip boring videos in the first 2 seconds, why would I waste the first 2 seconds of my videos telling people about who I am, like I wouldn’t immediately scroll if that happened to me?
Hook the viewer.
On Instagram and TikTok, I have 1-3 seconds to capture the viewer’s attention before my video is scrolled past. This low watch-time would tell the algorithm that my video sucks, and my videos wouldn’t get pushed out to more people. TikTok creators call this the “200 view jail”. Instagram Reels is even less forgiving.
The first few seconds are prime real estate. I don't waste it telling the viewer my name, or what I do. They don't care yet. They want instant gratification. They want to immediately see something interesting or they’re immediately scrolling.
Hook Examples:
"Did you know that-",
"I never told anyone this, but-",
"You're wrong about-",
"If you always struggle with-",
"I can't believe that-",
"The coolest thing about-",
"I've always thought that-"...
Look familiar? Scroll up to the beginning of this post. There’s a reason it caught your attention. This stuff really works.
Encourage Sharing
On Instagram Reels, a recent update makes the algorithm really only cares if content is being shared or not. Big brands will catch up in a few quarters when the marketing department finally gets the 10 approvals needed to change things. Until then, the speed of execution gives me the edge with this.
Creating content that consumers want to share is currently the key to organic growth. I MUST explore more calls to action that encourage sharing, and make data-driven decisions based on the results. I'm going to focus on content that the audience actually wants to share, and try to let the algorithm reward me for doing a good job.
Trending Audio
My top performing Instagram Reels have all used trending audio. Videos using trending audio are more likely to get pushed out by the algorithm. And guess what? Big brands aren't allowed to use trending audio at all. Artists might not want to be affiliated with certain brands. Yet another advantage small brands have.
Captions
I’m learning how to use captions to hook the viewer. An unbelievable 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound[2], which most likely applies somewhat across the board. Using captions on any platform is therefore a great way to keep viewer retention from viewers who have their phones on silent.
Best Practices
I went over a few of my tactics, but the best practices on social media change often. What works today may not work tomorrow. The rule of thumb is that I should provide value to the consumer. Asking them to buy my stuff too often is spammy. Not asking at all might cause confusion about what the brand actually is. So there has to be a middle ground.
Post Frequency
I post 4x as many reels as Rue21 and 7x as many reels as KitKat. Maybe 5 years ago, this could have been a problem. But things change.
Instagram Reels doesn't even push my content out to my own followers half of the time. I can even hide reels from my own feed. So the fear of spamming followers with too much content is unfounded. Social media is free distribution for small brands to take advantage of. I’m not going to limit that based on old beliefs.
Also, something funny happens when I post often. I actually get better at content creation. So when people talk about quality vs quantity, they fail to realize that quantity can create quality.
Fear of Failure
A lot of my posts fail to take off at all. At this point, almost everything I do flops. Without hundreds of thousands of followers, my "floor" is a lot lower than big brands. And that's fine. Seeing my content absolutely flop allows me to make the data-driven decisions which lead to my successes.
Data-Driven Decisions
I never knew that posting at 11:00 AM was going to work until I tried it. I never knew that the caption location mattered. I never knew that the words I used on my bio helped the platform push my content out to a more relevant audience. There are a lot of things I wouldn't have understood until I tried them. My small brand is a one-person learning organization, and there's no shame in that. I'm willing to put myself out there and try new things in order to succeed.
Big Brands Waste Money
It ridiculous that anything I do from my phone in my bed has potential to outperform Rue21’s posts, in terms of distribution.
It’s ridiculous that the multi-billion dollar Pokémon brand doesn’t have a single Facebook Reel, when it could multiply their content distribution by ten.
It’s ridiculous that a mother of 3 can create makeup videos in her bedroom and if her videos pop off, the big brands pay for her to endorse them. Then those same decision makers will reject their own marketing team’s efforts to make the same style of videos.
Conclusion
As long as big brands continue to treat their organic social media marketing as an afterthought, smaller brands can take advantage. By posting frequently, making data-driven decisions, and reacting quickly to algorithmic and consumer behavior changes, small brands can continue to steal attention and potential customers away from the big brands.
Disclaimer
I’m currently a business admin student with some certifications coming up, but I’m not speaking from authority. Everything I speak about is through my personal experiences. Results may vary, and I don’t want your money.
Sources
[1] https://buffer.com/resources/facebook-reels/
[2] https://digiday.com/media/silent-world-facebook-video/
