Small businesses have their work cut out for them. Besides the struggle of managing a growing business’ work operations, they also have to manage everything else from staffing to marketing. Luckily, as the world progresses, the accessibility to tools and materials that makes working on many business-related activities increases.
Among the interesting developments in recent years is the rise of social media marketing, a DIY form of marketing and advertisement that can be done outside an expensive boardroom of a Fortune 500 company, and inside a small office, or even at home.
Can Social Media Marketing Really Help Your Business?
Despite the overwhelming prevalence of the digital aspect of our life, it’s hard to determine whether putting effort into your social media marketing will yield any beneficial results. And at its core, social media marketing may or may not help your business.
However, if your clients do use the Internet and are active members of online communities, then it is worth putting in time and effort into an online marketing campaign. Statistics show the constant increase of Internet use and many Internet-oriented tools have taken over modern conveniences. This can potentially mean more eyes on your product, and with the proper marketing campaign, you can turn those leads into paying customers.
As a newbie in social media marketing, it is easy to get lost playing catch-up with the latest trends and strategies. However, like all content marketing approaches, the ultimate objective of social media marketing is to create content that inspires your audience to take action. Therefore, your focus should be foremost on creating informative and entertaining content. Social media marketing benefits all businesses because it’s cost-effective, increases top-funnel traffic, has higher conversion rates, improves search engine rankings, and promotes brand awareness.
If you deem that your business will benefit from a social media marketing or social recruitment drive, here are some tips to help you get started:
1. Know What Your Customers are Like
Just like in any other marketing campaign, the most important part of this is understanding who your customers are. Often referred to as target marketing, this allows you to aim your campaign at the specific audience that is more likely to avail of your products and services. This is a highly cost-efficient strategy, as you are avoiding advertising to people who do not have a reason or purpose to purchase your products.
2. Choose What Social Media Platform to Use
There are hundreds of social media platforms available right now, each with a different demographic and niche. Some are targeted towards younger generations, while some target a broader audience. The best plan of action here is to look at your client base and see where they would most likely be in- that’s where you need to focus on.
Social media platforms have their own personality and produce different results depending on your business line. Twitter is good for trending topics and short conversations and is well-suited for news, entertainment, health, beauty, and fitness brands. On the other hand, Facebook gets a higher engagement from video content and favors e-commerce, food and beverages, and news media companies, among others.
Different social networking sites also allow for different methods of expression, from captioned pictures, short video clips, or other media. Choose what’s appropriate for your business and target demographic, and pour your efforts there.
3. Create Interesting Content
Having a platform close to your target demographic doesn’t guarantee success, there should still be an attempt to create compelling and interesting ad material. Especially during these times, where the window for attention span has become smaller, your marketing material needs to be eye-catching and appealing. Your content strategy should identify your audience’s topics of interest, the type of content to create (product posts, videos, blogs, or infographics), publishing timelines, and the voice and tone of your brand.
Think of viral content; they all share that feeling of making you curious and interested. Create content that appeals to your audience and your audience will be naturally drawn towards it. Simply releasing the regular advertisement posters on an online platform doesn’t make for a good advertisement, you need to have a reason to make them stay and look at your brand.
4. Identify Your Target Audience
Get an in-depth understanding of your target audience by creating a detailed buyer persona. This will help you determine your buyer’s demographics, behaviors, interests, and pain points.
5. Give Giveaways and Prices
Rewards make for great interaction, and they can boost your community engagement. Posting a reward scheme on your chosen platform will help you connect with your customers more, and it gives them a reason to talk about your company. Even simple rewards such as t-shirts, mugs, or even pins and keychains.
Getting personalized trinkets is relatively easy nowadays, as you can always hire companies that can put your logo on items using machines for laser etching and the like. Creating giveaway events like these helps you touch base with existing and potential customers, and the buzz you receive from it will be beneficial down the line.
6. Analyze Your Results and Have a Goal
All of your marketing efforts will be for naught if you don’t have a goal. Even if online marketing is cheaper compared to traditional forms of advertisements, you still need to create a realistic target to have a benchmark.
Simple goals like reaching a follower count or gaining a certain number of views on your ads are a good target as it tells you whether you need to be more aggressive on the marketing effort. This also lets you collect statistical data to judge if your campaign is successful.
Analyze the data you have, information such as the best time to post, what kind of media generates more engagements, and what content creates interest are all useful information for you to better achieve your goal.
Bottom Line
Implementing the above strategies will get you started with social media marketing. For an in-depth understanding of advanced social media marketing strategies, check out other articles on our website.
Salman is a prolific environmental writer, and has authored more than 500 articles in reputed journals, magazines and websites. He is proactively engaged in creating mass awareness on renewable energy, waste management, sustainability and conservation all over the world.
Salman can be reached on salman@cleantechloops.com
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