Most marketers will tell you that social media marketing is a “must have” in today’s world. While we don’t disagree, we also know that a lot of businesses are not getting the most out of their efforts and expense. Like any other marketing tactics, social media marketing needs to have a target audience, be goal-driven, strategic, and part of an overall marketing plan.
It’s important to realize that “social media marketing” is not even one tactic, in and of itself. Rather, it can include posting to a social media account, engagement with potential customers, and paid ads. Those three, can be comprised of any combination of text, images, videos, or audio recordings, and can be the primary content or a divergence.
That said, let’s look at three ways that social media marketing can give a real boost to your business.
You’re launching (or relaunching) a brand
Social media platforms are a great choice for building brand awareness. Whether you’re just starting out or introducing a new product line, social media gives you the flexibility to “layer” shorter and longer content using a combination of text, images, and videos through paid ads and posts. You can target your theoretical consumer market and collect data to tweak that as needed. Social media is also very useful for brand building because you can encourage questions and provide timely responses in the brand voice. You’ll need to make sure that the design of your social media pages reflects your new brand, includes an engaging brand story, and has links to a well-planned website. The most important aspect though, is having your social media feeds monitored in real-time so you can hold virtual conversations with those who show an interest.
You need to create a big splash for a short time
Perhaps you need to move a lot of product at year end, are holding a special event, or decide to offer a flash sale on a slow week – social media is definitely the way to get the word out. You’ll not only reach the social media communities you’ve cultivated over time, but also a wider audience of potential customers. This type of blitz campaign is relatively inexpensive and can have lasting impact. You do need to have a strategically designed website to make sure that there is a smooth path to follow for potential buyers, otherwise, you could end up just frustrating and annoying people.
You need to hold on to your customers for a long time
If you’re in a business with a long sales cycle, sell products or services that last quite a while, or are dependent on after-sales maintenance or consumables, you can build customer loyalty by fostering a customer community. The key here is providing useful content and incentives to get and keep customers following you. Again, you’ll also need a website that makes it really easy for customers to purchase supplies and a way to talk to someone if they’re interested in a new product or service.