Digital media leads the advertising world and marketers are relying on social media channels to reach out to their potential customers and promote their products & services. But what is social media marketing? How can you formulate a marketing strategy that can drive leads and accelerate your sales? Read the article to know more!
Today, the US owns the largest social media advertising market, amounting to a whopping 72
billion dollars. With digital media leading the advertising world, marketers have relied
on various social media channels to reach out to their potential customers and promote their
products and services.
But what is social media marketing? How can you formulate a marketing strategy that can drive
leads and accelerate your sales? This article delves into the concept of social media marketing
and shares its pros and cons for your business. If you want to know how you can leverage your
social media marketing skills, read along to know more!
Strategy
Before using social media for marketing, list your objectives and plan your strategy. Conduct
thorough market research to finalize your strategy and the type of content that will secure the
attention of your target audience. Find out which platforms will work best for you and the
content format that will best promote your products and services.
Planning and Publishing
Being consistent on social media platforms goes a long way in building your brand. Publish your
content regularly and open days for your customers to discover your brand and its offerings.
Plan and schedule content much ahead of the publishing date and time and try to keep it a mix of
different formats - blog posts, videos, podcasts, etc.
Listening and Engagement
As your brand grows on social media, you will witness increasing conversations regarding your
brand. Customers will communicate with you by sharing your post, messaging you directly or
tagging you in their personal posts. Listen to your customers actively. Thank your customers for
positive comments and in case of dissatisfaction or complaints, offer immediate support and make
things work out.
Analytics and Reporting
Keep a constant eye on your social media metrics. Analyze the metrics of various social media
channels you use and compare them across platforms to find out what kind of content and which
channels are working positively for your business.
Use Propel
marketing services to find out in-depth information about your audience and make
informed decisions when crafting your marketing strategy.
Advertising
By investing in social media advertising, you can reach out to a wider set of audiences those
who are not following you actively on social media. Target paid ads help you to display your ads
to specific groups of people based on their locations, interests, preferences, etc.
Builds your brand
It lets you post content that humanizes your brand. Through constant content creation, you can
build credibility and reliability. Be authentic and tell your brand story through the right mix
of textual and visual elements.
Connects with audience
Through social media, you can interact with your customers and build a community. Engage with
them actively and understand their interests by identifying the trends that they are following.
Increases website traffic
You can send your prospective users directly to your website from your social media platforms.
If you can market your product successfully, you can generate better leads and more inbound
traffic to your website.
Improves search engine rankings
Through consistent branding on social media, you can get your brand higher on the search engine
results page. Customize your social content and add a touch of your brand's uniqueness to get
featured in top results.
Helps with customer service
A good part of your user base will connect with you on social media platforms. For every
criticism, create thoughtful and supportive replies, providing practical solutions.
Assists in cost-cutting
Posting on social media channels is primarily free. So, you can make the best use of your
organic content through such platforms. However, for even better results, there is always an
opportunity to pay for promotion and launch social media ads.
Share competitors' updates
By monitoring your competitors' social media profiles, you can gain a lot of actionable
insights. From analyzing their content type, you can understand their strategy and do in-depth
research.
Displays industry trends
Through social media, you can keep track of conversations and stay updated with industry trends.
You can understand consumers' behavioral patterns, overall opinions and emerging market trends
and apply this knowledge while designing your campaigns and ads.
Connects you with collaborators
Social media platforms can open the door for you to connect with similar brands and companies.
You can also pair up with influencers who share your brand's values and objectives.
Draws in talent
Using social media platforms is a great way to showcase your company as an ideal workplace to
your existing and prospective employees. Recruiters often find the right candidates by using the
numerous tools that come with social media channels like LinkedIn.
Potential negative feedback
When you are creating a social media profile for your brand, be ready to receive negative
feedback. It can be in the form of unhappy customers or undesirable trolls whose aim is to
tarnish your brand image.
Time taking
Social media requires consistency. Posting content regularly and engaging with the audience can
be tough, especially for small businesses. You need to find the right time to post your content,
monitor its engagement, interact with the customers and check the metrics.
A complex process
Sometimes, marketing efforts can be difficult to evaluate, even with the best marketing tools.
It can also take time for your marketing campaigns to work and it might not always be feasible
to wait to see the results.
Lack of buying intent
Most customers check e-commerce sites and search engines when they need to make an online
purchase. Consumers interact and engage with the brand's content on social media platforms that
have very low buying intent.
Relies on advertisements
For businesses that are just starting off, spending a lot of budget on social media advertising
is not an intelligent move. They can surely promote their products by launching campaigns but
spending money to flash their ads is not possible.
Security concerns
Privacy issues always remain a thing of concern when you submit all your company details while
creating an official social media brand page. Many hackers target social media platforms and
they can even harm your industry reputation.
Low ROI
When it comes to gaining rich Return On Investment, social media marketing is not that
effective. The bitter truth is that for newbies in the business, social media marketing takes up
a lot of time before generating actual revenues.
Doesn't work for all users
The way one consumer uses social media is different from another. So, even with a well-crafted
campaign, you cannot target an audience of all groups. Researching and finding out about your
users becomes important here.
Improve brand profile
Fill out relevant business descriptions with the right keywords and make your social media
profile stand out. Add a clickable URL to your website and include a clear call to action.
Add social proofs
Monitor your social media platforms for positive customer feedback and then integrate such
reviews into your social posts. This will help you pay back to the customers and also gain
credibility as a trusted brand.
Use targeted ads
Implement paid promotions and target your audience based on their online behaviors, recent
purchases, demographics, etc. This way, your campaigns will specifically target customers more
likely to get converted.
Participate in social listening
Check what people are talking about in your industry. Monitor the conversations surrounding your
brand on social media and who knows, you might find your next user from among the crowd!
Create rich content
No matter how much budget you invest in social media advertisements, create value-generating
content that connects with the audience and intrigues them to know more about your brand and its
products. Share compelling and clickable content.
Design attractive landing pages
Your social media campaign is the gateway for your audience to discover your business. Once they
are on the website, make sure that they have a pleasant experience. Design your website with the
right mix of visuals and textual elements.
Offer incentives
Use lead magnets to encourage customers to share their contact details. Some examples of lead
magnets include a free ebook, discounted coupons, interactive quizzes, free weekly newsletters,
etc.
Conduct interactive events
Host online discussions and webinars to attract more people towards your brand's offerings. A
live stream or a quick Q&A session is also a great way to promote educational content while
remaining interactive throughout.
Get into sponsorships
Collaborate with companies, feature in shared events or get in touch with influencers who can
promote your brand. You can go for organic partnership or use paid collaboration to spread the
news about your brand further.
Personalize
Make your social media presence by adding a personal touch. Be relevant, create content on
trending topics and convey a human message behind every campaign. Personalized pitch makes your
users feel special and it can convert them into paying customers.
Social media marketing is your spokesperson to the outside world. To get started, you need to
understand how marketing campaigns work and know how to track the metrics. Choose channels or
platforms where your target audience spends most of their time. And only then will you be able
to gain visibility and drive sales.
But that's not all! Check your inbound leads and sales figures and analyze the reports generated
by your key metrics. To gather rich data and actionable insights, choose Propel and use Propel
marketing services. From consulting to report automation and data visualization—get all
your marketing needs solved under one roof.
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