As a growing business, you’re probably most concerned with reaching your target audience and developing your brand. You have a great product or service to offer. But how do you gain an edge amongst the competition and scale your business efficiently?
Many businesses remain adverse to the idea of utilizing social media. But the fact is, word-of-mouth marketing and SEO alone are not enough to get the visibility you need in today’s world.
Why ignore a potential market of over 4 billion users worldwide? If you’re still not convinced, or you’re not sure how social media can work for your brand, here are some benefits to get you strategizing.
Reach a Larger Audience
As mentioned above, the reach of social media alone is enough of a reason to hop on the bandwagon. With 70% of the US population on Facebook, chances are that your target audience is using the platform.
You probably know that your business won’t grow unless you’re actively prospecting new customers. Rather than cold emailing leads, generate immediate engagement through both organic and paid social channels.
Start by setting up accounts on the platforms you think would benefit your brand. Once you’ve decided which platforms you want to start testing, begin building your business social media pages.
Develop Your Brand Voice
Through your business social feeds, you get the opportunity to build a brand voice. This can go far beyond the content on your website, although everything should be coherent.
Consider what kind of text and imagery best reflects your brand’s personality. If your business is known for sustainability, this could mean posting about environmental causes that you know would resonate with your followers.
Organic Social is the foundation of paid social media. Through organic posts, you’re able to reach your followers and gain new ones by using hashtags and social media algorithms. Organic isn’t something you should leave by the wayside as you’re scaling on paid channels.
Instead, keep up your organic presence as a way to build credibility and engage with your customers in an authentic way. Additionally, showcase your brand with user-generated-content that helps customers picture your product or service as a part of their everyday life.
Utilize Paid Social Media Marketing
Now that you have your organic pages set up, and are starting to engage with users and build a following, it’s time to explore the world of paid social media marketing.
With 54% of users actively looking for products to purchase, one of the largest benefits of using social media for your business is the ability to drive conversions. It’s easier than ever to convert your content into a shoppable ad.
Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat all have CTA button options within the platform meaning users are just one click away from purchasing.
Link your organic feed with your marketing campaigns to take advantage of targeting by building audiences around your current followers. Additionally, scale your campaigns and boost ROI by consistently testing.
Not all testing is created equal, so figure out what tests will have the biggest impact, and what you can reasonably run within your budget.
Along with testing, paid social media has the advantage of data analytics. Look at what’s performing the best within your targeting and creative and use that as a guide for strategizing. Paid social media works most effectively through a hands-on approach.
This means constantly looking at analytics to gain new insights and making small, or large, adjustments to every aspect of your campaigns. While this might seem like too much effort, the results speak for themselves.
73% of marketers believe that social media has been effective in reaching their marketing goals.
Engage in Direct Communication With Customers and Prospects
Social media doesn’t just have to be used to build your brand voice or sell a product, it can also be a great tool in managing customer feedback. Enabling comments on ads and organic posts will help you communicate with your customer base, answer questions, and inform them about your product.
Additionally, it can be a great prospecting tool. Many users will glance through the comment section on posts to see how other people are reacting. This can be an integral step in the decision-making process, so keep on top of responding to feedback.
Communicate With Influencers
Influencers are all over social media platforms and many of them gain income through paid sponsorships. Developing your presence on social media means that you can form mutually beneficial relationships with influencers.
Conduct research on who your followers are interested in, and reach out to people you think would be a good representation of your brand. If customers see that their favorite influencer is using your product, they will be more likely to purchase it for themselves.
This can build trust and credibility as people like products and services that have an endorsement from someone they admire.
Get Started on Social Media Today
This may seem like a lot to process, but this benefit guide is meant to be comprehensive. You don’t have to start with everything at once.
The best part about building a social media presence is that it can start with just one account. The barriers to entry are minimal. Just start with a free account and work on showcasing your brand to your customer base in a new way.
Once you get started, you’ll realize that the avenues available to grow your business are endless. Get started today and see the results for yourself.
