How Social Media Advertising Can Boost Your Business
Using social media to boost the online presence of your brand can make a large impact on your business and brand awareness. You can get more leads, more customers, and a niche following of people who are interested in what you offer. The thing is, there are many ways to approach social media advertising, all of which are time intensive, complex and may or may not deliver positive results to your bottom line.
So which strategy do you choose?
The first thing to consider is that social media marketing is a full-time role for those working in the industry and when someone dedicates their life to understanding the ins and outs of Facebook advertising for example, they tend to get rather good at it. They take teachings and build upon them, mastering their trade.
This means that choosing a marketing agency who is worth their salt can save you money while also giving you back the time spent frustrated trying to make it work for you. But social media agencies have different approaches. Which agency is correct? First, let’s give you a firm understanding of what the options are.
What is Social Media Advertising?
Social media is one way that businesses can reach brand new client bases and previously untapped target demographics. Your very same target audience is currently interacting on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter with other brands who have vast social media followings. By choosing not to promote yourself on these mediums, you are letting those customers be snapped up by other brands. That said, don’t underestimate the commitment it requires advertising regularly.
Specifically, social media marketing involves creating and sharing content on a social media platform. What the content will be should vary across platforms because of the different audiences. Twitter is a few short sentences, Instagram is for pictures and videos targeting an audience below 35 years old, and Facebook can be a variety of content while targeting an older demographic. LinkedIn is B2B advertising option, and great for long-form content as you can add blog posts here.
Benefits of Social Media Advertising
1. Sell More
New research has shown that those who use social media to sell can sell up to 78% more than their peers! Those extra profits can make a tremendous difference to the profitability of your business. Increase your sales and get more customers in the door (so to speak).
2. Brand Recognition
The more people that have been exposed to your brand, the more customers you can get. People tend to buy from brands that they have heard of before, which is why brand recognition is so important. By using targeted Facebook or YouTube ads, people will see your brand. They may not click and buy immediately, but it still increases the likelihood that they will later on.
3. Engagement
With traditional marketing methods, these tend to be a one-way communication flow. You show your brand to others. When you start using social media, you can increase engagement with your brand by creating dialogues. When you start a conversation on social media, you will see people start to interact directly with your brand. The more people you have talking to you, the more leads you will generate. Reply to every comment, tweet, and ask questions of your audience.
4. Gather Data
Social media can be used as a way of gathering data on your audience. Then you can analyse this and adjust your communications according to what worked for the people you want to target and what didn’t. Take a look at your Facebook insights to find out what keywords are working and check out engagement on different posts to see what people are more likely to respond to. Then you will be able to focus on adding more content that interests your audience.
5. Increase Site Traffic
If you’re thinking “I’m not sure about all this social media business, I just want to get more people to my site.” – social media can achieve that too! Use social media as a passageway to drive people to your website. Share blog posts or other content from your site to social media. Then when people click on it, they will be taken straight to your website! This strategy makes a nice complement to traffic you get through search engines to increase your traffic even further.
6. Improve Conversion Rates
What’s even more important than traffic? Conversions. Conversions are turning leads into sales. Social media can not only boost your traffic, but your conversion rate. Try adding calls to action on your Facebook and other social media platforms. This will direct people to buy from you, not just check out your site. You can also run contests which put people in a prize draw when they purchase something, and more! Brainstorm and get creative with it to see what works for your customers.
7. Keep Customers Updated
When you have a new product released, how can you tell as many people as possible? Got something exciting in the works and want to tell potential customers? Social media marketing is the way to go! By posting about it on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or another channel, your audience will see brand new information as you release it. This is a great way to create a flurry of excitement for a new product, website upgrade, or something else you have to share!
What is the right marketing strategy for my business?
As mentioned earlier in this blog, many different social media agencies will recommend different strategies. Some will suggest flooding your customers with content, some will focus on lead generation, and some will post meaningless memes, just to get engagement. So which is correct?
Although there’s no simple answer to this question, you should have your marketing engine firing on all cylinders. The thing is, Google Analytics is a tool for measuring your online presence and measures where your website traffic comes from. Your website is usually the mother-ship of all your marketing and the place where most customers connect, transact, or convert. Therefore, the data that you can measure from your site is pretty darn important.
If you’re not active on your social media pages, then Google will recognise this and your site becomes less relevant. But if all you do is post content, and it’s not good quality, then your users will disengage and Google will recognise this too. All in all, your business will want an ROI on any efforts or spend, so in most cases lead generation should be at the core of the recommended focus and complimented by branding, social activity and customer engagement.
Well at least, that’s our method of thinking at Thinkroom.
Complicated enough for you? Trying to manage this all internally is difficult and, in many cases, you’re too close to the product. (Forest from the trees stuff)
Thinkroom’s way of thinking is that if you engage with us and we’re allocating your marketing spend, we want to ensure we eliminate the cash burn as quickly as possible and bring you into the green with lead generation through social media ads and various other tools. This way, you’re in the positive, plus you’re not absorbing any time deficit.
Content creation and social activity are all only to support lead generation and sales conversions. It’s that simple.
If you’ve DIY’d unsuccessfully, or if you’re working with a crowd that has the wrong mindset, then perhaps it’s time for a switch. Contact us.
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