Social media marketing has become an increasingly important tool for marketing. To effectively generate demand, you need to build a relationship with your potential customers in a way that will make them comfortable enough to buy from you. It isn’t just about the final sale you make, but more about your efforts to drive this final sale. By meeting your audience where they’re at you can create content that will help you engage with them in real-time.
A strong online presence can greatly increase your chances for your potential customers to find you. In addition to an informative website, you also need to build a presence on social media platforms. Let’s talk a little bit more about why this is important.
Unlike traditional marketing methods, such as TV ads and billboards, social media marketing allows you to directly communicate with your audience, and for them to communicate back. Additionally, through platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the likes, you can build your brand, drive traffic to your website, and increase your sales.
So you want to add social media to your marketing strategy but you don’t have social media accounts for your business, and you’re not sure where to start? Well here are our top 5 tips that will help you get started with your social media marketing:
1. Claim your business name
Your username is an important factor to consider when setting up your social media accounts. This is what your audience will see when they search for your business so it needs to be recognisable and reflect your brand identity. Ideally, this should be your business name or brand name; it’ll make it easily discoverable when people search for it, not only on social media platforms but also, on search engines.
2. Use consistent visual branding
You need to ensure that all your accounts are reflective of your branding. Your social media pages and content should have a congruous look and feel so that people can associate it with your company and brand. This will help distinguish it from your competitors, foster trust and improve recognition. We have a branding guideline that can help you with defining your brand identity. Remember, consistency is key.
3. Focus your efforts
Trying to keep up with all the existing social media platforms can be quite intimidating and very time-consuming. Instead, you should first focus on 1 or 2 platforms where your target audience is. That will make it easier for you to post more consistently. When you feel you’re ready to handle more platforms, make sure they’re always updated to avoid having an account that looks abandoned. The last thing you want is your customers thinking your business is no longer operational.
4. Balance your content
When you’re thinking about the type of content you’re posting on your social media accounts, you need to consider the objective of the post. Is it a promotional post to encourage sales? Is it an informative post? You need to create content that gets your customers thinking, talking, and ultimately buying your product or service. Striking a balance between promotional posts and other types of content is important to build a relationship as well as to keep your audience engaged. Essentially, you should aim to inspire your audience, educate and entertain them, as well as promote your business and the products you sell to your potential customers. Check out our article for more information on how to be successful on social media.
5. Consider planning posts in advance
Posting content consistently on your social media accounts can be challenging. There are also many factors to consider, like the best time of day to post, to effectively build your audience. Sometimes you might even forget to post at all, or the content you post is not on brand or doesn’t align with your goals. That’s why you should consider planning your posts in advance and scheduling them.
Trying to incorporate all of these tips may seem overwhelming, especially if you’re just starting out on social media. You may even consider hiring a marketing agency to set up and run your social media accounts on your behalf. Either way, once you start seeing your online community growing and your efforts bringing you your desired results, you'll definitely get motivated. Just remember, quality and consistency will go a long way in improving your social media marketing.
