Social media marketing offers a raft of benefits for businesses across all sectors, but success is never guaranteed. If you’re looking to utilize social platforms to put your brand on the map or drive sales, here are some tips to get the best out of social media for your business.
The first place to start when embarking upon a mission to launch an effective social media strategy is to define an ideal buyer/follower. Decide who you want to sell to and get to know your target customer. Conduct market research, ask questions via polls and interactive surveys and analyze data related to app use, traffic and interactions. Once you have defined your ideal customer, use the findings of market research and data analysis to establish the best channels. Some social media apps are much more popular among certain demographics, for example.
Show off the human side of your brand
Many businesses will set up social accounts and profiles with a primary objective to sell products and promote services. Social media is a brilliant platform for advertising products and services, but perhaps the most significant benefit for businesses is the opportunity to show off the human side of the brand. Tell your backstory, share your core values, provide information about your company culture and ethos and let your followers get to know your team.
Build a following
Social media offers businesses, community groups and organizations the chance to build an online following and bring people together. There are several ways to attract new followers, raise brand awareness and get people talking about your business via social media. To boost numbers and encourage your followers, customers or members to share content, it’s an excellent idea to run promotions, competitions and giveaways and incentivize referrals, recommendations, leaving reviews and sharing posts.
Once you have a following, you can develop the community further. To build relationships and create a bigger network, for example, you could move your Facebook Group to your own app or set up a new profile linked to your brand for followers to engage with each other. Communicating with customers and followers can help you establish long-lasting ties, which will enhance client loyalty and help you gain positive reviews.
Make your brand stand out
Social media platforms provide businesses with a stage to set their brands apart and make them stand out. To catch eyes, turn heads and attract shares, likes and comments, create original content, engage with followers, encourage them to share ideas and feedback, involve followers in content creation and don’t be afraid to think outside of the box. The average person spends around 145 minutes per day on social media. Web users consume a huge amount of content. You want your posts to stand out when people scroll.
Social media is not just a channel for creating leads and generating sales. Businesses can benefit from unparalleled opportunities to engage with customers, build a following and distinguish their brand from others. If you’re looking to get more from your social media marketing campaigns, or you’re launching a startup, take these tips on board to achieve amazing results.
Social media marketing is the best thing you can do for your startup or if you do not have a huge budget for marketing. The key as to why social media is so great is because it is free. 100% cost free. If you have the right people on your team, they will be able to use it for all it is worth and you can easily see an increase in business. Here’s how to do it.
User Generated Content
User generated content or UGC is a digital marketing strategy where others do the work for you. For example, if a user loves your product and wants to share it on their socials, and they tag you in it, then you can just turn around, take that content, and post it on your site.
User generated content motivates 79% of people to buy that product, so the more people that share your product the better for you.
Interact With Your Customers
When you make social media posts where you can interact with your customer base, the more they are going to want to visit your page and see what you’re selling. People’s phones are the biggest distraction they have. People check them during commercial breaks, when they are waiting for someone or something, and when they don’t want to sit idle.
If a potential customer or existing customers can spend that time interacting with you through games, quizzes, or questions, you can quickly gain more followers and drive more traffic to your site.
Go Global
With the proper hashtags and the proper connections, you can start to spread your ideas and your products across the world map. An easy way to do this is to partner with influencers who can help promote your product. Influencers can have millions of followers, and those followers can be anywhere in the world, and a lot of times, they are located everywhere in the world.
An influencer can introduce your product to millions of people at once, and that is low cost advertising. Influencers can convince a large number of people to buy something with one really great post on their account’s story or feed. You are reaching a whole new audience within a matter of minutes.
Create Great, Relevant Content
Do your own creating. So far, we have seen how others can give you a leg up on social media, but what about what you are creating. Funny videos, product videos, and behind the scenes videos all make for great content. People like to see how things are made, who works for your company, and what you are doing in your life.
A sneak peek into your world makes you more approachable and more trustworthy, and when people feel as if they know you, they are more likely to be loyal and buy from you. Opening the door just enough for people to see in will benefit you a lot in the long run, and again, a lot of this is free.
Influencers are in great demand in today's scenario. Brands are paying a hefty amount to influencers to enhance their brand awareness. Many influencers have a vast fanbase on par with the movie stars. Hence, brands are leveraging these influencers to maximize their brand reach, which eventually elevates their reach. In this article, we are about to show you some of the social commerce sites that have grabbed the influencer's attention. If you are a person aspiring to become an influencer, then have a look at the social commerce sites that are given below. Influencers can also gain momentum on any social commerce platform by taking advantage of the paid services like Trollishly. Have a deep look into these sites and better understand them so that your path to grow into an influencer won't be much more complicated.
Instagram:
Instagram has grown into the powerhouse of social commerce. The platform cannot be neglected due to the way it has been contributing to social commerce. Instagram is a more compatible platform when compared to other platforms when it comes to shopping. A shopping icon can be added as part of the image. The icon denotes the product showcased in the picture that eventually drives to the page where a detailed description of the product along with its price will be provided. Despite being a social application, Instagram almost functions as an e-commerce application where brands can showcase their products and sell them. Instagram offers multiple ways for brands to promote their products. For instance, products can be promoted through the stories section by adding CTA to it, which will direct the visitor to the product page. If any of your product posts have gained more traction, Instagram will take it to the explore page, eventually elevating your brand reach to a vast extent. Thus, your product will become famous without having to spend even a single penny. Hence, Instagram is a compatible platform for brand promotions and to sell products online. Due to this, brands throng into this social application and join hands with the influencers.
Facebook:
Facebook is diverse and the one with the most number of users. There are billions of people surfing through this social application every day, with many new people entering this platform every day. Hence, it is a huge market place where brands could showcase their products to the customers. Taking advantage of its vast user base, Facebook is utilizing the platform for commercial purposes.
Facebook Marketplace is a massive opportunity for medium and small scale businesses. The section enables companies to sell their products to people. It allows the seller to provide comprehensive data about his product, such as its cost and specific features. Moreover, an icon has also been provided using which a customer can send a direct message to the buyer regarding product enquiries. This will help brands to sort out the customer queries instantly and drive them to purchase a product. Hence, Facebook is the platform that lets brands market their products to a vast audience without much hindrance. Considering the enormous user base and growing importance of social commerce, influencers have a growing reputation on this social platform. Many companies are aiming to make their brand popular through influencers on Facebook.
Lyst:
Today the social media industry is witnessing vast growth. Due to this, new social applications are being rolled out that focuses on a specific sector. Lyst is one such social application that is completely dedicated to fashion designers. For instance, if you are a fashion designer, you can showcase your works on this application. People who are intrigued by your posts will follow you. Hence, they can view all your future posts and interact with them. Moreover, people can also make purchases on this social application. Thus, this platform will be an apt one for the people who are into the fashion designing industry and looking to grow into influencers.
Houzz:
Houzz is also a social application that falls under a specific category. As the social application name resonates, this platform will have interior designers, architectures, and others in the construction field who will show their works. Hence, people who find their works to be interesting can follow them and can even get in touch with them if they want to renovate their homes and workplace. This platform also has a considerable number of influencers who are enjoying a significant follower base. Thus, this platform will give rise to new ideas to make alterations to your house and interior. Houzz is one of the social applications that is acclaimed very well and reached a large audience base.
Wanelo:
Wanelo is a social application where you will find a wide range of photo collections. For example, if you click any of the product photos that have been showcased on this application, it will direct you to the page where you can purchase them. Thus, this application is filled with product photos, and you can buy the one that matches your interest. This social platform has a considerable number of users and has a gradual rise in its user base consistently for a more extended period.
Final Thoughts:
Social e-commerce is expanding over time with the advent of new social applications. Alongside there has been growing importance for influencer marketing. Social commerce is anticipated to play a crucial role in the coming years, and a vast business is expected to take place through these platforms. Moreover, many people are thronging into this social application to grow into influencers. Many new social platforms are getting introduced and earn a rapid spike in their user base in recent times. Many of these social platforms have distinct landscapes providing a unique experience to the users. Thus, the influencer marketing industry is expected to expand further in the coming years. So, if you aim to become an influencer, you have to look at the various new social platforms that are introduced in recent times. Thus, you can gain considerable knowledge about the way social platforms are framed, which in turn will ease the pathway for you to grow into an influencer.
Whether you’re a social media fan or roll your eyes at the mention of Facebook or Twitter, all businesses and entrepreneurs can benefit from having a presence on these platforms. When you factor in the number of social media users, which is in the billions, it makes complete sense to use the tool for marketing your brand.
While some business owners have a good grasp on social media already, others aren’t sure how to get the most out of it. To help, here are some tips that will make you a social media pro in no time.
Begin with a Plan
Before you dive into the social media world, you need to have a plan in place on what you want to achieve. Conducting a social media audit, creating goals that follow the SMART framework, and looking into what competitors do will give you inspiration on how to conduct yourself on social media. If you need help coming up with a social media strategy, companies like JBD Agency can help. You should also create a social media calendar that adds structure and ensures you’re posting the right content to your pages at the right time.
Choose the Right Platforms
You may not realize it, but the social media platform you use for business purposes can have a huge impact on your revenue. For example, if you want to target Gen Z, many of them use platforms like Snapchat and TikTok. If you want to appeal to millennials and generation X, you’re likely to find them on Facebook. There are pros and cons to all social media platforms, so you need to decide which platform will benefit you the most.
Know Your Target Audience
If you don’t have your target audience established, you’ll have great difficulty maintaining a social media presence. For instance, if your products or services appeal to stay-at-home moms, you should post content and updates during the morning and afternoon where they are more likely to see them. Make sure you begin with your current customers and start compiling data, before digging deeper into social media analytics. As you do more research, you will get a better idea of who is visiting your pages and buying into your brand.
Focus on Quality
Many business owners make the mistake of focusing on quantity, rather than quantity on social media. While you may believe posting constant updates will benefit your brand, users don’t want their feed to be completely filled with your output. Instead, you should focus on creating quality content that is short and sweet and gets the message across. Once a consumer subscribes to your page, try not to lose their custom by spamming them.
Stay Consistent
Building and maintaining a successful social media business page takes time and effort. As your page grows in popularity, you need to remain consistent, otherwise users may not have faith and trust in your brand. It may be wise to have a social media team designated to keeping your pages updated, but only if you can afford to do so.
If you know how to use social media to your advantage, your business will benefit enormously. Creating business pages on platforms like Facebook can be a fantastic way to build your audience, keep connected with customers, and create a reputable brand.
Paid Media experts often reevaluate and experiment with ways to optimize processes and get the most results. After all, the world of Facebook Ads can be daunting, and you certainly don’t want to follow in the footsteps of one man who lost 600k in 4 days on his Facebook Ads. Ouch, that hits us where it hurts.
Even if you’re not an expert, there are probably (definitely) a few things you could do right now to save money on your Facebook Ads. And if you’re a human being, that is something you should want. Let’s take a look at some you can correct today:
You’re picking the wrong campaign objective
Although this may seem obvious, you’d be surprised how often this crucial element gets overlooked when launching an ad campaign. Facebook Ads campaigns break down into three main objectives, each with their own sub-objectives.
Before you get to this stage, you should have already identified your Facebook Ad’s purpose and the results you want to see. (If not, we suggest doing that now). The objective you select should fit into your overall business strategy and serve as a shorter-term tactic to achieve long term goals. Once you know your objectives, it makes writing your ad easier, since you’ve determined who and what you’re writing for.
Source: Business2Community
The three campaign types are:
Awareness: this objective is for those at the top level of your marketing funnel, who may not even know you exist. It’s also commonly used by larger brands when they have new products services.
Ad objectives for Awareness are:
Brand awareness: letting people know who you are. Where you are or what you do.
Reach: casting as wide of a net as possible, and having the most eyes viewing your ad.
Consideration: this objective would be for those in the middle of the marketing funnel, who may know you exist but need to have more information before converting into a customer. You want to guide your potential buyer to want to take action, whether through education, information, or entertainment.
Ad objectives for Consideration are:
Traffic: sending users from Facebook to a designated URL such as a landing page or official website.
Engagement: motivating those who see your ad to engage in any way through likes, shares, comments, or clicks.
App installs: driving users to an App Store where they can download your mobile app.
Video views: shows your video to those most likely to be interested and interact with the content.
Lead generation: allows you to capture data and leads directly from your ads, such as address or email.
Messages: connect users with messaging services like Facebook messenger or Instagram Direct messages.
Conversions: as you probably have guessed, this would be the ad objective for an audience towards the bottom of your marketing funnel. It’s the final step before taking action and making a purchase, download, or signing up for a subscription.
Ad objectives for Conversions are:
Conversions: Having your audience take a specific action. Download. Sign up. Purchase. To optimize this ad objective, it’s ideal if you’re having at least 15-25 conversions per week; that way, Facebook can garner enough data to advertise to the right target audience correctly.
Catalog Sales: allows you to showcase specific products from your e-commerce store and gives you tools to integrate your online store products into the user’s Facebook feed.
Store traffic: meant for brick and mortar stores that rely on foot traffic for sales. Think establishments like a hair salon, restaurant, or local boutique.
You’re not using audience targeting correctly
The targeting feature of Facebook Ads ensures that you have influence over matching the right ad with the right person. Some people may “target overkill,” which leads to a tiny pool of Facebook users who may see your ad. Some may use “lazy targeting” and follow a “set it and forget it” approach. Both of these leave room for improvement.
Neither specific nor broad targeting is more superior; the critical element is relevance to the user. We’ve all been the victim of a mistargeted ad and wondered, “why am I seeing this right now?” That does not make for positive brand sentiment.
When it comes to components of detailed targeting, Facebook Ads allows you to choose from a lot of options., but they all fall under the following:
Demographics: under this category, you can target users’ age, location, languages, education, gender, and even relationship status. What industry does your potential buyer work in? What is their income range? What life events are they experiencing? All of these need to be considered when considering your demographics targeting.
Interests: exceptionally useful in placing your ads in front of those who will want to see it. You can select interests based on industries, like finance or medical. You can target based on family relationships such as parents or dating. And, you can target based on activities like sports, technology, and fashion.
Behaviors: this allows you to reach people based on purchase behavior or purchase intent and includes behaviors like device usage. These behaviors could be how charitable a person is, their job role, residential profiles, and even how much they travel.
You can use a layered approach when it comes to these audience targets to achieve the maximum return on your ad. Facebook provides an audience size tool (below) that shows how broad or narrow your target approach is. It might take some trial and error for a beginner, which is why it’s always good to do your research or hire the experts.
Although Facebook Ads strategy can be scientific and experimental by nature, your ad’s creative aspect has a massive impact on its success. When we say creative, we mean the imagery, text, placement, colors, headlines, videos, CTA’s – all of it.
It’s important to note that creating the right ad will require testing different versions to see which resonate and perform the best. A simple A/B test of varying headlines or images combinations can provide valuable insight and save valuable dollars.
There are some best practices when it comes to creating your ad that is best to follow closely:
Use high-resolution images (FYI best size guide on FB. Image 1:1, video 4:5 or 1:1, story 9:16.)
Show your product clearly.
Avoid too much image text: let the creative aspect of the adconvey messaging and don’t overstuff ads with text as it fails to gather attention.
To use multiple images or showcase various products, test multiple formats as different formats work for different products, such as Facebook carousel ads.
Preview your ads using Facebook Creative Hub; this will give you a good indication of how users will see your ad on a desktop or mobile.
Have the ad copy reflect what is being shown in the image, make it easy for viewers to connect the dots.
Have one clear, prominent call to action, whether it’s “Sign up now” or “Buy one today!”
Use simple language that’s easy to understand. Remember that your ad is one of many in a sea of infinite scroll, and you have your audiences’ attention for a very limited time.
Let’s take a look at some great and not-so-great Facebook ad examples:
Source: Facebook
Why this works:
The image chosen is meant to catch a user’s eye.
The text relates directly to the ad, making the connection an easy one to make
The copy leads with value and gets right to the point; “Stop Counting Calories and Take Inches Off.”
It’s clear what the user should do: take part in the 30-day challenge.
Great use of social proof and high engagement
Source: Facebook
Why this doesn’t work:
Although there’s a catalog of images, none of them are particularly engaging or stand out.
The headline is generic and isn’t clear on what action they want the audience to take
The image text is basic and lacking much creativity. “Deer Lamp” isn’t all that enticing.
The social proof is evidence of an unengaging ad that isn’t catching people’s attention.
Remember that your ad should be telling a story about who you are and what you offer in a cohesive, obvious way. There should be a flow between what the user reads and what they see, and it should be clear what you want them to do.
You’re not using Facebook Pixel (properly)
Here’s a crash course on Facebook Pixel 101: the Pixel is a piece of code that you can place on your website to analyze the actions users are taking. It’s a great analytics tool that provides some invaluable insights into your own specific consumer’s behavior.
It tracks things like time on page, page views, page depth, and add to cart functions. There are 3 main ways to take advantage of this tool:
Target to the right audience: the Pixel will give you information about those who’ve visited your site, allowing you to remarketing to them on the Facebook platform.
Increase sales: well, this seems like a no-brainer. With your Pixel information, you can set automatic bidding strategies that reach people more likely to take the desired action.
Measure your ROI: the information provided from the Pixel gives specific data into which ads are high-performing, where to make adjustments, and how effectively your ads are driving action.
Source: Facebook
The Pixel transgression made by businesses is often they are either not using it or not using it to its full potential. Facebook makes it very easy, too. You can view all of your Pixel data right inside your ad manager and make adjustments based on the data you see.
The pixel gives you information on how customers are interacting with your business off of the Facebook platform, so you can create strategies to have them engage with your business on the platform, through your ads. You should be consulting this data to guide strategic decisions like audiences to target or even your website’s flow.
You’re not optimizing ad scheduling
As we know by now, you can set your ads’ schedule of when they are shown. You can choose the time of day, or day of the week, based on your offer and relevancy.
Source: Facebook
Sure, it seems obvious to run your ads during weekends or evenings, where you assume most people might be online. Still, we’ve found the way to create your ad schedule is to analyze your specific customer data (like the stuff you get from Facebook Pixel). Once you’ve done that, it’s essential to look at your ad intent: what am I trying to get them to do? What time of day, or day of the week, are people taking this action?
Combining Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and Facebook Analytics, you can determine more than when your audience is online, but when they are taking these specific actions. You can see when they are subscribing or signing up, and when they are buying.
It’s best to analyze this data to create a custom ad schedule, specific to each ad. Now, we know this can seem a bit overwhelming. Check out what happened when we teamed The Maple Guild to implement a Facebook ad strategy that increased their revenue by 300%, and their purchases by 200%.
Take it from us, working with Facebook Ads is a never ending lesson, as there are always ways to improve and optimize your efforts to maximize your results. We’ve run thousands of ad campaigns for all kinds of businesses and have used that expertise to help you save more money on your Facebook ads.
Whether you’ve recently launched an online business, or you’ve noticed a decline in traffic in your existing operation, how you market and promote your brand can be the difference between success and failure.
Royalty-free image
In 2020, social media should be a key component of any marketing strategy. With billions of people using platforms like Facebook and Instagram every day, it’s vital that you create a business account and establish an online presence. To grow your online business, here is how social media marketing can help.
Increased Awareness
From the moment you put your business on social media, you have more chance of consumers finding your products or services, which in turn can help to boost traffic to your business website. To get started, you need to create a business page on popular social media platforms. This can be a great way to connect with your audience. There are easy to follow instructions to take you through the process and get your page up and running. In the initial stages, make sure that you ask friends, family, employees, and sponsors to like and share your content, as the more people who see it, the better.
Improved Search Engine Ranking
While posting on social media platforms may get your business more site traffic, you will need to put more time and effort into other strategies to make people aware of your brand. Improving your search engine ranking and using the correct SEO strategies will mean that consumers are more likely to click on your page over competitors, so whether your aim is to place higher on social media or on Google, make sure that you use targeted and relevant keywords that link with your brand.
Higher Conversion Rates
With an increase in visibility, your company will have more opportunities for conversation. Whether you post an image, blog post, or comment, you score a better chance of viewers seeing your content and wanting to find out more about your brand. Placing your brand in an atmosphere where users are likely to share and talk about your content will only boost the conversion rates on existing traffic.
To further improve your ROI, consider working with a company that specializes in digital marketing managed services. They can create a tailored marketing plan that combines digital and social media marketing to generate performance-driven results.
Better Customer Satisfaction
Your customers are the heart and soul of your online business, so it’s vital that you keep them happy. Retaining a loyal following can be achieved in various ways, such as regularly communicating with your audience. When using social media for marketing, your audience may leave comments and questions that they want answering, so being on hand around the clock to answer any queries will show that you’re dedicated to your brand. Knowing how to network and engage with your demographic will turn potential customers into dedicated followers.
Cost-Effective
One of the main benefits of using social media for marketing your online business is that it’s a much cheaper alternative when compared to other methods. While creating a business page is free, there are add-ons that you can consider, which you will need to pay for. If you need help, you may want to contact JBD social media agency who can provide guidance on what steps to take to improve your social media marketing and content.
Whether you have a social media marketing team in place or you hire outside help, there are tons of benefits that social media marketing can bring to your online business, helping to spread brand awareness and grow your company.
