Social media is a handy tool that all of us use regularly. As per the latest researches, an average human being spends nearly 3 hours each day on social media platforms. So, when you are thinking of marketing your brand, social media has to be one of the best platforms to engage with your customers. Both B2C and B2B businesses can access their target audience easily through social media.
However, using social media is not always as easy as it seems to be. If you think making a LinkedIn and Facebook business page is all you need to do, think again! It is time to harness the power of all online platforms today. This includes websites and apps not conventionally considered for business use. For example, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok must be given their due credit for promoting your business.
Well-planned social media marketing strategies are a must. Here are a few tips and tricks you can use to give your brand a competitive advantage via digital marketing:
#1 Content generated by Users
Content generated by users is an extremely effective marketing tool. It can help in popularizing your brand. When executed properly, this method can create more footfall on your website and generate better conversion rates. Since this technique uses user-generated content or UGC, it is a failsafe promotional tool. Here is a route map to executing this strategy:
- Choose an appropriate platform: Social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are perfect for this method. Always choose platforms frequented by your customers regularly.
- Come up with a unique strategy: This strategy is based on motivating your users to create innovative content related to your brand. So, you need to brainstorm a hook that gives your customers enough opportunity to create interesting content.
- Associate with a catchy hashtag: The entire social media revolves around hashtags today. So, come up with a catchy hashtag that your users can associate with the content they create. This helps you to keep a track of all the relevant UGC.
- Make your content-generators feel valued: Appreciating content creators is a must. You can feature the videos and other visual content they create on your app and website.
#2 Hop on the influencer marketing train
Social media is full of potent influencers today. They have dedicated followers who you can tap into as your potential customers. So, you should make full use of influencer marketing to get the word across about your brand. As any good social media marketing course would tell you, make sure you pick the right influencers who have relevance to your brand domain.
A good balance of big, medium, and small-reach influencers can be useful. Communicate your brand strategy to each influencer and explain how promoting your brand can be useful to their followers. Creating regular collaborative content and tracking their impact on your sales figures are crucial to engaging maximum customers.
#3 Focus on increasing engagement
Suppose you have gathered a hefty customer base. What comes next? Engagement. If you cannot keep your customers hooked to your brand, they are bound to find better alternatives. So, you have to think out of the box:
- Give all your customer communication a personalized touch. For effective lead generation, value-adding conversations are crucial. Social Media Automation Tools can help you schedule customized messages for your customers. This helps your customers feel valued and establishes brand loyalty.
- Active participation on the part of the brand is a must. You can access more customers on social media posts if you are receptive enough. Be it negative or positive, always make sure that you reply to all comments of each post you make. This makes your customers feel heard. An intention to improve on your part will make the customer feel more attached to the brand. Better customer satisfaction always translates to brand long-term loyalty.
#4 Good research can provide long-term benefits
Social media marketing is not a one-size-fits-all concept. Never venture into social media unless you are backed with appropriate research. Proper analytics and research can help you lock down the correct social media marketing strategy for your brand:
- Firstly, never restrict your customer base to a particular set of demographics or you can lose out on potential business. So, conduct detailed research to identify all the types of customers your products and services can attract. Analytical tools for assessing your website, social media content can provide you with good insights. Make sure you take a good look at the customer base of your competitors to gain clarity. In-depth surveys can also be a useful tool.
- Just creating an arbitrary hashtag for your marketing strategy can be a blunder. Conduct enough research to zero in on the right keywords for the hashtag. Make sure it has not already been used or does not have any unwanted connotations. Intelligent research can present you with the ideal hashtag to help your business soar.
- Research does not always mean exploring numbers and figures. Engage in two-way communication with your customers to collect relevant research data. For example, you want to improve a particular product or service you provide. Apart from historical research, contact your customers directly over social media. Their responses can help you identify the issues that you need to rectify. This can be extremely effective research.
- Last but not least, always make a thorough study of your competitors. Their strategies, customer bases, and reviews should give you enough guidelines regarding what to do and what not to do.
#5 Take a route of extensive customization
Long gone are the days when you could just create a product and expect it to work for all kinds of demographics. It is important to communicate how your service or product suits their needs perfectly. So, to make sure a customer chooses your brand for their needs, you have to indulge in extensive personalization. Doing this via social media gives you a significantly better ROI:
- Encourage personal interactions: Be an approachable brand. Send customized connection messages and requests to your prospective customers. If you keep a tab on who has reacted to your posts, you can have a hefty customer base to interact with.
- Opt for a robust CRM tool: The need for good customer relationship management using an effective CRM tool is undeniable. This helps you keep track of your customer preferences, demographics, engagement avenues et cetera. Using this information properly can help you create social media marketing strategies for each customer segment. Consequently, you can speak to the exact needs of your target audience and expect better lead conversion rates.
- Choose a personalized paid advertising model: There are platforms like Facebook that allow paid advertisements targeted towards specific customers. Simply provide an extensive target audience checklist as per your research. The social media platform can display personalized ads on their feed to promote your goods and services.
#6 Always be mindful of the latest changes in Social Media mechanisms
Social media is an ever-changing landscape. Its algorithms go through revamps all the time. If you are not updated about the minutest changes at every moment, your social media marketing strategy can become defunct. So, it is important to be informed about the most recent tricks and trends:
- Keep track of the latest industry updates: Subscribing to blogs and reviews of the relevant social media channels can be helpful. You can keep track of the most recent alterations to the algorithms. You can modify your strategies accordingly at the earliest.
- Always be pro-active: There is no better time than now. You do not have to wait for the new rollout to gain ground to implement your strategies. Always be on your toes. For example, very few learned to utilize the Instagram Reels as soon as it was launched. They had a significant advantage who joined the party later when the feature was in full swing.
#7 Always take a quid pro quo approach
If your customers trust you with their loyalty, you must keep providing them with reasons to do so. The principle of reciprocity is extremely important in social media marketing. Simply promoting your brand and taking a high-handed approach will not go down well with your customers.
So, you must focus on value addition. Helping out people and adding value to their lives is what earns the trust of your customers. So, a problem-solving approach to make the lives of your customers easier is a must. Better content and a concerned attitude will make your customers feel valued.
Summing it up
Today, more than 50% of the global population is present on various social media platforms. Since social media marketing is an extremely competitive area, simply being a brand in a sea of similar businesses is not going to be enough for you. There is no alternative to upping the ante of your social media marketing schemes. Using the strategies mentioned above can significantly improve your social media marketing initiatives and help you garner long-term benefits.
Author Bio
Navdeep Singh is an SEO Analyst, Blogger, and Growth Hacker from India, who has been working at Internet Marketing School for Five years now. He is an expert in Digital Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Facebook Ads, and Blogging.
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