Social media appeared rapidly and aggressively and very soon became the buzzword in marketing, the “next big thing” that your brand just had to be on board with, even though the guys at the top didn’t really understand why. Some might still brush it off as a flash in the pan fad, an unprofitable and unnecessary distraction. However, with blogs like Hubspot confirming that 92% of businesses think social media marketing is essential to their overall business strategy and 97% of all marketers currently utilising at least one social media platform in all of their communications, it looks set to be around for some time to come. Interestingly though, there’s still a heap of confusion about which are the best social media tools to physically use and therein lies the potential for exponential growth.
If the lack of understanding for social media marketing, combined with the voracious appetite to be a part of it can be successfully combined, that right there is a recipe for business success.
So let’s delve in and uncover why you need to have a strong social media strategy.
1. Increases brand recognition
It’s all about pushing out your content and the more opportunities your brand, product, or service has to do that, the more valuable visibility and recognition you will obtain. Syndicating out your own content onto your social media platforms provides an opportunity to engage with new audiences who will, in turn, become potential customers. Someone who might not otherwise have ever been exposed to your brand might stumble across you via a Twitter newsfeed for example.
2. Improves brand loyalty & enriches the customer experience
It’s a fact of today’s digital and social world that those brands who actively engage through social media channels enjoy much higher loyalty from their customers. Can your business really afford not to have a social media marketing strategy? Social media is a highly responsive means of communication just like an e-mail, or a phone call is but so much easier to coordinate and execute. You can actively use your social media channels to enrich your relationship with your customers, pro-actively answering any queries, responding to complaints, thanking them for their loyalty and introducing them to new products and services.
3. More opportunities to covert + higher conversion rates
Each and every single post that you create is another chance to convert a customer. Whether that’s a photo a video or a blog post, they all provide an opportunity for interaction, both positive and negative of course! When opportunity comes a knocking, you answer that door and nothing gets people to your virtual doorstep faster than social media posts. They effectively humanise interactions between your faceless brand and the audience, creating personality, improving trust and credibility and delivering social proof.
4. Increase inbound traffic
Think about what you had to do and how much money you had to spend before the advent of social media to try and buy traffic? If you don’t have a strong social media presence, you are limited to traffic from people already familiar with your brand. The more social media profiles you have, the more opportunity there is to lead new people back to your website. Each channel and piece of content represents a new visitor and a potential new customer. Obviously, the more quality content you create, the higher the collateral of traffic you will receive and the more likely it is to convert.
5. See your SEO ranking skyrocket
Ah yes, those three little words….SEO. It’s a minefield out there and the rules of engagement are constantly changing. Having a blog is, of course, a critical part of the mix. Ensuring your titles are all optimised, your meta descriptions are correct and your links all point back to the right place to convert those sales. Social media though increasingly has a part to play with Google and other search engine platforms actively calculating rankings based on your social media presence. If you have a set of keywords, you need to be utilising these throughout all your social media channels to increase the credibility and legitimacy of your brand, all of which Google and the like love.
6. Reduce marketing costs
Now we’ve got your attention right! Hubspot concluded that 84% of marketers found that with only six hours concentrated effort per week on their social media channels, the returns were significant. That’s a small price to pay for increased engagement, conversions and loyalty don’t you think? Just one hour per day focused on developing your content really can pay dividends.
7. Get to know more about your customer
Through your social media channels, you can really glean a hell of a lot of vital information about your customers and their likes and dislikes simply by listening to what they have to say and monitoring which content they positively respond to. If you know they love something, serve them up more of the same.
If you’re not already convinced just remember this, your competition is probably already involved so don’t stand by idly waiting in the wings while they champion the high ground.The sooner you get involved with a social media marketing strategy, the sooner your business will start to reap those rewards.
So, get in touch with us today to find out how we can help catapult you to success.