Social media marketing is now an essential component of any business’s marketing plan. Anyone with a product or service that needs promotion can turn to Social Media Marketing to present it, share it, get feedback, engage with consumers, and ultimately sell.
Ask any business owner what their best quality leads are and they will probably say ‘referrals’. References are generated from a person who shares their experience with another person within their SOCIAL circle.
And this is the power of Social Media Marketing. By locating yourself or your business in a social space, you increase your chances of receiving more business due to someone finding, searching, reading or recommending you directly.
But, like any marketing platform, there are always certain principles to adhere to and pitfalls to avoid. In this article, we focus on the 4 steps to success in Social Media Marketing …
Step 1: WHO?
Any well-planned marketing campaign must start with the question: who are we targeting? If you are an accountant and you promote yourself to teens, how successful will your campaign be? You have to know who you are most likely to want or even better; NEED your product or service.
Once you know who you are targeting, EVERYTHING in your marketing collateral, whether online or offline, should be in full alignment with this target market. This includes the fonts used, images, language style, colors, offers, and the general psychology behind your campaign.
If not, you will probably have little success with your social marketing campaign.
Step 2: HOW?
The next essential step to a successful social marketing campaign is determining how you will reach your target market.
Each of the top four social media websites lends itself to different marketing opportunities. Depending on the type of campaign you plan to start, it will determine which social website will be the most suitable.
The four most popular social websites are Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter. If you plan to use all four sites to market your product or service, it is essential to have a thorough understanding of each one to ensure that your campaign is successful.
Step 3: OFFER
Without an offer or incentive, a social marketing campaign falls into the category of ‘brand’. And how can the brand be measured? You can not.
A successful marketing campaign, whether online or offline, must be measurable. If you spend ‘x’ amount of time or money on a campaign, it should return measurable results in terms of dollars or leads created.
Your offer must include these elements if it is going to result in a sale or lead …
Only – Why would someone accept your offer if they can get the same offer or a similar offer elsewhere?
Scarce – We value the things that are scarce. Why is gold so valuable? Because there is not much of that.
Date of Expiry – Having an offer available throughout the year will not create motivation in your potential customer to “get it now before it’s too late.”
Relevant – your fonts, colors, images, design, etc. of your online marketing must be aligned with your target market.
Qualify – Not everyone who comes across your offer will be qualified. In addition to needing the money to pay for your product or service, they must also be motivated to take action today (or the time frame that suits your business model).
Step 4: STRATEGY
A successful social marketing campaign should have one or more strategies to ensure that the target market follows your sales process.
What does your marketing funnel look like for each strategy for each social media website? Will you have a strategy that simply piques the potential customer’s interest by getting them to visit your website? Will you have another strategy that goes well for the sale? What about an email marketing strategy that gives the customer time to build trust and motivation to buy your product or service? Will you have a follow-up telemarketing service to increase conversion rates for incoming leads?
These are all important questions to answer and implement solutions if you want to maximize the results of your social marketing campaign.
Many business owners believe that they simply need to ‘be’ on social media for it to magically happen to them. They believe that prospects will somehow walk through their virtual doors to grab their product or service. This is simply not realistic.
A social marketing campaign must be integrated with one or more traditional sales and marketing techniques if you want to maximize your results.
Now that you know the four steps to a successful social marketing campaign, use this article as a checklist before, during, and after implementing your campaign to determine what went well and what could be improved with your next campaign.
