The idea of social media marketing might seem intimidating at first. If you’re not a social media expert, it can be hard to know where to start. But don’t worry, The Lunn Agency are here to help! Let’s discuss why social media is so effective for marketing and how it can help your business.
Social Media Marketing: Access to a Targeted Audience
One of the biggest advantages of social media marketing is that it offers access to a targeted audience. An audience that will engage with your content and will only follow you if they love the brand, product or service.
With traditional advertising, you have to worry about reaching people who aren’t interested in your product or don’t have money to spend on it. Generally, a lot of budget is wasted in advertising until data has been collected and the audience has been narrowed down. But with social media, you can reach people who are already interested in what you’re offering and are likely to buy from you, without needing to spend a penny.
If you did want to spend a penny or two to grow sales or brand awareness then social media advertising could be for you! You can target specific demographics or interests when using social media advertising meaning you have a more tailored pool of potential buyers. This is so that only those desired groups see your ads, which is much more effective than blanket advertising where anyone can see an ad regardless of whether they’re interested or not.
This unique audience narrowing makes social media marketing more efficient in the short term than traditional forms of advertising. This only works if your desired audience use social media.
Social Media Marketing: Increased Exposure
Social media is a great way to get your content in front of people who are interested in what you have to say.
If someone follows your company on social media then they’ll likely see all of your branded status updates. When a follower logs into their account they’re seeing all of the content that you post so provided its high-quality content they are likely to engage with your business. This is, of course, free-of-charge exposure for your business.
Most social media platforms allow consumers to share branded posts to their own profiles. If you have a personal profile then share your brand with friends and family. Sharing your own content will hurdle the initial step of gaining followers for credibility. Another tip is using hashtags for increasing reach. Hashtags, often seen like this #example are used by social media users to find posts similar to their interests. You can typically use up to 30 hashtags on each post across most platforms so make sure you use them effectively.
E.g. if you sell clothing you may want to use #mensfashion or #WinterClothing etc.
Social Media Marketing: More Inbound Traffic
The internet is a big place. It’s estimated that 80% of the world’s population has access to it, and that number continues to grow. If you aren’t using social media to reach consumers who are looking for your product or service, then you are missing out on a lot of potential business.
Social media marketing can help you find new customers by reaching people who are interested in what your company has to offer. More importantly, due to social media marketing being free there is almost no reason to not try it. Active social media profiles may not have discovered your business yet and they might just need a little nudge in order to turn them into paying customers.
Social media also helps companies build their brand online by providing an interactive experience between the company and its followers/fans/customers. Customers knowing they can directly message a company without long phone waiting times is important. These interactions show other potential buyers how much care goes into each product or service offered by this company.
Social Media Marketing: Lower Costs, Increased Margins
Social media marketing is a great way to spend less money and achieve higher ROI than other forms of marketing. Paid advertising, for instance, can be expensive and you pay for every click or impression you get from your ads. Social media marketing costs you nothing at all unless you use an ad-like feature (such as promoted posts) that can cost money.
Press releases are another traditional form of marketing that’s often more expensive than social media campaigns. It involves hiring professionals who have experience in public relations and know how to manage press releases and pitch stories to journalists.
Social networking doesn’t have this kind of high price tag but can promote similar content if necessary and reach similar audiences. You are likely going to benefit by using the same tools that your ideal consumer uses every day: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
Social Media Marketing: Improved Search Ranking
As we have mentioned, posting on social media is likely to increase website traffic and therefore increase sales. What we haven’t mentioned is that it may improve SERP ranking. The ‘search engine results page’ is the holy grail to most businesses and conquering it is extremely difficult.
So how does it work? Well, whilst social media doesn’t directly increase or alter search engine rankings, there is masses of data out there to show that a strong social media presence correlates to where business rank on Google. Coincidence? Maybe, however, studies show that visits and engagement with website content is defined as a positive signal when improving search rankings. Therefore the more people visiting your site and engaging with your content through social media links, the better the ranking. The impact is indirect, but it’s there.
Additionally, backlinks also known as citations are extremely important for SEO. The more eyes you have on your content, the more chance you have of someone linking to it as a reference. Exposure is king, content is king, and social media marketing… is king.
Social Media can be an Effective Marketing Tool
Social media marketing is a way to reach a targeted audience. You can use social media platforms to connect with potential customers and build relationships with them.
Social media marketing is a good way to increase exposure and build your brand. When you use social media websites, you will have access to millions of people who are interested in what you have to offer. This means that you can get more customers by using this type of advertising strategy.
Social media marketing can be a good way to get more inbound traffic to your website. When someone clicks on one of the links on your page or follows one of the accounts that you manage they will see your offering and are classed as a ‘warm lead’.
Social media marketing can be an effective way for small businesses who lack resources for expensive advertising campaigns like Google Ads, TV or print advertisements.
Conclusion
Social media marketing can be an effective tool for businesses of all sizes. It’s easy, affordable and accessible to anyone with a smartphone or computer. This article covers the top five benefits of social media marketing in more detail and provides tips on how you can get started with your own campaign today. If you want more information or would like The Lunn Agency to take care of your social media then contact us today!
