Did you know that 90% of all marketers say social media marketing has increased their business exposure? Or that 66% of marketers that spend at least 6 hours on social per week have seen more leads? No matter what you sell and who you sell it to, using social media as a marketing tool can help you grow your brand and pad your wallet.
Still, wondering if you should invest time and money in social media marketing? After all, why invest in Facebook advertising when you can invest in a powerful PPC campaign, right? The fact is, the right use of social media can greatly enhance your reach. But that is not all. It is now a necessity for any business, small and medium or national, to survive. It is a delicate SEO strategy for your business to be used. To help you get a better picture, here’s a look at ten key benefits of social media marketing:
- INCREASED TRAFFIC
There are over 2 billion people on Facebook. If people don’t go to Google to search for your business or website, they may turn to social media to do so. All those people on Facebook can and will find your business there, which has led to an increase in traffic. This does not happen immediately with your fingers, however. You should work on it by posting links to your blog, uploading promotional images or videos, and interacting with fans on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube. Whether your industry, segment and your audience, a large portion of your customers and your guidelines are social. A recent Pew Research Centre study found that 68% of American adults are Facebook users. Between the ages of 18 and 24, 78% use Instagram and 45% on Twitter. Even among Americans 65 and older, 37% are social users.
Reaching out to all those customers helps you increase traffic, especially for new site content. When you post a new blog or update your homepage, it may take a while to get the pull with Google. That means very few customers will know that new content exists until the next time they search for your product or service. Social media posts give the public the opportunity to discover your new web content and click on your site. And because those posts will be more visible to the followers and people who are interested in your product, that traffic tends to be heavily targeted. It will not just increase your traffic numbers – it will bring the type of visitors you want to attract
- INCREASE PRODUCT AWARENESS
People in your city may not even know that your business exists. One of the benefits of social media marketing is that it increases access to your business, ensuring that more people have access to it. This could be through Facebook side ads or accounts recommended to follow on Instagram. Also, remember that it only takes one portion of your post to reach hundreds or thousands of other people. Social media marketing ideas such as competitions can increase brand awareness even more because you are now asking people to share your content with as many people as possible. A strong social media marketing strategy will generate conversation about your brand, products, and partners. Take this example from PlayStation. A simple post saying congratulations to Naughty Dog (the company behind the new video game Uncharted 4) for its success generated feedback on the game. In doing so, they received a great amount of feedback about their product. They also got people talking. Fans were having genuine conversations, all facilitated by social media.
- BRANDING YOUR PRODUCT
Another important advantage of social media marketing is that it allows your company to step down and engage with people on a platform that they feel comfortable with. You make your product more personal, giving your audience a warm, easily accessible art that they can trust. Some customers will not buy your products until they check your company on Facebook.
They may pass by your store on the street every day but still, they will not go ahead with the transaction until they see your picture and postings of your business online. Using social media is a great way to share your brand’s mission and share stories. Effective stories can have a great impact on your brand’s image. They can be simple or extensive depending on what you think will be most effective.
- STRONG FOCUS ON USER-GENERATED CONTENT
Sometimes, you just have to do all the work. Let your fans on social media advertise your product. Focus on the content they create and use it to your advantage. This in-depth focus on user-generated content is an important advantage because you won’t find much of this elsewhere. By advertising on social media, you can take photos, videos, and updates from customers and use that to grow your product. Things like contests on Pinterest or prizes on YouTube encourage people to share your content and write links on your Facebook business page or on your official website.
- MORE INCOMING LINKS
As more people share your post, there are more incoming links available on your site. The best benefit is that sometimes the person in authority can be the one to share the links to your business. It could be a professional business critic or a popular blogger. These are authoritative people, with thousands of followers, and when they post links to your site, Google sees this as a well-known source. This not only enhances your business reputation, but also helps to improve SEO as well.
- OPPORTUNITY FOR BETTER MARKET UNDERSTANDING
Social media is thriving on engagement. The great advantage here is the fact that you can use the analytical metrics provided by Facebook, Instagram, and others to gain a better understanding of your customers. What kind of photo posts did they respond the most? At what point or day did you see the most involvement? Which posts have brought the most traffic and paid customers to your site and which ones have not? Write down the results and use insight to improve your marketing strategy further.
- BUILD INTEGRITY AND TRUST
Strong reputation and trust are counted among the trends and top SEO requirements of the year. After all, people often buy products from a company that they know is reliable and trustworthy. You can improve trust and confidence by using social media for business purposes. Social media helps to make your company personal. It provides a forum for customers to contact you and express their compliments or concerns. By using social media to communicate and respond to people in this way, you can gain their trust and credibility.
- HIGH CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
One of the great benefits of social media marketing is that it allows you to connect directly with your audience. Did someone post a negative review or inquire about the product? Take this time to respond directly. Many customers do not expect a direct response and will let you know when you respond because they let you know that you care about their opinions.
- REDUCED MARKETING COSTS
Social media marketing is free, but it can reduce your company’s total advertising costs. It would still be more expensive to grow a Facebook post and spend it on a few work-designed banners than to print posters and pay for billboards in the city. What are some of the free or inexpensive ways to market on social media? You can access influencers as a starting point. These are people on social media who have thousands of followers and are usually the authority on a particular issue. That’s right, (mostly) free.
It’s free to create social media profiles and post organic content. For some, that may be enough, and the quality of the content may promote the content on its own. However, if you’d like to go the extra mile and promote it further, paying for promotion will help increase exposure. You can promote your business on Facebook for any budget. Facebook also automatically directs your ad toward users that are interested in what you’re advertising. Twitter works the same way. You have to set up a campaign, and they’ll work with your budget. That means you’ll have a huge ROI and you’ll use your marketing budget in an effective way.
- EASY A / B TEST TO GET BIG RESULTS
A / B testing is when you introduce a different version of the same website to different people. But how can you apply this principle in your life? Instead of trying different websites, try the same post and track access and modification results for each post. Twitter has just started making it much easier to follow the tweet results. This will help you narrow down your most effective social media posts. Check out the Twitter analytics dashboard. Displays your top tweets and comments. It also shows your appearance, visits, tweets, and fan growth. This dashboard will show you if your current campaign is working well compared to another one.
- IMPROVE SALES
At the end of the day, all of the above marketing benefits point to one important benefit: increased salesSo, why is social media marketing important for your business? Because it will get you more sales. Period. Did you know that 70% of business-to-consumer marketers have acquired customers through Facebook? Or that 84% of CEOs and VPs say they use social media to help make purchasing decisions? Social media marketing enables you to search out customers looking for information related to your product — even if they aren’t familiar with your company.
For example, on Twitter, you can use Hootsuite to set up streams, following specific keywords related to your industry or products. When you spot people tweeting about those products, you can direct them to your site, or explain how your product can address their needs. This strategy can also be valuable for customers who tweet about your brand, but may not be familiar with a new product or use case. By reaching out to them with new information, you can not only influence a sales decision but also show customers how your brand is growing to better meet their needs.
Not surprisingly, when you stay in front of your customer base, they’re more likely to buy from you when they need the products you sell, but social media marketing does far more than increasing brand presence. You can influence customer buying decisions at multiple points along the sales funnel, from amplifying the reach of white papers and blogs targeting the top of the funnel, to answering customer questions and addressing pain points, to incentivizing buyers with coupon codes. We even think it’s crucial for real estate agents to get on social media — and stay active!
- YOUR COMPETITION IS ALREADY SOCIAL.
The crowded world of social media branding can feel very intimidating. Most brands have at least a token social media presence, and in some industries, multiple channels are the norm. For example, 91% of retail brands are using at least two social media platforms. So, what hope do you have of getting your brand noticed on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram They start a few social media channels because it’s cheap, and it’s what everyone else does. Without investing in social media strategy, however, they rarely make a big impact. They post irregularly, rarely engage with followers and don’t develop a sophisticated voice. Social media remains essentially just a way for them to throw ads at customers now and then. And when that strategy doesn’t yield results, they put even less effort into it.
The truth is, posting to social media because you think you’re supposed to post will get you nowhere. You’re better off with one really good social media channel than your competitor is with four semi-abandoned ones. If you take the time to develop your voice and strategy, post regularly and respond to messages and comments promptly, you can build a following your lazy competitors can’t possibly match — even if they’ve been on social for years longer than you have.? It’s a lot easier than you think, because most brands aren’t doing it right.
Post an impact on a free product or sponsor their next post on Facebook or YouTube. They will advertise your business and put a link to your site in their posts, ensuring that thousands of their followers can visit your website. And you can host competitions. If you use Facebook, for example, ask your fans to post a photo of themselves using your product and share it with three friends and use a unique hashtag. This not only emphasizes user-generated content but also serves as free advertising.
MARK AND CARE 