Social Media Marketing is now an essential component of any company’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 who their top quality leads are and they’ll probably tell you ‘referrals’. Referrals are generated from a person sharing their experience with another person within their SOCIAL circle.
And this is the power of Social Media Marketing. By putting yourself or your business in a social space, you increase your chances of receiving more business due to finding someone, searching for you, reading about you, or being directly referred to you.
But like any marketing platform, there are always certain principles to adhere to and pitfalls to avoid. In this article we are focusing on the 4 steps to success in Social Media Marketing…
Step 1: WHO?
Any well-planned marketing campaign must begin with the question, who are we targeting? If you are an accountant and you are marketing to teens, how successful will your campaign be? You have to know who is likely to want or even better; NEED your product or service.
Once you determine who you’re targeting, EVERYTHING in your marketing material, whether online or offline, needs to be fully aligned with this target market. This includes the fonts used, images, language style, colors, bids, and the general psychology behind your campaign.
If not, you are likely to 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 four major social networking websites lends itself to different marketing opportunities. Depending on the type of campaign you plan to start 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, having a thorough understanding of each is essential to ensure your campaign is successful.
Step 3: OFFER
Without an offer or incentive, a social marketing campaign falls under the ‘brand’ category. And how can you measure the brand? 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 yield measurable results in terms of dollars or leads created.
Your offer should include these elements if it is going to generate a sale or lead…
Unique – Why would someone accept your offer if they can get the same or similar offer elsewhere?
Scarce – We value things that are scarce. Why is gold so valuable? Because there isn’t much of it.
Date of Expiry – having an offer available year-round will not create the motivation in your prospect to ‘get it now before it’s too late’.
Important – fonts, colors, images, layout, 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 whatever time frame best suits your business model).
Step 4: STRATEGY
A successful social marketing campaign must have one or more strategies in place 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 engages the prospect by getting them to visit your website? Do you have another strategy that works 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 of 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 for them. They believe that prospects will somehow flow through their virtual doors to get 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 in your next campaign.
