5 Reasons Why Your Business NEEDS Social Media Marketing

Let’s start with some facts:

• 90% of marketers say social media has increased their social media exposure
• 76% of adults use Facebook daily – mostly to find interesting content
• 7 out of 10 Instagram hashtags are branded
• 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online after viewing a video.
• 90% of searchers haven’t made up their minds about a brand before starting their search

Source: hubspot.com

At this point, not having an active social media profile is like pulling out a flip phone at meetings and wondering why Brad keeps getting all the new accounts.

But some people still swear by their flip phones like it’s 2003 and ask why they need social media. Here are a few compelling reasons:

1.     Social Media Will Help You Build Your Brand

Did you know that brands with active social profiles have more loyal customers? Social media can help you build rapport with your fans, providing them with useful information and entertainment without asking for anything in return. This can have a tremendous impact in terms of brand awareness, as well as establishing you as a thought leader or authority figure in your industry.

Stay top of mind – authentic engagement will help you build connections with industry leaders and influencers, providing great stories for reporters, excellent products for promoters and interesting topics for experts to share with their followers.

2.     Growth

Social media is a deep well of web traffic. If you post engaging, high-quality content consistently, your account is bound to grow. This comes with serious Return On Investment: 66% of marketers who spend at least 6 hours online per week get more leads than those who don’t. If following SMM best practices, you’ll get a ton of exposure, which brings in new leads. Over time the leads become followers, followers become customers and customers become dedicated brand promoters, perpetuating the cycle.

Imagine the potential impact on your bottom line.

3.     Competitive Advantage

Your competition is already social. Most brands have taken the effort to at least create an online presence. 91% of retail brands are using at least two social platforms. So what hope do you have of getting your brand noticed on Instagram or Facebook?

It’s actually a lot easier than you may think, because most brands aren’t doing it right. Bigger brands may have highly developed social presences, but SMEs rarely do. They start a few pages because it’s free and everyone does it, but they post irregularly and rarely engage with followers. Social media for them is a channel to throw ads at customers now and then, and when that strategy doesn’t yield results, they put even less effort into it.

60% of small business owners are not able to track ROI from their social media activities

Without investing in a social media strategy, you are essentially relying on luck and will hardly make a big impact online. Plan out your posts, publish them regularly and respond to messages and comments promptly. Only by taking the time to develop a voice and strategy will you be able to build a following your lazy competitors can’t possibly match.

The social media arena is a fairly level playing ground. Anyone can start an account for free, and most SMEs can either dedicate the time to maintain a social media channel, or the budget to outsource social media marketing.

Big brands have some obvious advantages: name recognition, bigger ad budgets, etc., but SMEs have a leg over them – authenticity. You don’t have to beat your competitors to win at social, no. You just need to connect with your own market in a way that builds your brand. No matter who you are – an entrepreneur with an inspiring story, a local company with ties in your community, or a growing movement – if you have good team and a strong brand voice, backed by a solid product, then it should be smooth sailing for you.

4.     Advertising Benefits

Most social media networks come with ad platforms that offer detailed targeting: you can describe the ideal person you aim to reach by their language, geographical location, online behavior, spending habits, education level and other criteria. Facebook’s retargeting feature is also legendary for its ability to reach users who have shown interest in your brand before but haven’t gone through your entire sales funnel.

The system helps you spend your ad budget strategically, but advertising strategy goes beyond just placing the ads. You need to segment your customers then create content suited for them, review the data you obtain from your campaigns and optimize your ad campaigns for maximum benefit. Scaling up is easy from there. If you don’t understand all these facets then you might end up frustrated by your campaigns, which is why there’s so many people who still claim that Facebook ads are a scam despite all the success stories. I don’t recommend running social media ads unless you know what you’re doing though, as you might end up losing quite a bit of money in the process.

Have I mentioned that the ROI on social media ads is phenomenal? By boosting the right posts, you can bring in loads of traffic at a fraction of the cost of search engine advertising. For industries like law, insurance and PR Google may charge anywhere between $20-$32 per click. This is in huge contrast to social media advertising where one can reach over 6000 targeted people on Reddit for $5.

5.     Gaining Insights

Social media makes use of reporting and analytics to track the impact of social media activities and advertising efforts. Here social media marketing has a major advantage over traditional media advertising in that the marketers are able to prove their ROI: one can access advanced analytics that track the progression of customers along your sales funnel.

Moreover, you can leverage the other strengths of social media to monitor conversations relevant to your brand. You can gain an understanding of your audience by reading through their updates: what products do they buy and why? What are their hobbies? What kind of posts do they share most? What websites do they visit? Even without using the paid services, social media provides plenty of information about your customers. Try going through your Page analytics to learn about your followers.

A sophisticated social media presence is also keen to gauge social media sentiment regarding your brand and stay on top of industry news. It also doesn’t hurt to keep an eye on the competition, noting what works for them and the pain points of their customers. You can then provide a better solution than your competition.

Drive Revenue with Social Media

In the modern world, there is no marketing tool that plays a bigger role in influencing brand perception than social media. I mean, look at Nike in 2018. It is the perfect addition to your marketing efforts. Regularly interacting with thought leaders, taste-makers, journalists and your followers can increase your profile, improve your public image and boost your sales.

Are you ready to rocket ahead of your competitors and take the social media world by storm?

If so, kindly click here for a free social media consultation. I will conduct an assessment of your social media presence, detailing its strengths and weaknesses, as well as make recommendations that can help you make the greatest impact.