10 Benefits Of Social Media Marketing
Social Media is a powerful digital force for every business. With so many people finding new businesses on social media platforms and through digital advertising it is more and more imperative for every business to have a proper social media marketing strategy in place.
With social media being a very cost-effective digital marketing option, social media marketing is now more accessible to small businesses that previously could not afford it. With social media as a low-cost digital advertising platform, small businesses have been able to grow and thrive in a marketplace that was once dominated by big brands. As long as you choose the right strategy and the right social media platforms there is so much growth to be found.
In this article, we will discuss the 10 biggest benefits Social Media Marketing can offer your business.
Social media increases brand awareness
One of the biggest benefits of Social Media Marketing is its ability to help increase brand awareness.
It has been proven time and time again how social media can increase brand awareness in a very effective way. Social Media extends the reach of advertising campaigns and connects you to the audience like never before.
As a local brand, no matter the industry, social media marketing when done right can help to get you in front of your local target audience. This can be done both organically and by using digital advertising.
Often people need to see a brand a few times before they really take the plunge to learn more. This is where the power of social media marketing can be harnessed. By posting often on the right social media marketing channels people will see you more and more. Maybe someone isn’t in need of your goods and services right now, but by increasing brand awareness you increase the likelihood that when they, or a family member or friend, is in need of what you offer you may be the first provider they go to.
Here’s a little story to illustrate. I have gotten many leads through my social media accounts. But a few years ago I was very active on Twitter. A received an email from a local business that was interested in my services. When I asked how they heard about me they said it was through my Twitter account. They didn’t even shop around or call other marketing companies as through my Twitter account they say my expertise and just wanted to hire me. I worked with that client for a number of years until they sold the business. My LTV on that client was around $20,000. Pretty good for just sharing some great insights on Twitter.
Brand Awareness works. And when you combine organic with paid the sky is the limit.
Social media marketing increases engagement & authority
That brings me to engagement and authority. When we post often and post really great content it gets good engagement. The more engagement the higher your organic reach grows. Yea, it takes time, but the long-term potential is amazing. The more likes, shares, retweets, and views we get the higher our likelihood of showing up more frequently, which leads to more likes, shares, and views. The longer we can roll this snowball down the hill the larger it gets.
Different social media platforms are better suited for certain industries, this is best figured out by analyzing the demographics of each and looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the specific platform. Understanding how to leverage this into authority hacking can really do wonders for your business growth.
Social Media is also a great way to share your expertise and prove your authority. Authority builds trust and helps to differentiate you from your competition and helps you establish a competitive advantage.
Brand extension power using social media marketing
Every single avenue of your brand allows for a different aspect of your brand personality to come through. This is the power of brand extensions. For example, let’s say you’re an interior designer. You can utilize Instagram to show before and after shots, You can use Youtube to show the experience and the process, you can use Twitter to share home decorating tips, and Pinterest to showcase your high-end work to the wealthy, mostly female demographic.
When bringing together the inherent strengths of each platform and developing a strategy to expand your brand’s story into each one you can realize huge growth.
Social listening to learn more about your market
There’s a concept called social listening. This is where you use social media to better understand your target market. You may think you know your market well, but there is always more to learn. By using social media to watch how your target demographic engages with other pages, what kind of other pages they frequent, and the kinds of comments they leave we can learn a ton about our market. This data can be used to create better messaging and content to appeal to them in a deeper way.
The more we understand our target market the better we can craft our messaging to convert them into customers. Social listening is a great and affordable way to do this.
Leveraging social media advertising
Advertising can be hit or miss. There is no shortage of ways to advertise digitally. Social media is a killer option for a lot of niches. It is such a powerful force to grow a smaller brand. Many brands are too small to really compete with the big dogs when it comes to organic search, and sometimes even Google Adwords. But with social advertising, as long as your strategy, visuals, copy and offer are sound you can get in front of possible customers that may have never known you existed otherwise. I can’t tell you how many brands I found and fell for because of social media advertising. And I’m too embarrassed to tell you how much money I’ve personally spent from Facebook and Instagram ads I’ve seen.
It’s important to have a social media presence in place before launching digital advertising. Nothing kills trust like a potential customer clicking to your actual social profile and seeing a page with barely any content and followers. The takeaway is that social ads work and are a great lower-cost option as you build up your organic SEO presence and organic following.
Customer service via social media
Social Media can be a great venue to expand your customer service strategy. Many of us reach out to brands on Facebook or Instagram to ask questions, make suggestions, complain. With a well-managed system in place, a business can offer faster and more casual customer service. And when that customer service is completely aligned with the brand tone and vibe it serves to reinforce the positioning you have in place. The key here is to be prompt. No one wants to wait days for a reply when they message a business on social media. But they also expect a more casual response than they would get calling or emailing support.
Social media is a killer way to expand your customer service contact points and drive trust by being responsive and friendly.
Social media increases website traffic
Social Media drives traffic to your website. And the traffic it drives is high quality. And the more traffic that goes to your site the better it will rank, so it’s a win-win. When you publish a new article, sharing it on Facebook and Twitter can bring some readers. As long as you have a strategy in place to create bait content that brings traffic to your site from posts it will generate traffic. And once you have them on your site it’s that much easier to convert them into a customer.
More traffic = more revenue
Drive conversions with social media marketing
This brings us to driving conversions. Driving conversions is the #1 goal of any business. Conversions are what drives revenue. And social media marketing and digital advertising is a great way to drive conversions. It’s not as simple as “if you post it they will come (and buy) but with a solid strategy in place, you can really bait them into taking a deeper look. Social Media is also a powerful way to promote deals, sales, and new products or services. If own a car detailing company doing a special deal for a week, social is the place to promote it to your local audience. If you are a national brand that just launched a new product social will drive traffic and social media traffic tends to convert really well.
Social media marketing is excellent at driving conversions and revenue.
Social proof
Social proof is a huge trust builder. I don’t care what industry you’re in trust or lack thereof is the biggest hindrance to conversions. There are so many scams, poorly run companies, and shoddy products all over. It’s a big leap of faith the buy from a new company or provider you’ve never heard of. Social proof can help lower the resistance and increase conversions.
Social proof is especially powerful when running digital ads or promoting a product/service organically. Think about how many times you may have come across a product and were interested but still a little on the fence. You read the social media comments and see other people raving about it. Often that little bit of social proof is enough to make you take the plunge and give the company a try.
Social media marketing is one of the best ways to create social proof. Social proof builds trust, and trust improves conversions.
Keep your brand in your customer’s lives using social media marketing
We live in such a fast-paced world. So fast that even loyal customers may forget we exist for periods of time. Social media is a great way to stay engaged in the lives of our customers. They see our posts, get more entrenched into our brand story, can become aware of sales or new offerings in a way that is on their terms and not overtly sale-sy. Maybe they come across you at the perfect time when they are thinking about what to buy their best friend for their wedding or birthday.
There are myriad situations that being in their daily lives can lead to more conversions for your business.
As you can see there are a ton of great benefits of using social media marketing for practically any business. There are platforms that are best suited for nearly every demographic and product. B2B, LinkedIn’s the way to go. Selling to Millennials, Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit might be the winners. Choosing the right platform and approach is what will make or break your social media marketing strategy. Contact us to schedule your free 20-minute consultation with our founder Gabriel and learn how social media can help your brand flourish.
