Joseph Payne, Negosentro | Sam wanted to start his new business of selling kids apparels and accessories online. He hired the best designers and built a fancy website. After investing a few thousands of dollars for developing his site, he expected good sales in the first few months, but he was disappointed to find that there were no visitors on his website.
He waited for another two months and was shocked to know that the website wasn’t generating any leads. He talked to a few marketing professionals and discovered that his business website needs internet marketing along with social media marketing to grow sales.
He did some research online and was glad to find a lot of companies offering such web promotion services. He hired a local agency for social media marketing and then sales shot up from the first month itself.
Gone are the days when SEO alone could help businesses grow. One cannot ignore the shiny new ball of social media these days. Marketers all over the world make use of social media strategy to achieve the business goals.
Identify your goals
This may sound obvious, but it’s surprising that most of the business owners make the mistake of spending a lot of money for social media marketing without considering their goals and objectives. Aligning your goals with social media is important for planning any effective social media campaign.
Your goal could be anything from creating brand awareness to engaging the audience. Start thinking about the overall realistic goals that you want to achieve and put the efforts in the right direction to grow your sales.
Fish the right ponds
Before initiating any social media activity, one should figure out where the potential customers are. Do your potential clients use Twitter? Are they on Facebook or Instagram? If not, why should you be? You do not need to stay active on all the social media platforms. For instance, your team may be creating the best content on Facebook, but what if you do not have your potential clients there.
Figure out where your target customers are by conducting research online. Notice the pattern and stay focused on those social networking sites where your potential leads are. You can hire a professional social media marketer to manage the profiles and reach out to your audience.
Develop a social media plan
How much time and efforts should I spend on social media marketing daily? This is one of the most common question asked by any business owner who wants to invest time and efforts for social networking to enhance sales and profits. Well, it depends on several factors such as business goals, platforms used, and industry.
There’s no point in spending 5-6 hours daily for social media activities. You can start small and try to grab some low-hanging fruits. Spending an hour or two for social media promotion can help most of the businesses initially. Try to evaluate your efforts by keeping an eye on the analytics to make changes in your plan.
Prioritize your tasks
Paid advertising. Posting content in groups and communities. Content creation. There’s a lot you can do over social media platforms. Hence, it’s important to prioritize your tasks in order to get the maximum benefits.
For example, if you want to get immediate results and sales from your social networks, you may be inclined towards paid advertising on such platforms, but it is important to understand how the platform works and create the best content before spending any money for it. One needs to dive deep into the system to know the potential of the network.
Determine your budget
Hiring a social media agency might sound like an excellent solution, but one needs to set aside a budget for advertising. Though social media advertising helps to generate a higher ROI, determine your budget for such activities.
Ask yourself whether you really need to outsource your campaign or can it be handled by you when given the right resources. If you have a small budget, but still need help with social media efforts, you can hire an expert to guide you through the process.
Choosing between freelancers and agencies
Agencies would have more flexible teams and so, they are capable of meeting challenges. On the other hand, hiring freelancers for your social networking efforts can be risky, but you will not have to spend a fortune for hiring individuals. If you have a large budget and need in-depth strategies along with ongoing expertise, it is advisable to choose social media marketing agency.
Keep an eye on your competitors
Keeping an eye on your competitors is not going to increase your sales directly, but you should be aware of what’s going on in the market. Know what your competitors are doing to thrive. Stay up on the social media and industry trends to see new opportunities to stay ahead.
Once you know their activities, you can plan an effective social media marketing strategy to beat the competition. You can also know what they are missing so that you get a window into how to stand out of the competition.
Wrap Up
Remember that there’s no set order to get the things when it comes to social media advertising. Focus on one or two platforms rather than touching multiple networks, and spend time and efforts to promote your brand. Understand the needs of your customers and try to make the greatest impact on social networks. Build and optimize content for the right digital platforms to skyrocket your business sales.
About Author:
Joseph Payne is the marketing manager at CouponsMonk.com, deals and discounts provider company. He is passionate about money savings, investment and finance industry. In addition, Joseph also supports non-profit agencies that provide healthcare solutions to handicapped and disabled people.
