Social media is a vital part of any small business’ sales and marketing strategy. But not everyone knows how to use it to get results. Even more so, posting on social media and engaging with people is time consuming, especially when you’ve got a business to run.
As a small business owner, you’re constantly looking for new ways to get your brand on the radar of potential customers and social media is a great way to engage with current customers as well as attract new ones. However, the effectiveness of your social media isn't as simple as posting a few sales messages - it really all boils down to offering valuable content and engaging with your audience. Ultimately, if a business doesn't do either of these things, chances are it won’t have any success with social media marketing.
Here are 8 reasons why you should be using social media to promote your small business:
Reason #1: Communicate with your customers
Social media is a great way to strengthen communication with your customers and/or potential customers for a minimal cost. You can use the platform to learn more about them and they can get a greater understanding of you and your business and discover things they may not previously have been aware of.
Social media channels are some of the first places people will turn to when they have a question or an issue. They provide an easy-to-use way of getting in touch and allows them to tell you what they like and don't like about your business and you can respond. However, this is where it's imperative to engage with your audience so you can nip any issues in the bud early on and visibly demonstrate that you're a professional business who reacts appropriately and in a timely fashion. Responsive - and visible - customer service can be an incredibly effective way of building that trust and nurturing a social prospect into a customer - or a repeat customer.
“According to Zendesk, 69% of customers believe that a fast resolution of their problem is vital to good service.”
Reason #2: Engage with new customers
Social media can be an incredible channel to engage with new customers. It can provide valuable exposure for your business at a lower cost than many traditional customer acquisition methods.
It can drive traffic to your website, including potential customers who may not otherwise have found your business online. It can also result in valuable word-of-mouth recommendations for your business.
Reason #3: Showcase your expertise to current and potential customers
You need to demonstrate that you’re the go-to business in your field. Social media allows businesses to become thought leaders in their industry and stand out from their competitors. Establishing yourself as an industry leader can lead to you being the go-to source for information on topics related to your niche.
This is done by posting engaging and relevant content such as blog posts and case studies, sharing relevant news articles and answering questions in relevant industry groups .
Reason #4: Drive SEO & online ranking
Social SEO is the practice of combining social media and SEO strategies to improve your position in search, your website traffic, and hopefully your conversions.
Social media helps your content get discovered by more people, especially when it’s not on top of page one of search results. Some of the major ways social media impacts SEO are content promotion, brand awareness, trust and credibility, link-building and local SEO:
Content promotion - promoting your content on social media can help more people discover it and ultimately, your business.
Brand awareness - building your online presence so that when your name appears in the search results it’s familiar to people.
Trust and credibility – social media can legitimise your business and provide authority when people are searching for businesses like yours.
Link-building – the more places your content can be discovered, the more chance that it will earn SEO-friendly inbound links (backlinks) when cited on other websites.
Local SEO — increasing your local presence and ranking through business profile data and customer reviews.
Reason #5: Create a strong online presence
Visibility comes with having a strong online social presence. However, social media presence goes beyond just having a business profile churning out content and sales messages - it means creating content tailored to the interests and needs of your target audience.
Doing this builds trust, and once you have that, you're one step closer to earning your audience's business.
Engaging with your audience is also vital as it helps them to connect with your business on a deeper level. It's also beneficial for you as you can gain valuable insights into their likes, dislikes, concerns and more - this then gives you the opportunity to put this knowledge to work when creating targeted marketing campaigns and even new products/services.
You also need to stay active and be consistent. Out of sight often means out of mind. A lack of posts can often give people the impression that your business is no longer operating. This is where a strong social media plan can help - planning out your content at least a few weeks ahead of time can be the difference in success and failure.
Reason #6: Social media is budget friendly
Social media is a much cheaper marketing channel than traditional marketing channels such as print or online advertising. It costs nothing to set up social media accounts so a business with a limited marketing budget is still able to utilise social media and gain some marketing benefits. Small businesses with a budget for social media advertising can utilise the platforms even further by allocating budget towards paid posts.
Reason #7: Create a personalised experience
Personalised marketing means using data to deliver more relevant messages to your target audience. In other words, you collect data on your audience’s interests, demographics, and behavior to create more relevant and valuable content. Make sense?
Personalised content makes people feel that they have some control over what they see on their social media. Personalised content also tends to garner more attention than generic content.
The potential benefits of using personalisation techniques in your social media marketing are:
Increase brand awareness
Gather more leads
Convert more users into customers
Boost engagement with customers
Increase shares
Improve relevance scores and ad costs
Boost brand loyalty
You can create a personalised social media experience via:
Ad retargeting campaigns
Personalised video campaigns
Social media quizzes & polls
Content personalised for local audiences
One-on-one engagement
Social media chatbots
Real life campaigns based on data gathered via social media
Reason #8: Support your wider marketing activities
Social media is not only a strong marketing channel on its own, it also supports other marketing activities and will help your business achieve broader results. Some of the wider marketing activities it can support are:
PR
Customer Service
Website content promotion i.e. blog posts, case studies
PPC
Events
Feeling overwhelmed? We can help!
You can't be an expert at everything! If you're a small or medium-sized business owner who is feeling overwhelmed, unsure of where to start, or just don't have the time when it comes to social media or marketing in general, don’t worry. Hiring an experienced marketing consultant can take the pressure off and help your business grow in ways you never thought possible. JB Marketing has over 12 years experience at helping businesses large and small with their marketing needs and we have the necessary expertise to help your business succeed.
About us
JB Marketing is a full service marketing consultancy based in Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire. With 12 years marketing experience, you can rely on us to provide innovative and intelligent marketing communications that are tailored to your audience and deliver real business benefits.
JB Marketing works with clients in a range of industries across a variety of marketing channels including social media, email marketing, event management, design & print, digital advertising, paid search, offline promo, copywriting and much more.
Some clients use us as an extension of their team, where as for others we’re trusted marketing advisors. However you choose to work with us, we always act as if we’re a part of your business.
Simply get in touch to find out more. We'll take care of everything for you, so you can focus on running your business.
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