The ability of social media marketing to grow brands is undeniable, increasing further during the pandemic. Most people started working from home, thus, increasing their dependence on social media to stay connected despite social distancing protocols.
In fact, 93 percent of marketers worldwide utilize social media for business, mostly for organizations with over 100 employees. However, social media marketing also levels the playing field for startups and small businesses to jumpstart their brand awareness.
As such, you need to strengthen your brand’s social media strategies to stay connected and relevant to your audience, both on the web and on social media platforms.
Here’s a four-step guide to help you build a social media marketing strategy fit for the times:
1. Define Your Target Audience
If you are a brick-and-mortar store, it’s easy to pick your target audience. Unfortunately, your target audience in social media may not be as transparent.
For example, selling men’s clothes on your website means you need to target not just the men but the women (wives, girlfriends, mothers, and the like) as they are more active and responsive on social media. The latter will be the ones that can directly influence your target market to buy your products.
Knowing your target market’s most current or urgent needs is also essential, so you can provide solutions they need today.
To illustrate further, pre-pandemic promotions may not be particular with safety protocols in delivering client experiences, whereas today, you’ll need to integrate health and public safety in how your target market consumes your product or service.
2. Identify and List Down Your Goals Based on Priority Level
Every business must be clear in identifying the goals of their business and the why that pushes product or service development.
For instance, if your goal is to increase your sales, you need to incorporate social media tools and features that boost sales most efficiently, like targeted ads, video content, user-generated content (UGC), and more.
Consequently, if your main goal at this moment is to gain traction and momentum for your business, brand awareness should be prioritized in your campaigns.
Furthermore, you need to ask your customers what they want in the products you sell and how you can help them get what they want.
Social listening allows you to produce campaigns and products that respond to a present need or query. It also allows you to gain valuable insights through feedback and UGC as to how your audience is receiving what you offer. Once you get these facts, you can adjust campaigns accordingly to derive the goals sent by the company.
3. Decide Which Social Media Platforms and Influencers to Target
The high number of social media platforms and influencers is the most daunting part of social media marketing. The good news is you can use social media management tools to help you identify the influencers in your vertical and save them in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
You can engage them to help spread the word about your products and services. The tools also help identify social media platforms used by your target audience for effective targeting.
4. Plan Your Social Media Marketing Strategy around Trends
The most effective social media marketing strategies are those that can quickly adapt to the latest marketing and consumer trends. Just remember, a social media marketing strategy is only as good as the people using it.
So hire social media marketers who can effectively strategize social media campaigns that help you achieve your marketing goals. This way, you have measurable actions that can pinpoint if your campaign is successful or not.
Conclusion
While social media marketing may seem the most effective way to promote your business and grow your brand, it’s not the only tool you can use.
Your whole marketing plan needs to involve multi-channels of marketing to be truly successful. When your social media marketing is aligned to the other levels of marketing you use, you’ll find that your campaigns will be more impactful, generating more revenues.
C/C/G is a fantastic creative agency in California that provides full-service digital marketing solutions to our numerous clients. Our team is committed to creating smart and innovative solutions that link our clients with their customers. Contact us right now!