Social marketing for small businesses
5 min read
One of the most important things that the success of a business is premised upon is the business’s ability to be seen by potential customers. Companies achieve this by advertising on television, but this is no longer enough as TV advertisement can be restrictive and expensive, especially for small businesses. The bigger enterprises can still cope with TV advertisement’s financial demands. However small businesses do not have that advantage with their limited budget. Small businesses have to be creative with how they seek exposure.
Small businesses do this by using social media to market themselves for exposure, but this is not as easy as it might seem. You can’t just create an account and get straight to it. There is an art to it which requires mastery and strategy. In this post, we will help you master this art, and you will be able to use social media to give you massive business exposure, which will make your business successful.
We understand that you might feel we are overhyping social media. So, before we go on to using social media, we would first give you the benefits of using social media for your business.
Benefits of Social Media for Your Social Media
Social media has come a long way and has so much influence on how people interact with each other. In 2020, over 3.6 billion people all over the world were on social media, and that’s about 49% of the world population. Now, the projection has risen even higher, with 54% of people now using social media. Putting your business on social media will allow you to use those numbers in your favour. The benefits of using social media are as follows;
- Allows you to Develop an Interactive Relationship with Your Customer
You can have this advantage over big business. Big businesses have more convincing to do when it comes to getting customers. As a small business, you can interact with your customers and make them see you as a person and not just your business alone. By communicating with your clients, you will be able to win their trust. Social media helps you bridge that communication gap with the various social media platforms and your business on social media. You will be able to benefit of social media’s interactive nature.
- Your Products can be Shared Easily by Your Customers.
Social media platforms come with a share feature. Your customers can help become your unpaid advertisers using the social media share feature to promote your products among their friends. This would help you find more customers.
- Low-Cost Advertisement
Social Media platforms have advertisement features that are cheaper than using television, but without using that, there are other ways you can advertise your product. Your customers sharing your creations with other users is one of them.
- It boosts exposure
- You would have more extensive and fiercely loyal customers.
The above comes from the relationship you have used social media to build with your customers. Customers feel connected to you and would prefer to conduct their business with you.
- Ease of Customer Feedbacks
Social media makes it easier for your business to be able to get much-needed feedback from your customers. That feedback can help create more customers and help you know the kind of products your customers would want you to have.
- Helps In Gathering Customer Data
Your communication with customers on social media can provide valuable insight into what tour customers want. You can also use social media as a launchpad for you to go into email marketing. You can do this by organising a competition which would require your customer to give your their emails. After getting their emails, you can boost your customer retention with email marketing.
How To Use Social Media Marketing For Small Business.
There is no fixed way you can use social media for your business, but we will give you tips that are guaranteed to help your business succeed through social media.
- Research and Have a Plan
It is very crucial for you to have a research plan. It encompasses a lot of things which include;
- Establishing your Business Goals – You creating an account should not be to amass likes. Your goal is to make profits by funnelling your social media audience to being your customers.
- Knowing your Competitors -You are not the only small business on social media. Your competitors are there too. Study their strategy of using social media and craft your unique way of usage, reflecting your business personality.
- Knowing Your Audience – It is crucial as it would determine the type of content you would drop. You can achieve this by researching the platform you want to join, and how they fare among different age groups. Knowing this would allow you to match these platforms to age groups and craft content to appeal to your audience.
- Having a Content Calendar – This would help you add structure to your content.
- The Trick to Customer Retention and Expansion.
You have researched, and you have gotten your customers. What remains is how to retain the customers and get more. You can achieve this by;
Customer Interaction. You can achieve customer interaction in a lot of ways. It can be done by
- Responding to customer comments.
- Reposting customer post.
- Responding when mentioned.
- Organizing competitions and announcing promos.
Your use of social media becomes more rewarding when you achieve customer interaction. Your customers would see themselves as your friend rather than a business.
- Using Influencers
Influencers can help you expand your customer base if they mention your business on their pages. That mention would be seen as an endorsement by their followers, and they would patronise your business.
- Watch out For Trends.
This can give you a direction of what people want. This can help you create content that will resonate with your customers and even attract prospective customers. However, be careful. Not all trends are worth your time.
- Your platform Should have Quality Content
During the research stage, we recommended having a calendar for your content for the sake of structure. Having a design should not impede on the quality of your content. Remember, it’s your content’s quality that would attract customers and not the amount of content you post.
- Track your Performance
You can use various analytical tools to achieve this. Tracking your performance would help you figure out where you are lacking and where you are doing well. Having this information would allow you to be able to improve. Remember, the faster your improvement, the broader your influence.
Author Bio
Emily Harrison is an influential editor working in a big company in London since 2006. Emila has also managed a team of essay writers and also served as an editor for one of the best essay writing service. When Emily isn’t working, she is reading a book, working up a sweat through exercising, or just relaxing to some soothing music.
Binary Blogger has spent 20 years in the Information Security space currently providing security solutions and evangelism to clients. From early web application programming, system administration, senior management to enterprise consulting I provide practical security analysis and solutions to help companies and individuals figure out HOW to be secure every day.
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