Regardless of the type of business you have, social media is a great way to expand the reach of your message, and attract new business.
Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Foursquare, all have the potential to fast-track your marketing efforts, and help your business grow.
However, many businesses often seem to miss the mark, and fail to realize social media marketing goals.
So how can you improve your social media marketing campaign, and ensure that the results are in line with expectations? Let’s find out.
If you want to improve your social media marketing campaign then you need to:
1. Be Consistent
You must have a plan, and follow it.
If your social media marketing campaign is to produce the positive results you desire, then you have to be consistent, and work at it.
Very often the best campaigns lose momentum because of failure to apply the required time and effort needed to sustain it.
You can improve your campaign by regularly devoting a specific amount of time to social media each day.
You have to keep in touch with your audience, and respond to them in a timely manner.
2. Be Interactive
Communicate with your audience, and let them ‘see’ you regularly.
The success of your social media marketing campaign will also be dependent on the ability to engage and interact with customers.
Don’t be afraid to let your customers see the real you, as they will respond positively when you communicate with them in a genuine, friendly manner. In other words, your business must have a ‘human face.’
Customers will appreciate your honesty, and this will help build your social media presence, and improve brand awareness.
Social media is built on interaction, and as you effectively network on the various social media platforms, you will see a marked increase in social media activity, and will reap rewards from your marketing campaign.
3. Be Current
Stay on the edge of new technology and modern trends that affect your business, and tell your customers about it.
Build their trust and spark their interest. As challenging as it may be, it is important to keep content relevant, interesting, interactive, and up-to-date.
Having content that is appropriate and informative, is important in helping consumers make intelligent choices.
In addition, content must be applicable to your target audience, and also create value for them.
When you are able to do this, your social media marketing campaign will improve, as your audience will enjoy a good experience.
It will make them loyal to your brand, and as a result, they will share their good experience with others.
When properly leveraged; social media can be a big boon for business. It is real- time, fast, and effective.
But if your social media campaign has slowed somewhat, then why not give it a jump start by applying these simple tips that are great for increasing brand awareness, and improving your online presence.
Many small business owners start a blog as a marketing tool, but still underestimate the benefits it offers their company. Indeed, some owners only focus on their blog as a publicity tool and wonder why their business is not growing as much as they expected.
Let’s look at four of the most important, often unexpected benefits that a company blog provides.
1. Search Engine Optimization
The search engines love sites that update frequently with new content. Consequently, running a business blog with regular posts helps improve your site’s search engine rankings.
Given that it is easier to update a blog than it is to adjust a static website, you’re also getting better rankings in return for less effort.
Even better, if you allow a group of staff members to publish articles, rather than relying on a single person, you can generate fresh content much quicker.
2. Build Relationships
Used properly, blogging allows you to build a relationship with your readers, rather than just working as a glorified press release system.
The interactive nature of blogging encourages comments and feedback from visitors, which you can use to your advantage.
Don’t just post sales pitches!
Building relationships is a multi-step process, which starts with posting content that your readers will respond to, so that they visit often to take part in the debate. This encourages them to subscribe to your blog.
Once they’re subscribed, people are often more willing to provide extra personal information, give feedback, and be included on mailing lists.
This generates valuable information for your business providing insight into what your customers think about your company.
It can also generate new ideas for products and services. Basically, your blog can act as a free market research tool.
3. Build a Reputation
By providing quality content relevant to your field, you can build a reputation as an expert.
Over time, your customers and blog visitors will begin to consider you the go-to person for their issues. This gives your business an important benefit over the competition.
Reputation is an incredible competitive advantage, especially for small businesses that must stand against established companies in their industry.
A reputation as an authority generates word of mouth references – and every good businessman knows that word of mouth is the holy grail of advertising.
The price of reputation is twofold. First, you must make sure that your blog posts contain only useful information to demonstrate your knowledge, with a creative bent to attract readers. Second, it takes time to build a good reputation, so plan for the long haul.
4. In-depth reviews
Blogging can also be useful when it comes to providing in-depth reviews of your products and services.
This is very useful for educating customers about what you offer, explaining how to use your products and services, and offering tips and tricks. But you can also use your blog to respond to customer comments and complaints. Show them that you listen to their issues and take action to improve.
This is really an extension of the most common purpose of a business blog, which is as a marketing outlet.
Given that blogs also allow you to upload photos and videos, you can provide useful, interesting, responsive content at the same time as pre-selling your products and services. This can help dramatically improve conversion rates.
Blogging is more than just a way to announce company news, new products and special deals. It can also help position your site better on the search engines, build a community of loyal customers and even reach out to educate your visitors.
The important thing is to plan your blogging strategy as you do every other marketing option, and make sure that you only publish high-quality content that is useful to your target audience.
Good copywriting is all about using words to sell. That means creating clear, compelling content that captures attention. It’s the best way to keep visitors interested in your site once they get there.
Below are a few copywriting tips to help improve your marketing power:
1. Keep Content Current
If you want to come up with better content, there are tools like Google Alerts that can be a big help. Google alerts allows you to monitor the web for new, interesting content, as it sends you emails of the latest Google results. You can create as many alerts as you wish, just make sure that they relate to the topics in your niche market.
This makes writing a lot easier, as Google Alerts ensures that you receive a constant stream of news and information about relevant topics. Not only does it save you having to spend an enormous amount of time doing research, but it ensures that you never run out of things to write about.
2. Make Content Easy to Read
Write from the perspective of your reader, chances are when they get to your website they won’t have a lot of time to spare. As a result, they are going to quickly scan through to find out if there is anything that interests them.
You can make it easy for them to find that out, by having easy to read content. Remember that short sentences and simple words are easier to read.
3. Include Sound Bites
These will stay with the user long after they have left your blog or website. Sound bites should be appealing, simple, and tightly written. Come up with a one liner that inspires.
Sound bites should consist of only a few words. The key is to make them memorable, so that users will desire to return to the site for more ‘nuggets of wisdom.’
4. Write Engaging Content
When content is engaging, you are able to get a reaction out of users, encourage sharing, and get a ‘dialogue’ going. You can do this by posing questions, offering tips, using words packed with meaning, as well as being specific and including technical details when possible.
You can get motivation from well-known experts in the field, and of course do your own research with the help of tools like Google Alerts.
If you follow these simple tips, then your content will be appealing and engaging. This will ensure that you have a low ‘bounce rate.’
In internet terms, the ‘bounce rate’ represents the number of persons that visit the site and then ‘bounce,’ that is, they leave rather than stay on to view other pages on the site. If your site or blog has a low bounce rate then that will improve your SEO ranking.
The web has changed our lives, and doing business will never be the same. If you want your business to grow and increase, then you have to engage in internet marketing, and use creative, innovative ways to succeed online.
It’s almost impossible for businesses to survive these days without an online presence, and promoting and selling products/services via the internet is now commonplace. This article takes a look at internet marketing strategies that can make a difference to your success.
It’s Still About Marketing Principles
Marketing is all about communicating with present and prospective customers. Internet marketing uses online tools for this purpose. To get results, you need to have a plan that incorporates a timetable, as well as co-ordinated strategies that will extend your online reach.
It makes sense to do some research and find out the online marketing strategies that are likely to work for your type of business.
The bottom line is, you want persons to see your website, and when they visit, you want them to buy the products that you have for sale. Regardless of the specific strategies you choose, these basic techniques should be at the core of your e-marketing campaign, as they can make all the difference to success.
Your First Two Strategies:
Search Engine Optimization
To begin with, you must be visible online so that people can find you easily. If you cannot be found online then all the best laid internet marketing plans will come to nothing.
Visibility depends on search engine optimization. All that means is, your website must be so structured that it can be ‘seen’ by search engines. While there are a number of tools that can help you achieve this goal, it is best to consult with an SEO expert.
Building Communities
You can do this by utilizing social networking platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter to market your business. These tools are free and low-cost, and offer an alternative way to interact with customers, and attract new ones.
Chances are your customers are already on Facebook, so why not engage them there, and bring in new leads at the same time. You can set up a Facebook business page, and then send people there via your website, and other online marketing tools like YouTube videos.
Communities Build Brands
When you have an established network via Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, then you can expect an increase in brand awareness. You can also collaborate and share with users, in order to build a trusted base.
It is very easy for customers to use social media to share information with their friends about special promotions or events, and you won’t have to pay for this free advertising.
When you have an online presence, and have established communities with which you have regular dialogue, the next step is to convert them. You can do this, by ensuring that your website has the content that will make prospects desire to make purchases now, rather than later.
Let them know the value of what you are selling, and make sure that there is a mechanism online that will allow them to buy.
Credibility and trust will always make a business look better in the market place.
It can cause your influence to soar, and increase interest in your product/service.
Having testimonials from happy, satisfied customers can boost your web ratings, and contribute to business success.
There is nothing quite as appealing to potential customers, as testimonials from customers who are satisfied with your product/service.
How to get Testimonials that Work for You
Positive testimonials that paint a picture of a reliable, trustworthy company can attract new business.
However, it is important to ensure that these are real testimonials from real customers.
Be sure to make them authentic, by including the name and location of the customer, and if possible, a photo.
Testimonials can be Solicited or Unsolicited
Those that are unsolicited are usually the best. In these, the customer generally expresses how much they appreciate the value of your product or service.
Be sure to ask the customer’s permission before using the testimonial in a marketing campaign.
If you have to solicit testimonials then be tactful when doing so.
Marketing experts recommend that you simply ask customers for comments on your product/service, and don’t give them too many guidelines.
You want them to feel comfortable enough to be real and honest.
