In the last decade, it’s no surprise that Social Media has become more than just a media that is social. Along with its social tributes now comes an entire world that has been opened for marketers to explore and create for their consumers. In 2019, to no surprise, people are said to spend more time online than they are watching television, according to a data measurement company known as Zenith.
Considering your consumers will be spending the majority of their time online, it’s crucial now more than ever to ensure your company is doing the same.
While setting up your social media should certainly be a priority, your content marketing is just as important. In order to create an effective marketing strategy, you must allow your social media to generate awareness and grab the attention of your consumers, then driving them straight to the source of your content.
Below we will look at how social media makes your content marketing relevant:
Brand Awareness and Brand Loyalty
When it comes to branding whether it be purchasing via brick and mortar or online, one thing has stood the test of time with consumers, their loyalty. As a company, once you’ve managed to capture the trust of a consumer, it’s hard for other companies to sway that consumer’s opinion. In any case, most of this stems from the fact that the consumer no longer feels the need to search for another product, but also could mean they are potentially not even aware another one or even better one exists. This is where social media has changed the game.
Brand awareness is a key element when it comes to social media marketing. Of course, it starts with having a great product or service that you believe in, but pushing that product/service to the correct target audience will allow new potential fans to then become new potential customers. With the correct social media strategy, you are able to grab the attention of an audience who otherwise never knew your company existed.
Driving to Blogs and SEO
Here’s where your content marketing comes into play. As mentioned earlier, your content marketing will play a huge role in your social media marketing strategy, and visa-vers. Although social media acts as its own search engine and also provides an immense amount of information about your company and its offerings, there is yet another layer to peel back. Here is where your blogs and other landing pages from your website start to shine. Once your consumers have clicked through to your website, you know they are interested. Now that the consumer is interested, it’s time to get them invested.
This is the opportunity to feed consumers information and/or get them ready for purchasing. Social media has done its part in leading them and gaining their interest, now it’s up to the thorough content on your website to seal the deal.
Depending on what type of offer, your consumer could potentially purchase directly from Facebook. This is also an option on platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest. This means sharing your blogs and other website events are becoming more and more important.
Affordable Growth
One of the most beautiful things about social media marketing is arguably its affordability. Not only does it allow companies who before weren’t able to budget any type of marketing, but the “pay-to-play” attitude on social media is fairly inexpensive even for those who can.
In a cross channel media cost comparison, conducted by Dr. Augustine Fou, Independent Ad Fraud Researcher, you will see digital marketing continues to reach thousands of viewers/followers, just as the traditional media does. However, it’s doing so with a budget that is almost millions of dollars than the rest. Social media is cheaper than any other form of advertising, yet capable of reaching the same amount of people, better yet, the right type of people.
This brings us to our next point:
Target Markets
These last two go hand-in-hand when it comes to social media importance. If the insight above on advertising affordability wasn’t enough, how about those same lower cost on top of being able to directly target who will get to see it. Double-whammy right? You as the marketer are able to specifically target the exact audience and type of consumer that your research has shown will best correlate with your product or service.
What does this mean for you? Your return on investment (ROI) will potentially be more accurate than any other advertising platform you’ve been paying to reach. Not only will you be able to target your exact audience, but when you’re ready for your results, the breakdown of each will be more accurate and telling than other forms of advertising.
Each year we will continue to watch as Facebook and other social media platforms dominate and grow within themselves. Is your business ready to be a part of this rapid growth?