While every company strives to develop quality products and services, nobody will buy them if they don’t know they are there. Digital and social media marketing have risen to the forefront of marketing, and every company should take advantage of this.
What are a few of the ways that businesses can create an effective social media marketing strategy?
1. Define Goals, Strategy, Objectives, and Tactics
The first step in creating a cohesive social media strategy is writing an executive strategy that defines the business’s current goals, objectives, and how this social media strategy will achieve them.
A common mistake that many marketers fall into is mixing between goals, strategy, objectives, and tasks. Hence, there are clear definitions of them with examples.
- Goals: Broad social media outcomes.
- Strategy: The approach you will take to accomplish goals.
- Objectives: Measurable steps you will take to achieve the strategy.
- Tactics: The tools or tasks used in processing an objective related to a strategy.
For instance:
- Goal: Make our website the #1 news and media category in MENA.
- Strategy: Increase the amount of content we publish on social channels supporting the website’s topics, ideas, and opinions.
- Objective: Increase unique visitors from social channels to the website by 40 percent.
- Tactic: Through the use of pillar articles, leverage the exposure using Instagram Stories, Facebook videos, and Twitter.
2. Analyze Competitors
Know your competitors. Take a look at the social media campaigns of the competition. Find out what makes them successful and build off of them. Analyze the comments, the replies, and the graphics.
3. Use Objective Measurements
Take the goals from above and the social media strategies from other businesses and create clear, objective benchmarks. Use these measurements to help quantify the progress, like increase the number of social media followers by 10 percent.
4. Define User Persona
Next, decide who the target audience is going to be. Who is the customer that is going to purchase this product or service? This will help the company tailor the social media content to the buyer.
5. The Brand Perception
After defining the buyer persona, take a minute to define the brand. How should the company be perceived? How should the product be perceived? Is it fun and playful? Or is it business-oriented and serious?
6. Select the Tools
So, after defining the buyer and the brand, how are the two going to connect? Is the business going to pay for marketing? Examples include a featured Facebook post or starting a hashtag campaign. What is the best way to get the word out?
Above all, here are some popular formats: Facebook instant experience (Canvas), Stories, Twitter moments, Facebook Catalog, Carousel, Vertical or horizontal videos, GIFs, multiple images on Instagram, Links, etc…
7. Think About the Timing
During certain times of the year (Super Bowl, Ramadan, Black Friday, etc…), it is good to ramp up the spending. Get the ads out during key seasons, themes, and events to increase the marketing investment return.
8. Quantitate the Return
To quantify the return on investment, be sure to track the page views, the clicks, and the conversion rate.
Therefore, use conversion tracking tools such as Facebook Pixel and Google Conversion Tracking, which will help you effectively remarket and deliver your message to relevant users, track conversions, and measure ROI.
9. Don’t Neglect the Quality
Of course, it is important to assess the quality of the campaign as well. Hence, you need to ask some serious questions like what are the reviews of the product? What do the comments say?
You may also need to consider using a CRM tool to track and reply to customers’ comments.
10. Reassess
As the campaign continues, it is important to redirect the funds and attention to the strengths and patch up the weaknesses. How can the campaign improve?
Social Media Marketing: A Business Cornerstone
In conclusion, companies can talk directly to their customers by using social media, making them feel more engaged than ever before. Why not implement a few of these strategies and watch the rewards pay off?
Let me know if you have any inquiries. Tweet me @amaherjr
