Using social media marketing strategies is an effective way to connect with your target audience and generate leads. Engage and expand your followers across the world to increase your brand awareness and drive direct sales. Social media ads are behavior-based, which means that advertisers display relevant ads and marketing messages to users based on their web-browsing behavior or social media trends.

 
What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is the perfect way to build brand awareness and improve website traffic. By using platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, where you can share social media posts and social media news, businesses can connect with their target audience and generate leads and sales. Social Media Marketing is only a part of your Digital Marketing Strategy.

Some say that social media marketing is the use of social media to build relationships, increase brand awareness, and attract website traffic. Others believe it is the perfect way to connect with customers and drive leads through online conversations. Whichever camp you fall into, there’s no doubt that SMM can be an essential tool for businesses of all sizes.

Thanks to the built-in analytics capabilities of social media marketing, companies can track the success of their efforts and see where they could improve. This allows them to focus on strategies that are most likely to achieve results, which is a key advantage over traditional marketing methods.

Why businesses need social media marketing?

We can think of numerous reasons why your company needs a social media marketing strategy. You don’t?
If the points below hurt when you read them, then you know exactly why:

• You don’t know what your target audience is, do you? You should definitely consider researching them before your launch to make sure that your content is relevant and appealing to them.
• Cart abandonment is too high. There is a pressing need to address the high rate of cart abandonment. Too many shoppers are abandoning their carts before they’ve even had a chance to shop, and this trend has to be reversed if retailers are going to stay viable.
• Can’t convert website visitors into customers. Unfortunately, most businesses can’t convert website visitors into customers. It’s important for your business to create a customer-focused website which provides valuable information and sells products that are relevant to the visitors. By doing this, you’ll increase your chances of attracting new customers.
• You can’t retarget website visitors on other platforms. By not engaging all these potential buyers on other platforms, where they spend many hours a day, you are missing out on a lot of sales.
• Your competitors create brand loyal customers with social engagement. Your competitors are ensuring that they create loyal customers by engaging with them socially. This ensures that they are able to keep their customers base engaged, and likely make more sales as a result.
• Lack of social proof. Social proof is important when making decisions. Seeing others act in a certain way can influence our own behavior.
• 3.78 billion social media users worldwide in 2021 (oberlo.com)
• SMM offers improved brand recognition. Improved brand recognition can be achieved through creating a recognizable brand name, creating a positive association with the brand, and using effective marketing techniques that position your brand in peoples’ minds.
• SMM offers improved brand loyalty.
• SMM offers improved conversion rates. Social media marketing can help improve conversion rates, making it an attractive option for businesses. By reaching a wide audience through various platforms, businesses can create opportunities to build relationships and generate leads. This can result in increased sales and better customer service.
• SMM offers reduced marketing costs as it’s a great way to cut down on your marketing budget. The social media tools and platforms are available at no cost, so it’s a great way to get started with your business. By targeting a specific audience through social media platforms, businesses can reach out to potential customers in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
• SMM offers more exposure than traditional marketing. It gives you the opportunity to directly communicate and connect with them, which can result in more sales. 

Why is social media marketing so powerful and how social media marketing strategies help a business grow?

Social media marketing is powerful because it allows businesses to connect with customers in ways never before possible. The power of word of mouth which dominated the markets few years back, is slowly starting to give space to online media. This allows businesses to interact with customers and gather valuable customer data. In addition, social media marketing can help businesses build relationships with customers that will last long after the original purchase has been made. Additionally, social media platforms provide customers with valuable customer data that can be used for future marketing campaigns.

Social media not only connects businesses with customers, but there are also many different ways to connect with target audiences. For example, content platforms and social networks like YouTube and social sites like Facebook (with facebook ads) and Instagram (with instagram stories) offer great opportunities for businesses to share their message with a wider audience. Additionally, microblogging services like Twitter provide an easy way for companies to communicate with their customers on a regular basis.

The interaction on social media—whether direct communication or passive “liking”—gives businesses a free advertising opportunity from electronic word-of-mouth recommendations between existing and potential customers. This allows businesses to connect with their audience more closely, sparking new ideas and creating a stronger connection between them.

Benefits of social media marketing strategies

Social media marketers, and digital marketing professionals overall, can offer expert tips by knowing the marketing trends in your marketing field and by using attraction marketing to grow your brand, they will increase the customer engagement with your brand which results in repeat-sales. That is why having a solid social media marketing strategy is very important for the success of your business.

The benefits of social media marketing are innumerable, and can’t be ignored if you’re running a business. A sound social media strategy is essential for maximizing the effectiveness of your social media campaigns. The social media marketing ROI can be very high. There are many benefits to using social media marketing, not the least of which is the ability to connect with potential customers and create a more engaging experience for them. Try to follow these best practices:

• Make sure your marketing content is of high quality and engaging in order to rank on social media search engines.
• Respond to comments and questions in a professional manner to increase customer engagement with your brand.
• Create a social media content calendar that fits your audience’s engagement patterns.
• Post at the right time to reach your target audience on the most relevant social media channels.
• Get involved in influencer marketing in order to niche down in your audience. 
• Hire a social media marketer to help you create effective campaigns and track results. A certified digital marketing professional knows the social media landscape of your market and can form a social media marketing strategy on various social media platforms.

Learn more about social media marketing plans for small businesses, the best social media optimization techniques and the steps to an effective Facebook marketing strategy. The best social media packages for your business, including Facebook and Instagram ads management, are much cheaper than other channels like TV or radio.

Increase your brand awareness

Social media marketing is one of the most effective ways to increase brand awareness by actively engaging your followers on the various platforms and having them talk about your brand and sharing your news. The business world nowadays is a marketing jungle, so your business needs professionals with high marketing skills, one could call them “marketing pros”, to make sense of it and drive sales. 

Generate leads and boost conversions

Social media marketing generates leads and boosts conversions by connecting businesses with their target audience. A business’s social media profile should be optimized to show their best side, which can include their products, services, and blog content. When potential customers see this content and see that the business is credible and trustworthy, they are more likely to convert. Additionally, social media platforms like YouTube allow businesses to create video content that can be shared on different social media platforms and websites. This content can be seen by a much wider audience and can be optimized for specific keywords or tags. This allows businesses to gain more exposure and leads from their video content.

Foster relationships with your customers

Social media is a great way to foster relationships with your customers especially for small businesses. You can use social media to keep them updated on your product or service, and to ask for feedback. You can also use social media to respond to customer complaints. If you have a social media account for your business, make sure to post regularly. By interacting with them on social media, you can learn more about what they want and how you can better serve them. You can also connect with potential customers who might not have otherwise found you. By using the right hashtags and keywords, you can ensure that your content is found by those looking for it.

By using these platforms, businesses can keep track of what their customers are talking about and what they might be interested in. This information can then be used to create targeted ads and content that will engage and attract even more customers.

Learn from your competitors

Social media is a great way to learn from your competitors and see what they are doing well or bad. By monitoring their social media pages, you can see what content is resonating with their audience and use that information to improve your own strategy. You can also use social media to respond to your competitors’ content and learn from their reactions. By understanding your competition, you can create a better marketing strategy for your business.

The essentials of successful social media marketing strategies

A social media marketing strategy should include the following:

• Planning: Develop a plan that outlines what you want to achieve with your social media marketing and when you expect to achieve it.
• Designing: Create a social media marketing campaign that is visually appealing and easy to understand.
• Executing: Monitor your social media accounts and make necessary changes as needed to ensure that your campaign is reaching its goals.
• Measurement: Track the success of your social media marketing campaign by using appropriate metrics.

A social media marketing strategy should be tailored to the specific needs of your business.

Take time to research your target audience

When you are designing your strategy, make sure to take time to research your target audience. This will help you to create content that is relevant and interesting to them. You can also use keyword research to find the specific terms and phrases that your target audience is likely to use when searching for information about your product or service. Once you have a good understanding of what your target audience wants and needs, it will be much easier to create content and visuals that are both engaging and useful to them.

Remember: different platforms attract different audiences

According to a study by the Pew Research Center, 88% of online adults use social media platforms. Of all social media platforms, Facebook is the most popular with 65% of online adults using it. YouTube is second with 59% of online adults using it. Twitter is third with 36% of online adults using it. Instagram is fourth with 33% of online adults using it.

When you’re planning your social media marketing strategy, it’s important to consider the demographics of your target audience. For example, Facebook is more popular with older adults than teenagers. while TikTok’s user base has more teenagers compared to adults. So when you’re marketing your business or product on social media, it’s important to understand the different platforms and how they work. 

Creating your social media marketing plan

Before you can begin anything, you first need to develop a social media marketing plan. This plan will outline what you will do, when you will do it, why you are doing it and how you will evaluate its results. Once you have a plan, you can start to execute it by setting goals, creating a strategy, and planning your time and resources.

There are a few things you should keep in mind when creating your social media marketing plan. First, make sure to target your audience. You don’t want to waste your time and resources on marketing that no one will see. Second, be sure to measure the results of your efforts. If you can track how many people you reached, what kind of reactions you got and whether or not you made any sales, you’ll be better equipped to make decisions about where and how to focus your efforts next.

A social media marketing plan should include the following: 

• Goals: What are you trying to achieve with your social media marketing?
• Strategy: How will you achieve your goals?
• Timeframe: When will you start and finish your project?
• Resources: What resources will you need to execute your plan?

Establish your most important metrics and KPIs

In order to measure the success of your social media marketing campaigns, you need to establish key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs are measurements that help you track the progress and effectiveness of your social media campaigns. There are a variety of different KPIs that can be used in social media marketing, but some common ones include:

• Likes, shares, and comments
• Reach and impressions
• Follower count and audience growth rate
• Community Engagement rate
• Customer feedback
• Leads
• Qualified leads
• Conversion rate (lead to customer rate)
• Customer acquisition cost
• Sales revenue
• Customer lifetime value
• Social media marketing ROI overall

Stay consistent

The best social media marketing strategies are consistent. You should have a plan and stick to it, no matter what. This means creating a content calendar, setting up deadlines, and sticking to your plan.

Don’t just post—participate

If you want to be successful with your social media campaigns, you need to get involved deeply. This means that your social media manager has to reply to comments fast, post quizes to start conversations, understand what people are talking about on your social media pages and pass this information to the upper management in order to adapt to peoples’ requests.

Use content creation tools

There are a number of content creation and social media marketing tools available to social media managers. Some of the most popular include Hootsuite, TweetDeck, Socialbee, Ads manager and Buffer. These tools allow users to schedule posts ahead of time, manage their followers and interactions, and track their analytics. Furthermore, they can also create custom notifications that send updates to followers when a post is published or when it is liked or commented on.

Repurpose, repost, recycle

Social media managers need to find new ways to use and repurpose content on social media platforms to keep users engaged. One way that social media managers can keep users engaged is by using content that was successful some time back, to drive conversations again. This means recycling the content that is provocative and encourages users to share their thoughts on the topic. By doing this, you can keep users talking and help them stay interested in your brand.

Curate your own feed

You should curate your brand’s feed by choosing the topics you want to relate to and by promoting topics your brand is interested in and actively involved. Curating your brand’s feed can help you connect with potential and current customers on a more personal level. By promoting topics that are important to you and your brand, you’ll create a positive image for yourself and increase the chances that people will want to hear from you.

Measure success with analytics

Analytics provide valuable information about how a social media campaign is performing. This can help you to improve your campaigns and make better decisions about where to focus your efforts. You can also see which posts are performing the best, and identify which topics are most popular. By understanding the performance of your social media marketing campaigns, you can make adjustments as needed to continue driving traffic and sales for your business. 

Try paid social

Paid social media can be a great way to promote your small business and increase your reach and engagement with your audience. Paid social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn offer users the ability to pay for ads that are specifically targeted to them. This can help you reach a wider audience and generate more leads. Additionally, paid social media platforms offer users the ability to track the performance of their ads and measure the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns.

Social is becoming “Pay to Play”

Social media platforms are only free for users because the companies behind them make billions of dollars from advertising. In the social media age, users are only given free access to the platforms because big businesses are footing the bill. Without their generous donations, users would not be able to communicate with each other as easily or as often. 

On social media platforms where there is advertising, the user is the product.  Hence, companies are paying a lot of money to target them effectively and sell their products to them.

How to implement social media marketing strategies?

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the best way to implement social media marketing strategies will vary depending on your company’s specific needs and goals.  However, some tips for starting out include the following:

• Research of marketing trends
• Target audience research
• Competitor social media research
• Social media strategy development
• Social media page and ads management
• Monitoring of your social media accounts
• Monitoring of users’ activities, social reach, engagement, reviews
• Analysis of traffic (walk-in and online) and visitors reports
• Measuring and improvement of lead-to-customer conversion rates

Social media marketing services

The typical social media marketing solutions offered by a social media marketing agency are:

• social media management
• content creation for social media posts
• image editing
• market research
• target audience segmentation
• branding
• community engagement
• creation and conversion optimization of landing pages
• social media profiles management
• influencer marketing and more…

The final goal however is to increase the engagement rate of followers in order to drive traffic and eventually, sales. Then, by acquiring customer feedback on all the social networks and therefore creating word of mouth engagement with the brand, the social media managers will maximize your ROI with repeatitive sales at a lower cost per sale.

How much social media marketing costs?

It takes time and expertise to build quality marketing campaigns that help the brand and not impact it negatively and that is why it’s necessary to consult with a social media marketing agency. 

The calculation of the price for a tailor-made social media marketing campaign is not easy since it takes in account a lot of variables, such as the costs:

• for the brand analysis
• for the market analysis
• for the business pages setup
• for the content creation
• for the images creation and editing
• for the consultation on best practices for posting relevant content and creating links back to your website
• for setting up retargeting campaigns
• and more…

For a social media marketing package pricing, adjusted accordingly for small businesses, you can contact us.

5 Factors to consider when choosing a social media marketing agency

When choosing a digital marketing agency, it’s important to consider a few key factors. Here are six to keep in mind:

1. Size and scope of services offered
2. Expertise in specific digital marketing techniques
3. Track record of success with clients
4. Cost and terms of service
5. Client satisfaction ratings and client retention rates
6. Experience and willingness of the agency to maximize YOUR ROI.

Looking for a digital marketing agency in Cyprus and Greece? Then contact Digital Octapus, your digital marketing partner focused on digital lead generation and small business internet marketing.