As a small business, it can be difficult to prioritize the many important components that play a role in developing your marketing strategy. While seeing more profits may be the end goal, your marketing needs to focus on key areas that affect your growth beginning with increasing brand awareness. You can utilize your social media platforms to influence your target audience and gain loyalty as you work to build awareness about your business.
While a small percentage of consumers will buy spontaneously from brands that are unknown to them, the majority will only jump into the buy cycle of a company they’ve established some sort of relationship with. When they’re loyal to a brand, they feel a connection with the company culture and share some of the same passions. Using your social media platforms in the right way can produce the same effect.
The Non-Promotional Approach
Your social media content needs to reflect who you are as a business, which means you need to personalize your outreach and avoid posting overtly promotional (“salesy”) content too often. Be honest about who you are, what you stand for, the foundations of your approach to business and how you achieve success and your target audience will not need to be sold on individual products or services. Rather, they’ll be invested in you as a brand.
The more information you put in front of your audience, whether it’s through how-to videos or staying on top of industry news through blog posts, the more you become a thought leader in your niche. Your social media accounts can help to position you as an industry authority to your followers.
The Promotional Approach
Your followers love to pass on deals to their friends and family. Some of these people who are tagged in your promotional posts might not be followers, but given the nudge by someone who is, they are more likely to be open to what it is you’re pitching.
Whether it’s a limited sale on a product or service or a contest where you’re giving something away, the promotional approach in this way can help you reach a larger audience. The more personalized you make the experience, the more traction it will get on social media. This can be a great lead generator, too.
Much of your marketing on social media can be done at no cost to you. Of course, you can pay to promote posts and will likely see better results, but you can get started without this.
At SJC Marketing, we’ve established a reputation for assisting clients in planning, creating and implementing small business marketing strategies through a variety of channels, including social media. To influence more people and gain a larger following, contact us today and let’s work together to get more eyes on your brand.