You’ve heard of the phrase ‘social media’. Chances are you use some type of social media platform to connect with family, friends, and acquaintances. But did you know that your relationships and interactions on social media can help drive business growth? Many organizations, brands, and businesses are now taking advantage of social media platforms to reach out to potential customers and encourage them to invest in their products or services. This is where marketing through social media comes in.
What is online marketing, you ask?
Simply put, online marketing is the process of marketing a product or service online. In 2019, this usually means using social media to reach potential customers. Let’s dive into the various ways you can use social media to grow your business in the new year.
Create Awareness
The first step to effective online marketing is creating awareness of your products and services. This is basically how social media works: people are made aware of your existence and your products/services through various platforms like blogs, videos, and social media.
Why is this important? Well, if you want to grow your business organically (a.k.a. not through paid advertising), you need to gain credibility and trust with your potential customers. One of the best ways to do this is through authentic and valuable content.
You can establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry through well-written blog posts, industry-related videos, and even an occasional podcast. By consistently providing valuable information in a trustworthy manner, you allow customers to see that you are an expert in your industry and can be trusted to provide good advice.
If you’re looking to find the biggest marketing opportunity in 2019, consider creating awareness of your products and services through online marketing strategies.
Grow a Following
Once you’ve gotten people interested in your products and services, the next step is to grow a following. This is usually achieved through a combination of inbound and outbound marketing methods.
What exactly do I mean by inbound and outbound marketing?
Inbound marketing is all about attracting, engaging, and delighting people who are already interested in your products and services. One of the best examples of inbound marketing is the content marketing strategy blog posts that establish thought leadership and draw in potential customers and subscribers.
Outbound marketing is the process of engaging with potential customers who don’t yet know about your products and services. This could include any type of marketing activity, including advertising, public relations, and social media.
Why should you try to grow a following on social media? Well, you can use these platforms to:
- Create brand awareness and guide customers to your website
- Establish yourself as an expert in your industry
- Encourage people to share and interact with your content
- And much more…
By growing a following on social media, you can gain credibility with customers and establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. You can also use these platforms to connect with prospective and existing customers, establishing yourself as a face in your industry and an expert they can trust.
Measure the Results of Your Marketing Efforts
Now that you’re starting to see some results from your marketing efforts, the next step is to measure the effectiveness of these efforts. In order to do this, you need to keep track of the results of your marketing efforts using appropriate metrics and analytics tools. Fortunately, keeping track of these metrics isn’t difficult and can be managed through a simple to use dashboard.
The goal of these tools is to provide you with comprehensive information on the performance of your marketing campaigns so you can make informed decisions and track your results over time. For example, if you notice that your videos are getting a lot of viewership but not much sales, you might decide that creating videos that answer frequently asked questions is the way to go instead of offering advice on how to fix your competitors’ products.
Keep Up with Trends
One of the biggest challenges of being a small business owner is staying abreast of the ever-changing world of marketing. If you want to ensure that you’re not wasting your time and money on ineffective strategies, it’s important to regularly assess the viability of the tactics you’re currently using and determine whether or not they’re worth keeping up with. It would be best to follow the lead of successful businesses and use a marketing agency for this reason.
The main function of a marketing agency is to keep abreast of the ever-changing world of marketing and provide you with the best strategies and advice on how to make your business successful. By hiring a marketing agency, you ensure that you’re not wasting your time and resources trying to figure out what’s hot and what’s not in a world that moves faster than you can keep up with.
Attracting, Engaging, and Delighting Your Audience
As a business owner, you’re always striving for the best possible customer experience. One of the best ways to do this is through effective marketing, which we’ve discussed thus far. As a business owner, you’re also responsible for the customer experience on your own website. Therefore, it’s important that you ensure that each customer has a positive experience and that you meet their expectations. This is especially important when dealing with new or existing customers. You want to ensure that they feel valued and that their opinion/needs/wants matter. Therefore, it’s important to research the things that matter most to your customers and consider their opinion when planning new products or services.
To help new and existing customers feel valued and considered, you might consider trying out a few different things. First, on your website, you could try adding a ‘thank you’ page or section that briefly expresses how their input was valued during the planning stages of your website. Second, you could consider surveying customers on your website to get an idea of what they want and need and then consider their opinion when making plans for the future.
Conclusion
The biggest marketing opportunity in 2019 is to focus on the areas of online marketing that can drive business growth and customer delight. In order to do this, you need to focus on creating content that is valuable and then use this content to attract, engage, and delight your audience.