As a small business, budgets are tight — especially in these uncertain economic times. Moreover, any entrepreneur knows that marketing — especially social media marketing — is a key factor for any business that wants new customers. Fortunately, today’s social media and digital marketing tools, are free to use if you know how to use them properly and effectively.
Furthermore, because of pandemic, people flocked to the social media networks to connect with family, friends, and coworkers — and they stayed there!
Strategic social media marketing is crucial now more than ever!
Sure there are tons of shortcuts out there that you can take, but are they really effective? Have you planned out the strategy? If you’re going to spend money, you need to have a clear plan as well as a budget. You must have clearly defined your target market so you can specifically target them.
What this boils down to and what I tell my clients when they ask, “Should I spend money on social media advertising?” — My answer? — it depends. Do it for free (organically) for 3-6 months following my instructions. Check your analytics, insights, and website statistics monthly, see what’s working and what’s not working, then adjust your strategy and tactics accordingly. However, if you’re a startup, and say an ecommerce website and the holidays are approaching, then yes. Also, if you’re in a highly competitive field or industry, then yes.
Actually, there’s a lot that you can do organically — without paying…
You have 2 choices when it comes to social media marketing…
- Hire someone to do it for you.
- Learn how to do it yourself.
Option 2 is your most cost effective – about 1/10 of the cost of hiring someone to do it for you. Here’s why I recommend learning how to do it all yourself:
- No one knows your business like YOU know your business.
- The “social” part of social media is about building relationships — who do you want building relationships with your current and potential clients? Or a stranger or someone in your organization that knows your business?
Though it may seem daunting, learning how to market your business on social media in a logical progression, that makes sense, will get you set up, optimized, and with strategic and tactical marketing plans in hand ready to take control of your marketing!
And, you’ll be ready to hit the road running when this whole thing is over!
Social Media & Content Marketing Steps & Strategies for Marketing
- Determine your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) — What makes you, your product or service different?
- Clearly identify your target market(s) and create persona(s) — You need to define your target market(s) and create personas.
- Research your target markets and get to know them. This also includes keyword research. What will your potential customer enter into the search box to find you? Look for keywords and phrases with high monthly searches and low to medium competition.
- Research your competition. Who are your direct competitors? Who comes up in the top 10 slots of Google when you search for what you have to offer? How often are they blogging? How active are they on social media? How many followers do they have on the networks?
- Set SMART goals for your business and marketing.
- Set up a well-branded website and social media profile pages optimized for search, if you don’t already have them.
- Develop a strategic plan to meet those new goals.
- Put together a tactical plan to implement the strategy. This is your new to-do list.
- Learn how content marketing, SEO & social media all work together. The magic formula hasn’t changed!
- Create and curate content, then build a following and relationships.
- Have a clear call-to-action: a free download, coupon, or offer, to generate quality leads. It has to be enticing enough so that the visitor to your website will give you their name and email address.
- Setup an email automation workflow to walk the leads to buy.
- Monitor and measure – check your analytics and insights every month to see what’s working and not working. Then plan accordingly for the next month.
