With over 4.5 billion people currently on social media, most businesses would be crazy not to harness the powerful platforms that could boost their brand and generate sales.
No matter what industry your company falls under, there is no industry ‘too boring’ to be on social media. In fact, it’s sometimes the small, niche businesses that benefit the most from being present online.
If you haven’t yet decided to take your digital marketing strategy seriously, here are 5 top benefits of using social media for your business.
Brand Awareness
Social media is a great way to get your brand out there. Building a strong brand image is a great way to keep your business at the forefront of your audience’s mind. ‘But how do I build strong brand awareness on social media?’ We hear you ask. We’ve got you covered!
As part of your social media strategy, you’re going to want to choose 2-5 content pillars that your content will fall under. These can range from educational content to entertaining, promotional content to team posts – you get the gist.
Most brands like to portray themselves as experts in the industry, whatever their industry may be. For example, if you’re a tech firm, you’d want your audience to think you’re up to scratch with all the latest news and that you know everything there is to know about tech. This is where your educational content would come into play and is a great way to establish yourself as a trusted brand.
Another great way to spread brand awareness is to humanise your brand. People love to see relatable content out there. If you like to have a bit of fun, you could show this through your presence on social media and your use of clever copywriting. This is also where your ‘team’ pillar could work. Sharing insights into the day-to-day stuff your team gets up to is a great reminder that there are some friendly faces behind the brand.
If you’re a B2C company, then you may want to consider influencer marketing to build brand awareness. This is extremely popular amongst fashion, beauty, and even food brands on Instagram and TikTok. Sending your products to influencers to share on their socials gets your products and brand name out there to a large audience. Depending on how much is in your budget for influencer marketing may depend on the types of influencers you send them to. For example, you’d be able to send your products to micro-influencers at little to no cost. Although, mega-influencers would charge considerably more.
Brands may also appoint celebrities or public figures to become their brand ambassadors and essentially become the face of the brand. For example, Clinique nominated award-winning actress Emilia Clarke as their global ambassador. We had the pleasure of designing and producing this influencer box which was sent to over 200 influencers to share on their socials.
Increase Website Traffic
Social media is a great way to send people to your website. For many businesses, this will be an integral part of using social media as your website will be where your audience goes to purchase your product, make a booking, or simply find out more about the services you provide. This all of course plays a huge part in the buyer’s journey, where they’ll eventually make a sale.
If you have a blog on your website, sharing this on your socials is a simple way to get your audience onto your website. You’re most likely educating them on a subject or sharing news that can provide value to them. And when you provide value to people, they’re going to come back for more.
If you have a new product out, again you can post links for them to find out more about the product. You could even offer an exclusive discount code and entice them in with something that can benefit your (potential) customers. This way they’ll be more likely to head to your website to grab that deal!
It’s worth noting that you can’t just add a link to a post and hope people will click through. You must make your posts ‘clickable’. This is where your use of creative copywriting will come into play. Through the power of strong hooks, emotional language, and enticing calls to action (CTAs), you’re more likely to persuade the user to tap on the link set.
Generate Leads
Social media marketing is a great way to go about generating new leads. What exactly does this mean though? A lead is any information someone shares with you that could be used to follow up with in the future. This could include names, email addresses, occupations, or any other information they might share with you through social media.
If you’re looking for new leads, then you’re going to want to consider using LinkedIn. The professional platform says 89% of B2B marketers turn to LinkedIn for lead generation, with marketers claiming LinkedIn generates more than twice the amount of leads than any other social platform.
How to gather leads:
There are a few ways to gather your leads. For example, creating click-worthy content. Your CTAs must be short and compelling enough to grab your audience’s attention for them to click through to your website. Adding a link to your bio is another great way to generate leads. So, send them to a landing page that has value. Maybe you could grab their info by enticing them to sign up to your newsletter.
Content monetisation, likes turn into dollars passing through the smartphone. The concept of currency, social networks
Generate Sales
Generating leads and sales go hand in hand. With over 4.5 billion people currently on social media and with this number only increasing, the world of e-commerce is also evolving.
But before you get too hasty and start posting to every social media platform out there, find where the majority of your customers are. Whether this is Facebook, Pinterest, or TikTok, don’t miss out on the millions of potential customers you could be targeting.
If you’re selling clothes, jewellery, or beauty products, you’d definitely benefit from Instagram shopping. Your Instagram shop is essentially like your storefront, but better! With the power of images and reels, you’re giving people the chance to shop for your products at the click of a button. The platform has never been easier to sell products and it’s clearly popular with nearly half of people surveyed using Instagram to shop weekly.
Top Tip: Avoid making your content sound salesy or pushy. The majority of people scrolling on their phones are there to engage socially, so be subtle with your sales.
Communicate with your audience
Social media platforms allow for the strongest forms of online communication between businesses and customers.
It’s a great way to deal with any customer queries and to hold your brand as reputable, friendly, and helpful.
Not only that, many brands take the opportunity to have a bit of fun when it comes to replying to comments on their socials. Greggs played it brilliantly when Piers Morgan commented on the announcement of their vegan sausage rolls back in 2019. They managed to generate even more awareness of the announcement by replying to Piers and adding humour to the situation. Their response gained almost 130k likes and almost 20k retweets. Success!!!
So if you’re looking to improve your communication services, being active on socials is a great way to increase your positive customer engagement and add a bit of humour to the brand.
Whether your goal is to build brand awareness, generate sales, or increase customer engagement, social media is definitely the place to be. The opportunities are endless and it seems like a no-brainer to give your business the online presence it deserves. Want to build your social media presence but don’t know where to start? Get in touch with us on studio@pagecreative.co.uk or give us a buzz on 01268 271 858.
