IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING EFFECTIVE?
Social media marketing is the most effective way to boost up your business and to reach target customers. It's budget-friendly and easy for anyone to advertise his products. Social media marketing is the most popular way of marketing in the recent decade by digital marketing analysts.
You are thinking about what is this social media marketing? Let me give you a clear answer to it. When you use social media apps or websites like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter for promoting your business, it is called social media marketing.
We all use social media in our day-to day-life. After waking up from sleep, most of us will check the phone for mail or social media notifications. While scrolling your daily notifications, imagine an advertisement popping into your mobile screen saying 'Hey! We are giving a sale in our online store, pay a visit!' obviously, you would like to open that up and check if any sale suits your pocket! Luckily if it matches, that product goes into your pocket, and the money goes into the seller's pocket! Well then! Did you get what happened here? Exactly, social media marketing happened! [Poor sentence choice]
Still, you will be thinking, is it really going to help you, or we're just bluffing about it? Then this article is perfect for you.
In this detailed article about social media's effectiveness, we'll be covering the most common questions asked by our users including "What is the importance of Social media marketing? Why should we use them? Isn't there any disadvantages to Social Media marketing? If any, what are they?" Let's explain it.
How can you be benefited through social media marketing?
1. Customers on social media:
This is the first and foremost reason why you are using social media as a marketing platform. With a total of 59% of the world's people, you should not miss the opportunity of social media marketing where you can reach up to all of them.
According to Statista, (Link: https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/)
About 3.6 billion of the total worlds' population are using social media in 2020.
alt text: Attracting customers through social media.
All of them won't be your customers, but there will be a good chance because many of them are checking these social media sites every day. It would be best if you made your social media marketing plan to attract your customer. It will be easy for you if you are active on these social media sites regularly and then connect with the customers. "Don't make your audience come to you – go to your audience!" (Link: https://www.inktouch.com.sa/blog/our-blog-1/post/the-importance-of-social-media-marketing-16)
2. Promoting brand recognition:
In social media marketing, you can easily promote your brand recognition, where, in traditional marketing, it is quite challenging for you to promote your brand. But how can social marketing do this?
Every business knows the importance of social media. You have to maintain the customer's relationship, while others also have this opportunity. You have to mention your brand on social media to attract customers. You can make content about your products on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Linked In Etc. You need to follow some social media marketing strategy. The content should be funny or attractive so that the customers can find your products helpful. You can make your brand attractive by a social media marketing logo. According to MarketingSherpa,
(link:https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/chart/demographics-why-customer-follow-brands-social-media)
Online adults aged 18-34 are most likely to follow a brand on social media.
An excellent visual can make your brand or products shareable, which can promote your brand positively. You can add a social media ad as your social media strategy. You can increase your brand awareness by using paid ads or campaigns on social media. Nowadays, some brands or companies are using memes in social media as their strategy.
alt text: Promoting Brand in a creative way
The picture is an ad for a restaurant where they use memes in social media to attract customers. You can find it helpful for your products also. When the customers see your content on the social media platform, they will become better acquainted with your business, increasing the purchase.
3. Reaching a specific audience on different social media:
You may ask, "How can you give social media marketing services to your customers?" Another benefit of social media marketing in which you can target different audiences based on different types of social media like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, linked In Etc.
According to the Pew Research Center Report,(Link: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2016/11/11/social-media-update-2016/)
In America,
79% are using Facebook, 24% are using Twitter, 32% are using Instagram, 31% are using Pinterest, and 29% use it.
You have to make a list of your audience demographic values with more detailed information like gender, age, location, interest, the brands they follow to get an idea of how you can reach them on which social media platform. You also have to keep updated about the trend. This information will help you to create content on different social media to reach the audience.
alt text: Social media market ranking
You have to check which social media is best for your products or business. Then you can find out about each social media and can take actions according to the audience. It might help you to reach the audience and get enough profit.
4. Cost-effective marketing:
Staying within budget is a difficult task. But in social media marketing, you can promote your business or products at significant cost. So you can say social media marketing is cost-effective and is one of the essential things of marketing.
A recent survey by VerticalResponse(Link: https://www.verticalresponse.com) states that,
In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in the amount of time and energy companies invest in social media.
Fourthsource article said,
(Link: https://www.fourthsource.com/social-media/social-media-marketing-smbs-benefits-16717)
"Not only are social media campaigns economic (and often free) to implement and track, they can assist in bringing down overall marketing spending as well. This is particularly relevant for regional businesses that, using social media such as Facebook, can target exactly who they need to based on audience demographics."
There are different kinds of social media platforms where you can showcase your products at a low cost. Facebook and other social media have added the feature of advertising. In this feature, you can advertise your products at 3x less than the regular advertising price.
alt text: Differences of cost in ads in various social media sites
Conversation with your fans and followers As well as investing time in creating and publishing content will manifest most of your social media results. In social media marketing, you will get better coefficiency at a lower effort. Even if you have a small budget, you can still impact these social media sites to reach your customers and make a significant impact on your business.
5. Competition in social media:
It doesn't matter what your target market is. There will be a competitor in every step of your business, and there is a good chance that your competitors are already present and involved on social media channels. So, you have to do well on these social media sites and have to remain competitive. Most of the brands take this competition too seriously, and that's why they perform higher day by day.
alt text: heavy competition in social media
If you miss essential leads to this competition, you will end up being isolated in the game. You have to start working toward building a presence on social media. Social media content that can demonstrate your knowledge is one of the best ways to make you succeed and bring in more relevant online traffic.
6. Help the search engine ranking:
Social media profiles play an influential role in SEO. Keyword-optimized Facebook or Instagram profiles may be the key to getting noticed by a potential client. Additionally, you should ensure that your profile's information and captions sections are optimized with industry keywords, heightening your perceptibility. Social media searches depend heavily on the strength of the used keywords.
Social media content and strategies can help your business attain better SEO results on your website and improve rankings in the SERPs (search engine page results). Even though social media and its relation to search ranking have been a bit confusing for quite some time, a business's social media presence impacts your Google search ranking.
alt text: Effect of keywords in search ranking
You can consider Search ranking factors for aspects of the user experience. Content quality and keyword research are vital factors of content optimization, and no one can deny that crawl ability and mobile-friendliness are essential site-architecture factors. Optimizing the website and content while keeping these factors in mind can help the webpages rank higher in the search results. Features like smart results and Knowledge Panels in the search results can increase visibility and provide users with more information about your company directly and quickly.
7. Lead to a high conversion rate:
As digital media continues to pave the way for marketing, millions of businesses worldwide have turned to social media as a core advertising tool. Social media is the most cost-effective marketing tool when it comes to return on investment (ROI).
A conversion can be defined where a person takes any action on your website. A conversion could be an online registration that makes a purchase or "checking out" or add an item to their shopping cart. It depends on the business. Essentially, it is an action on the website that the business owner considers a lead.
If your customer is looking up your company's product or service on a search engine like Google, they're probably prepared to make a purchase. But they don't just see your products. They optically discern all your competitors listed there, hence the premium you pay for the competition.
alt text: Target market difference in various social media
On social media, the way to reach the target market is different. They're not looking for you. Instead, you are looking for them. So, if your targeting successfully attracts the customers, they're more likely to purchase because your ads reached these potential buyers before they saw your competition listed right next to you. Thus, Social media marketing leads to a higher conversion rate.
8. Improving brand loyalty:
Another important thing in social media marketing is improving brand loyalty. Your customers are always talking about your products, and you need to hear their comments about your products.
According to Forbes,
(link:https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardkestenbaum/2017/06/14/this-is-how-millennials-shop/?sh=7d05b37f244c)
35% of millennials consider online forums before purchasing a product.
Your customers give a post about your products or services which can influence your branding. You can include a social monitoring feature where you can easily see their comments about your products, which are very important for your product or business. You need to market your products according to their need so that they can find it helpful. You can go through social listening to get a better understanding of how your brand is perceived online.
alt text: Band loyalty attracting customers
Many companies are afraid to ask for customer reviews. It's a kind of bad strategy. You have to promote your customer's review. If they give negative feedback, don't about this. You can fix the products then. It will develop a relationship between you and your customers. If you can handle criticism properly on social media, it will be an opportunity to present your brand as an industry leader.
You can reward your customers so that they can be loyal to your brands, such as a discount, exclusive content, or sneak peek.
Forbes found that,
Link:https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2015/01/20/10-new-findings-about-the-millennial-consumer/?sh=59775e016c8f#2715e4857a0b560296e342b8
You can work to turn your customers into brand advocates, by engaging with your audience through valuable, quality content and conversation.
9. Improving brand authority:
There is a good reason why marketers dive into the social media pond, which is a part that can effectively position your business as a leader in the marketplace. You make content about your products or industry. Then advertise it. But most importantly, it matters when you make more valuable content and share it on social media sites. It will allow you to show your expertise to your customers. You share your content with your customers. If it is helpful to them, they will share it with their fans and followers and mention your brand. It helps you to build your brand authority.
alt text: what defines a brand/core of a brand
Engage with your audience and speak with confidence from your particular platform of values. Your brand or products will be more valuable when your customers talk positively about your product. And then the new customer will inspire to follow your products. Let everyone contribute their experiences and views. The social platform is ideal for everyone to have a distinct identity, even as they work for one company. Next time anyone wants to buy, you can be confident that they will opt for the brand authorization to choose.
10. Get the opportunity to gain new customer insight:
The last important thing is that social media marketing can allow you to know about the customer's understanding. When you communicate and interact with your customers, you will get to understand your customer's interest.
If you look at what the customers are talking about on social media, you will understand what attracts them most. You have to know about your customer's concerns and what they are saying about your products or brand. If you see this thing, you can make a change to satisfy your customers.
alt text: customer insights
And social media platforms also make you understand your customer's behaviour.
Doesn't social media marketing have disadvantages?
For disadvantages, the first word that comes to your mind should be "Privacy." Privacy is an important thing in life. You have to keep your privacy in you. A few days ago, the incident was happened by Cambridge Analytica, which cause users to trust Facebook to reach an all-time low. This might be the most prominent Facebook fall. Like this, other social media also has some disadvantages. So, does social media marketing have?
Exposure to competitorsImagine you build a business and get to do marketing your products on social media. But your competitors will know about this. This incident must harm your business policy or strategy. Social media enables you to study your competitor's strategy. They can know your business method. And then what does it cost? It costs your business or products to be undone.
- Needs qualified personnel
You build your business. But you can't give enough time to every side of your business. So it would be best if you employed personnel who are well qualified for your business. They will manage your other side of the company and have the traffic under control. That's why you have to invest in both sides: product and salary for a quality outcome. Your total cost will be higher than before.
- Slow returns on investments
The ROI from social media marketing is one of the lowest in online marketing strategies. Time, effort, and money all are to give in to make things work. If you do not post or engage with your fans or people regularly, the followers will decrease.
In social media networks, only the die-hard fans stay. And if your brand or business is not well aware of a particular group of people or locations, no one is going to be your loyal die-hard fans. So it's time-consuming to create that kind of fan-base unless you are well known.
That is why what you should be doing before starting social media marketing is to establish a particular reputation and awareness about your brand and business. This way, you do not have to chase people or increase followers by mass following people.
- Tarnish brand name
Social media is one of the essential marketing tools for any business. It would help if you stepped forward according to your customer's satisfaction. You need to post enough relevant content that your followers are noticing, but not posting too often. It can get spammy and lead your followers to hit that "unlike" or "unfollow" button. It would be best if you do not get addicted to a single social media platform. If your customers don't satisfy your products or business, they will give negative reviews. Other customers can see these negative feedbacks, and then they don't take anything from you. It will tarnish your product or business and deterioration the relationship between you and your customers.
- Time-consuming
When you market your products or business, customers won't come at first sight. They may be interested in other companies too. You have to make quality content to attract your customers and post and share this content to get them to appreciate it. It may take time. Nothing is available immediately. You have to keep patient until the customers are coming. To ensure frequent publishing of aesthetic posts, you can allot resources in terms of money and time.
Social media profoundly impacts the business world today, from small companies to big giant companies.
According to Harvard Business Review, (Link: https://hbr.org/2018/01/the-basic-social-media-mistakes-companies-still-make)
"Unless you connect your social media actions to broader business goals from the beginning, ROI can be elusive, and social media becomes an end unto itself."
Some people will say Social media marketing is not effective. Social media marketing indeed has some demerits. Countless resources say social media marketing (SMM) is still the best thing since sliced bread. Nevertheless, you need to measure your SMM return on investment about your most important business objectives. Social media is no longer an option but a must, especially for companies dealing directly with customers.