In practise, social media marketing involves implementing a strategy with measurable goals aligned to business objectives. The strategy uses specific social media channels, often alongside other channels such as a website, and harnesses the power of a purposeful and well executed content plan to propel you towards those goals.
Social media is one of the defining technologies of our time! Critically, the unique position that social media provides businesses enables you to target and influence all stages of your buyer's journey (the route taken by customers to become aware of, evaluate, purchase a new product/ service and then return for more) - and ultimately drive all over business growth and prosperity.
A basic social media presence may have been a box ticking exercise for brands in the past, but today, regardless of whether you operate business-2-business or business-2-consumer, the way a business leverages and capitalises on social media can profoundly impact its overall success.
The social media landscape is filled with an assortment of platforms vying for your time and attention. You need to know where to focus your energy and resources and what can be done to maximise the effectiveness and ROI of your presence.
Underneath the glitz and glamour, social media is a content marketing promotional channel. Content is a critical part of a robust social media presence and we place a lot of emphasis on designing social based content strategies that connect in line with your goals. To do this we take a lot of care to understand your world and your audience's world.
Your social media strategy is a live part of your marketing strategy that should be managed, and optimised often. Following initial strategy development, ongoing social media management is variable and depends on the level of service you desire. Day-to-day, it can involve developing and producing content for you to approve, publishing content to your channels, monitoring and measuring performance, active community management, and ongoing optimisation and strategy reviews.
Paid social ad campaigns involve developing campaigns across various social channels with the aim or reaching a specific target audience and driving specific goals. Goals can range anywhere from growing brand awareness or engagement, to driving conversions and sign-ups on your website.
Social media advertising is fast becoming a matter of "when" rather than "if" for a vast number of brands today across all industries. Social ads are often an essential part of an effective content amplification/social media strategy, but can also be used as a stand-alone activity.
Organic reach and growth on social media has been declining over the years as top platforms shift to a model that pushes businesses to pay for exposure and reach. The algorithms are fickle and using social media advertising ensures that you can break through any restricted reach and get eyes on your content. This is why you will usually see social media advertising built into a social media strategy.
Being successful with social media ads means keeping a pulse on the data that comes in, fine tuning your budget, design and schedule to optimise your ROI. Developing social ad campaigns requires thorough planning and ongoing creative testing.
We will work closely with you to outline specific campaign goals and success measures and, following necessary research and analysis, develop the actionable plan and creatives.
The amount of investment vs the compounded power a social presence offers, makes social media one of the most cost effective forms of marketing available. Further to this, social ad campaigns offer a unique amount of controls to the owner and audience targeting capabilities, they can be managed on a pay by performance basis and are overall generally lower to run for the reach and effectiveness you gain in comparison with more traditional advertising methods.
Enabling you to influence multiple stages of your buyers journey, it is one of the benefits of strategically extended reach and optimised original content on social media that stimulates more leads and website traffic. Whilst your potential customer is likely to be researching you online prior to purchase, your strong presence nurtures many things, including trust, and instils more confidence in your business.
56.8% of the entire world population uses social media today. A social media strategy opens the door to huge potential reach for your business, extending your offering beyond the limitations of more traditional marketing methods.
Social media and social ad campaigns provide us with data and analytics which can be broken down to gain new insights about a target audience and even realise new ones.
In contrast with the 'one size fits all' style of traditional advertising, online display ads or even email advertising, you can get incredibly granular about who you are targeting your social advertising campaigns to and who will see it.
Social media marketing is heavily data-driven and the amount of value generated by your investment in social media can be quantified via various metrics depending entirely on your objectives.
Simply being active on social media is no longer considered ahead of the curve. In many instances, social media strategy and even paid ads have become a pre-requisite. Competitive advantages can be found in the opportunity to platform your expertise and build authority, differentiating your business via original content, monitoring conversations surrounding your own business and your competitors, and gaining a deeper understanding of your own audience.
Growing social media presence purely organically can be a long-term process. Supplementing organic activity with paid ads amplifies your reach and serves as rocket fuel for growth.
Brand is how people perceive your product/service or business and it exists even when you are not actively managing it. Social media provides a means to develop your brand and increase awareness through extended reach, repeated exposure and giving opportunities for your customers to recognise you. Enhancing communication and enabling your target audience to connect directly with your brand will nurture more intimate relationships, engaged audiences and customer retention/loyalty.
Social ads specifically will ensure eyes on your content, increasing your market visibility and brand awareness considerably. Social media advertising is a powerful tool to get your target audience familiar with your brand and offering.
