Running a business these days is different if you would do it a few decades back. Technology has made a significant impact on how you operate and promote any business today. One of the most significant innovation technology has probably made available for humankind is the rise of social media.
Social media has become an avenue where people can connect to their family and friends. For many businesses, this has helped a lot in growing their businesses. Social Media Marketing is one of the most effective ways to promote a brand or business to achieve its marketing goals. 58.8% of marketers say social media is vital in their overall marketing strategy.
With over 3.5 billion users across the planet or around 45% of the world’s population found in many social media platforms, many brands are riding the popularity of these online channels. However, despite its benefits, some companies are still not into it. It is either, they are not fully convinced yet or are not fully aware of the many benefits they can get when including social media in their digital marketing campaigns.
Whatever your reason is for not utilizing social media, we’ve managed to list together some of the benefits social media marketing can offer.
Social Media Marketing Benefits for Businesses
-
Grows Brand Awareness and Recognition
Starting a business is not easy as well making it grow. You cannot just expect people to stumble upon it and do the promotion for you. You have to make concise efforts in letting people know that your business exists and you have something useful to offer. If no one knows about your business, there will be no sales, then it will not survive, and your competitors will drown it.
Social media is one of the most effective platforms to grow your brand’s awareness. It is a great avenue to showcase what you offer by giving valuable content that may improve your business’ visibility. When using social media to promote your brand, you have the potential to tap a massive number of audience. When you post consistently, your brand has the opportunity to reach a broader set of audience.
Optimizing your social media profiles, having interactive materials and posting contents consistently can help build your name and widen your reach. When people start to interact with you, you also begin to develop brand recognition that will help your online reputation.
Aside from your converting and closing all possible prospects to sales, your goal should include reaching a wide array of audience. Keep in mind that the more people who know your business, the better.
-
Builds Brand Loyalty
When you have already built your audience, and you have already many people following you in social media, one of the key benefits you can get is building brand loyalty.
Developing a loyal customer base should always be included in your goals. Aside from the product satisfaction, you can offer to your customers when they purchase your products; you must continue to engage with them and develop a rapport with them. You social media platforms can not only act as a pedestal to promote your brand, product or services, but it can also serve as an avenue to communicate with your clients directly.
According to studies, most consumers see the brands that they use as an extension of themselves. When you have already established this connection, no matter how fierce your competition is or how big their names are, you will always be at par.
-
Helps Establish Your Online Authority
Once people start to talk about you and are satisfied with what you offer, they will not hesitate to leave a useful review and share your content. They will also create a positive comment on your post and even recommend you to their family and friends on their social media profiles.
When this happens, not only the awareness of your brand grows but also your online credibility. As more and more people start to interact, communicate and talk about your product or services, your brand appears to be trustworthy. Having your existing customers talk positively about you can be one of your greatest assets as this attract new prospects and expand your reach even without you doing anything.
-
Drive Traffic To Your Website
Establishing your online authority in social media will not only help in finding more prospects or in reaching more awareness. It will also drive the right amount of quality traffic to your website.
As you post more informative content in your social media channels with links to your site and as it draws more attention to people, it will create inbound traffics to your website. For this reason, why social media is an integral part of your digital marketing campaigns.
Additionally, conducting promotional activity in your social media can also help augment your website traffic. You can run a simple giveaway or even a full-blown contest and include your website in your mechanics where they have to input their names and other information. Many big names have used this marketing strategy in different industries, and there is no reason for you do not try it even if your budget is limited. Who would say no to a free item after all?
-
Complements Your SEO Efforts
The relationship between social media and SEO has been one of the most talked-about in recent years. Back in 2014, Matt Cutts announced when he was still part of Google that social media does not affect any of your SEO campaigns or even your search result rankings. However, as time goes by, it has been proven otherwise. Social media and SEO does have their relationship, though not directly, but they complement each other.
As you post valuable materials in your social media platforms, you can encourage people to do content sharing. The more people see your content and share it on their own social media profiles; the more people will click on your website link. When this happens, Google and other search engine platforms will take notice and give you a higher ranking in search engine results.
Social media allows you to bring content to people that have no idea that they need it. It can also act as a search engine and provide answers to people’s query.
-
It is Cost-Effective
Digital marketing, in general, is cost-efficient when compared it to traditional marketing strategies. It is measurable and can provide proper analytics that can be crucial as you plan your future digital marketing efforts.
Social media, in particular, is one of the most cost-effective in online marketing. Creating an account on any of the social media channels available today is free. Promotional activities like content posting, doing interactive campaigns, holding live streaming and even creating a community for your loyal customers through FB groups will not ask you to spend any money.
Should you have enough marketing budget, you can try paid advertising in social media that can generate quick results and will allow you to reach a specific niche market. Still, the amount you will spend in doing this paid promotional activity is not comparable to the amount you have to shell if you will do tv advertisement placement, billboards or even producing leaflets. Start small in your paid social media advertising and see how it goes for you. If it works out and gives you positive results, you can go ahead and add more in your social media advertising budget.
Final Thoughts
Social media marketing may be around for some time already, but it is not going anywhere. It still proves to be one of the most effective methods you can do to grow your brand.
If you have not been including social media in your marketing campaign, now is the right time to do so. It may not be an overnight success and may take a lot of work, but once you have found the right social marketing strategy, it will give you a good result and help you achieve all of your marketing goals.
AUTHOR BIO
JOHN OCAMPOS
John Ocampos is an Opera Singer by profession and a member of the Philippine Tenors. Ever since, Digital Marketing has always been his forte. He is the Founder of SEO-Guru and the Managing Director of Tech Hacker. John is also the Strategic SEO and Influencer Marketing Manager of Softvire Australia.