Digital marketing is more and more used by companies to make themselves known to customers and Internet users. However, it is important to master the tool that we use in order to get the maximum benefit. One of the most effective tools to succeed in a marketing campaign on the Internet is the set of social media This is called social media marketing. What is the purpose of social media marketing? What are the benefits for businesses and how to successfully market using social media?
Social media marketing (SMM) is a form of marketing that will mainly use social media applications to carry out all campaigns. The main objective of social network marketing is to help companies build their brands and increase their sales. The purpose of all the campaigns that are issued is to be able to generate maximum traffic to the website of the company concerned. Finally, social media marketing is also an excellent tool to create a community of followers around the company's concept.
The principle is simple and lies in the fact that all advertisements and campaigns are made via social networks. Among the services of social media marketing are : buying followers, buying likes, buying comments, buying views.
What are the benefits of social media marketing for businesses ?
Using social media to do business marketing allows businesses to expand their networks and reach more potential customers. This way they can strengthen their online presence, which will certainly bring them potential customers that will later be turned into real customers. Social media is also a good tool to promote the company to potential employees.
Indeed, a marketing campaign is not only intended for the company's customers, but also for the potential employees who could work for the company. Thus, using social networks for marketing allows the company to position itself well towards potential customers. With the marketing of social networks, the company also gets the return of the customers by creating a kind of trust and complicity between the customers and the company. It is a good way for brands to get feedback from customers, which allows them to adapt their products accordingly.
Which social networks are the most effective in terms of marketing ?
To succeed in your marketing campaign on social networks, it is important to focus on the right network at the risk of missing the target you are looking for. However, the social networks most used by companies for marketing campaigns are : Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram. The choice of one or the other will depend on the type of content you want to convey and the target you want to reach.
For example, for more sustained content that concerns professionals, it is better to use Linkedin and not Snapchat. But when it comes to a Marketing campaign that targets young people or that proposes a useful content or product for young people, it is best to look at social networks such as Facebook or Snapchat. However, it is possible that a company adapts its language according to the social network on which its campaign is broadcast. This allows to reach a maximum of people in a short period of time.
How to succeed in a Marketing campaign on social networks ?
The success of a marketing campaign on social networks depends on several criteria that must be known before starting. Regardless of the field in which the company operates, the campaign on social networks is based on 6 main pillars.
Define the marketing strategy : The first thing to do is to define a strategy by defining the objectives of the campaign (increase in traffic, i ncrease in notoriety or production), the channels that will be used and the types of content that will be shared. As mentioned above, the choice of social network is based on the demographic profile and the type of content to be distributed.
Take care of the content : When preparing the content of the marketing campaign, you must not forget to vary the content so as not to bore the Internet users. Indeed, with all the information available on the Internet, readers get bored very quickly and want to move from one information to another. This is why it is important that the content is varied with images, videos or short and precise messages.
Have a good management of the pace of planning and publications : Publications must be regular and consistent with relevant and well arranged content for readers. And, to gain the trust of Internet users and gather them more and more around the business concept, it is recommended to have relevant content that will be broadcast regularly. It is also important to have a publication scheduling tool in order to be sure not to forget anything. You can look into tools such as Hootsuite, HubSpot or Sprout Social.
Know how to listen: It is important to pay attention to all the comments that readers will leave about your posts. These comments allow you to evaluate the rate of understanding of the message. You can then adapt your products or services if necessary. The best is to have notifications that will allow you to remain alert to the reactions of Internet users. Indeed, the faster you react to your customers' answers, the more you gain their trust. You can use social networking tools to stay connected to conversations. It is also possible to rely on Google Alerts for this kind of notification.
Evaluate posts: It is important to analyze all posts to know which post attracts the most reactions or the most potential customers. Ask yourself good questions when tracking and analyzing and work to highlight the posts that get the most engagement and the social networks where the most brand followers are coming from. These analytical results are useful for making strategic decisions for even more profitable future campaigns. They will allow you to drop certain actions and adopt other actions or other more well-known marketing content.
Get buy-in from all departments of the company : To succeed in a social media marketing campaign, it is important to standardize the message among all the actors of the company. Thus, all employees must speak the same language and must help each other so that the campaign reaches its target. The sales people must be in contact with the marketing manager to give him all the data that will allow him to refine his speech towards the potential customers and vice versa. The idea is to have a common thread and to make all employees aware of the campaign.
Indeed, the fact of supporting each other will create a new synergy which will play in favor of the motivation of the employees. The HR department can build on this unity to consolidate a good employer brand for potential employees and for internal collaborators.