The saturation and decline stages of a product life cycle are a nightmare for any entrepreneur. Anything that can be done to re-invent the product and take it back to the stages where sales are growing and keep it at the maturity stage for a longer period, would be a dream come true. The advent of Social Media Marketing, makes this a reality. How? A Social Media Marketing Strategy worth its salt should enable dialogue between the organization and its clients. In all the data exchanged, our strategy should incorporate applications and tools that will aid data analysis which is intelligent enough to help us identify opportunities. This data when analysed appropriately, will arm the business with vital information on product use, product need, distribution channels new markets and possible joint ventures. It will be cardinal also to align our advertising efforts with the information unearthed from this data analysis.
One of the initiators of dialogue is Content Marketing. Through this marketing method you want to share relevant and valuable information about your product. The information has got to be targeted to a specific audience with a deliberate intent to attract dialogue. It is key to note that the targeted audience is already searching for information out there, and our aim is to conveniently avail ourselves as the providers of that information. Embedded in our information dissemination strategy, is a call for the consumer of our information not only to purchase our product but share this information. The availability of various platforms as sources of information through the internet has left almost everyone with a zeal to research. Most consumer will only purchase products that they have adequate information about, providing us the opportunity to share this information. The cyberspace is infiltrated with a lot of 'experts' and some are of questionable repute. There is no better advantage you can have than present yourself as an authority in your trade by sharing product information and professional advice.
Another dialogue instigator is Inbound Marketing. This is a strategy where you want to showcase how you perform internal activities and use that to attract clients. With Inbound Marketing you are literally saying to your target audience....."Hey, this is who we are, this is what we do, this is how we do it....do you fancy?" Since Social Media is designed to propel dialogue, who ever has been targeted with this information is going to respond. They will either confirm that what you are doing tickles them the right way, they might scream at how shoddily you are conducting yourself or they might give indications of how you fair compared to the best within your industry. That you have bared your soul is in itself some form of an evaluation and the responses you get will arm you with a with relevant information on how to keep your product offer high on the performance rung.
Research and development can be very tricky as it is premised on a lot of assumptions. Where sampling is conducted there is no guarantee that the results are harvested from the appropriate potential markets or the results will survive the changes in our fast paced age. With Social Media Marketing, research can easily be conducted through engaging our followers who are our target markets. Not only will the research be a fair representation but our strike rate will be very close to assumptions. When we develop a listening skill, it is possible to pick out from clients new product use or even product diversification. Our clients will provide us with relevant information to purse new markets. It is through dialogue in Social Media Forums that we can as well identify potential strategic partners. Our Social Media Marketing Strategy is as good as our investment on data analysis. With adequate analysis, we can re-invent ourselves from market saturation and product decline, to growth stages either with a new product or with our current product in new markets. It is also possible to identify new product use.
Is your Social Media Marketing Strategy able to re-invent you? We could help you with an evaluation.
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