Why it is crucial to have a strategy guiding your efforts in Social Media Marketing

Advertising in Social Media can be low cost without compromising quality. That is great news. In fact it is possible to run free campaigns. I recently saw an interview of a Marketing Manager for a low cost airline who was saying they were only running their marketing campaigns on Social Media as part of their strategy to reduce costs. However the key to success is having a sound strategy for your efforts. Dropping advertisements, sharing blog posts or running campaigns without a strategy that spells out target audiences, means of reaching out, desired results, intelligent data analysis and program evaluation is futile and might actually produce negative results.

I have been working with a client who is an Immigration Attorney. They opened a Facebook business page and their immediate action was to flight advertisements. Obviously they attracted a lot of traffic to their page. Unfortunately most of the respondents where not exactly their target market. Of a bigger challenge was the fact that some of those that were commenting were actually querying the authenticity of  these attorneys. A mere advertisement did not quite achieve the desired results. Their efforts equally lacked social proof - a cardinal component for success in Social Media Marketing. I also found lacking in their efforts the human element in their communication. One of the proprietors in this project is on a LinkdIn, they have a Twitter account, but these are not active nor are they linked to the business Facebook page. It has been proven that clients easily engage with a personality.

Another interesting experience I had was with a client who is running an accounting firm. They also ran advertisements on Facebook but they are linked to their personal account. The challenge that I found with their work was that they were not taking advantage of content marketing to share relevant information with their target market. A technical and legislated service offering like accounting, naturally requires a lot of information sharing. Information shared could be from other technocrats, service providers and regulatory authorities. Source of relevant information is not much of an issue, what is important is to show that you have adequate knowledge about that information. As you share advice and relevant information, showcase your expertise to assist your potential clients utilize the information to their most advantage.

I am currently working on a Marketing Strategy for a client in the Construction Industry but offering a unique service. Initially the client was not convinced that their services can be marketed through Social Media Forums. But after noting that most of their clients are on Social Media Forums, they have since acknowledged the possibility of running a successful marketing program through these forums. The uniqueness of their product and regulations in their industry are a lucrative environment for content marketing. What is clear from most of these experiences is that enlisting the services of a consultant will help you identify the best methods to pursue. Marketing efforts need to be treat differently from mere information dissemination. A specialist will also help you come up with appropriate evaluation methods which are cardinal for the measure of Return on Investment.

Are you realising your desired results with your Social Media Marketing efforts? Maybe you have not yet considered Social Media Marketing. Get in touch and lets see how best we can assist.