Your relationship with your customers is a bit like the dating world. You have to know who you’re trying to find, and who would be interested in you. For many online marketers, however, they strike out more than they create lasting relationships.
It’s 2018–a mass majority of small to medium sized businesses have created some form of social media marketing with the intention of generating customer engagement and online visibility. These professionals signed up for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms. They developed great content strategies. They even generated a decent budget for advertising. That’s all you have to do to start attracting customers by the thousands right? Wrong.
While all these steps seem like the right actions to take, some businesses still miss the mark when trying to attract an online following. As any marketer knows, this is an extremely frustrating part of the job, especially when you’ve done a ton of research into what makes the right content. It’s not that your message isn’t marketable, however. You just need to adjust your approach.
Are you not feeling the love online? A majority of businesses face a slump in engagement. You might even have a large number of followers, but you still only get very few likes, comments, and shares. If this is the case, you’re not alone. Give the following techniques a try:
1. Tweak your tone. Does your content read like a sales pitch? You might believe that you must promote your products nonstop, when in reality you need to tap into a conversational, human voice. That’s the whole point of social media. You can’t connect with your followers if you come across as a door-to-door salesperson, you’re surely going to make your followers’ eyes roll.
2. Tweak your content. So maybe you have your voice down, but you’re still pushing promotions like there’s no tomorrow. That’s not the way to go, either. Instead, consider what we call “pull marketing”– blogs, news, quotes, recipes, fun facts, etc. You know, stuff people actually enjoy reading or watching, whether it’s part of a marketing strategy or not. This is where there is a game-changing difference between online marketing and traditional marketing, there has to be a takeaway — some information or entertainment aspect that gives the content value.
3. Tweak your publishing times. Now, a bit of logistics come into play. Perhaps you’re just missing your target audience’s ideal viewing window. On top of every platform having an ideal publishing time window, you also need to consider your audience. If you have a younger crowd, you may want to consider evenings, whereas an audience 30-50 years of age may be more likely to scroll the web in the morning. If you don’t keep this in mind, your target audience’s news feed may have buried your content down the line.
4. Tweak your awareness. What does your website have to do with social media marketing? Well, a whole lot if you want to get technical. But your website could serve as a gateway to an increase in social media followers as long as you add buttons that directly lead to your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other pages. Additionally, if you’re selling a product, integrate the social media platforms logos on the packaging somewhere. If you have a physical location, post signs around the property that promote your social media channels.
5. Tweak your advertising. Whether you’re advertising on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, paid advertising can certainly boost your awareness and visibility– if you do it right. If you’re boosting posts, make sure that there is a call to action that your audience will want to pursue. If you’re doing target marketing, make sure you’re targeting the people who would be most likely to be interested in your brand.
Social media advertising can be a gateway to heightened engagement if done correctly. However, many business owners feel that they can handle this themselves or pass it off to an intern– in the meantime they end up wasting hundreds or thousands of dollars because they didn’t utilize the most effective route. It’s important to have a team of social media marketing experts by your side to guide your brand to continued success via these intricate strategies.
Your social media audience deserves the best from you. In return, they’ll help you spread the word through user generated content. But you have to earn their attention. The above ideas can help you a great deal as long as you take the time to develop the strategy that’s right for your brand. As we’ve said, all this is a bit like dating. It takes some work to find the right match, but it’s definitely worth it in the end.
Consider The Go! Agency your matchmakers! We specialize in perfecting our clients’ voices online. Are you ready for a professional to handle your social media? Click here to learn more: http://ow.ly/ODg330iWZLM
