Whether you are an entrepreneur or an average Joe, there is no one who doesn’t know the power of social media marketing. However, for marketers, there are five specific strategies you need to apply to best use that power to boost your sales.

Let’s see what they are:

1. Know your audience

Now that you have a direct link with your consumer base, you should take the chance to get to know them. Keep in mind, your consumers are real people with real needs.

Learning about your audience will help you in two ways:
  • You’ll know what makes them tick – what to say to get them interested.
  • You’ll be able to turn your likes into customers.
However, I should warn you, if you think that just any social media would work for your marketing, then think again. Not everybody is on every social media network.

When you know the audience you want to target, their age group, gender, profession and interest. Think about the platform they are most likely to use.

Minimizing the number of social accounts will also help you manage them regularly or periodically, without sacrificing too much of your time.
Research social media analytics to find where your audience is. You can even see additional information like where they live and what language they speak.

Such data will help you strategise and send out targeted ads, thereby exponentially reducing marketing costs.

2. Create engaging content to get readers interested

Content is essential to any marketing strategy, regardless of the platform. If your content doesn’t intrigue your readers, what are the chances they’ll use your product or visit your site?

Key to social media marketing is engaging your audience, creating content that will not only get them to read and but also share with followers, who will share with their and so forth.

Below are three things you can do to keep your followers interested.

1. Start conversations – People want to share their opinions 

If you ask questions, it’ll make them eager to start conversations with you. You can talk about topics that are interesting to them as well as relevant to your business.

2. Share insights – Fun facts and new theories are fascinating for everyone 

If you present them in the form a question and make it a game to see who answers first, and add a little reward for the winners, then it’ll get your followers to eagerly send in their replies, as well as share your posts.

3. Provide value and content that will benefit your followers

You can either share others written work that will prove insightful for your customers or write an article or post that you believe will help solve their initial queries.

In a nutshell, focus on what you can provide that ultimately benefits them in the long run.

Videos and animations will get you noticed

You can add videos and animations to your content as well.  It is a known fact that people respond more positively to videos than wordy content.
Plus, animations and GIFs are always fun to look.

However, ensure the relevance of what you put out to your company. You don’t want it to be too irrelevant nor too promotional – balance is the key to success.

3. Provide improved customer service

When you engage with your target audience, you get to know them on a more personal level. That helps you learn about their problems and dilemmas first hand, which, in turn, enables you to solve them.

Stellar customer service is essential for any company, but if you respond to customer inquiries on social media, it will show your followers how much you genuinely care about helping them.

Social media provides two-way communications, and your engaging content lets you answer your consumers’ queries more speedily and effectively.

4. Research your competitors

Observing your competitors is the best way to learn about any industry. If they have been in the business long before you, then they have a lot of experience that you can learn from and you can apply their formula to your strategies.

Same is the case with social media networking. Following your competitors on social media will help you keep track of their activities, and see how it affects them – you’ll see what they are doing, how they are doing it and when.

Keep an eye out for shifts in strategies, and monitor their posts to make relevant changes to your plans.

5. Plan out your social media calendar

You don’t want to find yourself on social media 24/7. However, putting out a post once every month is also a big no-no

Decide what to post and when for the maximum impact. Remember that this is separate from spontaneous interactions with your consumers.

For more information, visit www.pennysaviour.com.  

*Image courtesy of Vecteezy