To most entrepreneurs, social media marketing is the newest trick and everyone must take full advantage of it. Every small business owner is doing it. There are a few people who assume that social media marketing is a passing fluke that might not last as long as advertised. However, the statistics say a completely different story.
At least 92 percent of marketers admitted back in 2014 that social media was a great innovation in the marketing niche. A recent study identified that at least 97 percent of marketers are using social media marketing tools and a large number might not even have a clue about which are the best tools to use. These statistics reveal how important social media is to any business but also most people don’t know how to use it effectively.
Here are some of the recognized advantages of social media marketing to small businesses.
#1. Improved Recognition of Any Brand
Think of your social media accounts as a way of making your brand more visible to the target customers. By putting your voice out there, new/potential customers have an easier time contacting you and buying your products. Even better, older customers, have an easier time familiarizing and recognizing your products. Therefore, if you want to make your brand/business more recognizable, use social media accounts to get the word out.
#2. Improved Customer Loyalty
A recent study identified that brands that use social media for marketing purposes, enjoy more customer loyalty. It’s a great way to connect with your customers and give them more information about your products. Basically put, customers who can follow your business in any social network become more loyal to you.
#3. More Conversion Opportunities
Think of it this way, every new post or update is a way to attract new customers. Therefore, by building a following on social media, you have better access to old, new and potential customers. Even better, it’s easier to interact with them. On the other hand, if you post a video or a link to your site, it could easily convert to sales. Of course, it might be hard to make sales conversions at first, but if you see every click as a potential conversion, it will work out in the end.
#4. Higher Conversion Numbers
There are lots of small businesses that have reported more conversions, thanks to social media marketing. In a way, social media makes most of these brands human which leads to more appreciation from customers. Social media accounts help you interact with the customers are regularly as possible, thereby leading to improved credibility and trust from the customers.
#5. Stronger Brand Authority
Customers love business owners that interact regularly with them. When customers are complimenting or bragging about a particular brand, the first place they turn to is social media. Therefore, when the brand name is tagged in any post, new members will automatically want to follow your page for regular updates. If more customers are talking about your brand each day, your brand becomes authoritative and stronger.
#6. Increased Traffic to Your Site
If social media marketing wasn’t in play, the only traffic to your site would be limited to people who are familiar to your business or people who search for the keywords on the search engines. If you create a new social media account, you are leading more traffic to your site. On that note, the quality of content you post on social media should be enticing to attract new customers for your business.
#7. Cheap Marketing Costs
A recent study identified that as little as six hours each week on any social media site is enough to generate lots of traffic to your site. Therefore, if you develop exceptionally strong content and use at least six hours each week to tweak your social media accounts, more customers will come pouring into your site. Even better, compared to other marketing strategies currently in use, social media marketing is very cheap, almost free!
#8. Better Rankings on Search Engines
Most websites rely on SEO to gather traffic to their sites. However, the requirements for better ranking are changing every day. Updating your blog regularly, using meta tags or meta descriptions and back-linking might not work as it previously did. Currently, search engines such as Google rely on social media mentions and presence to rank most websites. Therefore, interact regularly with your customers to get higher SEO rankings.
#9. Amazing Customer Experiences
Stripping down social media to its core, you will find that it’s yet another communication channel like email or telephones. Communicating with the customers regularly on social media will publicly demonstrate the level of customer service your business works with. It’s a great way to enrich your customers’ experiences with your company.
As such, if one of your customers complain about your product on Twitter or Facebook, you can directly contact them and find the issue. Also, if customers compliment your products, you can easily thank them and recommend any other products in your store.
#10. Insight into Customer’s Preferences
You never know where the next idea for upgrading your product might come from. There is no better place to learn this than social media. Here, you can learn what your customer’s love and hate about your products and change accordingly to meet their preferences.
If you haven’t yet hitched the wagon to social media marketing, it’s about time you did!