Social media marketing is a tough pill for some companies to swallow, especially if they’re stuck in their old ways. They may be skeptical, believing the popular misconception that social media is unmeasurable. Unfortunately for them, social media marketing is a very true reality that will impact the future of any brand. Not only does social media increase brand awareness, but it captures consumers and leads where they exist. Chances are, this article is being read on a mobile phone. Perhaps you clicked on our social media post link, leading you to our blog, or if you’re reading it on a desktop, your phone is probably within arm’s reach. Heck, a comparison on Social Media Today stated that the amount of time consumers use social media is equivalent to walking the length of the Great Wall of China 3.5 times! If you’re not targeting your consumers where they exist most often, you’re not maximizing ROI. We’ve gathered the top reasons social media marketing is important from expert sources.
1. SEO: Even though social media does not have a direct affect on SEO, Social Media Examiner says that over half of the marketers who have used social media for one year or longer, have seen improvement in their SEO rankings. The reason why is because people who engage with your content on a social platform, are drawn in to learn more about your product or service, and then, may conduct a search to further lead them to your other pages and/ or site that will directly boost your SEO. In turn, social media drives targeted traffic, which ultimately, drives purchases.
2. Timing: Like with many facts of life, timing is everything. You’re not going to ask a consumer to leave a review for your product when they’ve just had a bad experience. That would not be very fruitful. With social media, you take the utmost advantage of inbound marketing, where you draw consumers in to your content by attracting them to information they may already be seeking, adding value to their purchase journey. Social media allows you to appeal to a stranger, transform them into a lead, and further, into a customer. The majority of people using Facebook, are just scrolling through their newsfeeds when they have a little down-time. If they stumble upon your page or ad while they surf their feed, they are more likely to click on it if it appeals to them, because they were the ones initiating the search in the first place! Capture leads on their time, not yours.
3. Cost: Social media marketing is not as expensive as other forms of marketing. There is way more flexibility when choosing a platform and with the extent of involvement with said platform. Marketers have the option to advertise content for free to an immediate group of followers, or via paid advertising/campaigns, but the option is completely up to them. Social media generally offers a large and/or targeted audience reach with optimal frequency viewing options, depending on your needs as a brand. This ensures the right eyes are seeing your ads without you having to break the bank.
4. Brand Loyalty: With so many options in today’s market of consumerism, it is difficult to convince buyers that your brand is the best in the industry. What is going to stop them from trying out your competitor’s products? Social media marketing can help in that regard. Consumers today, are over 60% more brand loyal if a brand engages with them on social media. It’s more and more important to build leads and strengthen existing relationships with your consumers!
5. Higher Conversion Rates: More than half of marketers attribute positive results in sales to the time dedicated to developing relationships with clients and consumers via social media. Social media also has a 100% higher “lead-to-close” rate than outbound marketing, meaning that your advertising dollars are better spent (and less spent) by creating the opportunity for interested strangers to visit your page/ad/site because they are more likely to make a purchase that they initiated!
6. ROI Is More Than A Number: When it comes to ROI and social media, many people are misled. Yes, it is more ambiguous to measure the ROI of different social media campaigns, but it is because different brands attach values to different components in their campaigns. The way Starbucks measures ROI isn’t the same way a family counseling service measures ROI. Entrepreneur and digital expert Gary Vaynerchuk says, “ROI isn’t about the tool, it’s about investing the time and effort to use it correctly. The “I”, the investment, isn’t monetary, it’s not about throwing money at something. It’s about investing the hustle into becoming the best. It’s about execution. If you want to make money doing something, you need to be really good at that something in order to see the returns you’re looking for.”
7. ROI As A Number, For The Non-Convinced: For those of you who need to look at the math, social media marketing ROI can be measured in several ways. Customer acquisition, lead generation, clicks, revenue, contest entries, likes or shares, app downloads, purchases, and more, are all key performance indicators (KPI’s) that companies may deem valuable for their business. Establish your KPI’s first, then, determine your goals based on them. From here, your platforms must align with your goals and your campaigns must be set up to track activity. Assign a number value to these KPI’s so that you are able to more tangibly measure their value.
For example, the monetary worth of a potential visit can be based on the percentage of visitors that complete a conversion. Let’s say Polly’s Popsicles is a popsicle shop only open in the Summer time. They use social media marketing to drive mobile app downloads and consumers purchase popsicles via the app (KPI conversion metric). Polly’s Popsicles knows that the lifetime value of a consumer is $80 per summer, and that 50% of its app users make purchases. In turn, it can attribute a mobile app download to be $40 and can create a strategy plan and tactics to establish and reach their goal ROI more tangibly.
Facebook and Instagram aren’t going anywhere, people! As for Twitter, that’s another topic for another day, but if your consumers exist on there, you better believe it’s worth it for you to exist on there too! If you’re stuck on where to go next for your social media marketing, contact Amaniac Design to help you move in the right direction.
Other Sources: Medium, Ad Age, Blue Fountain Media, Social Fusion Group Inc., Forbes, HubSpot