The key to getting a greater return from any marketing campaign is a strategy. With the number of active social media users ranging in the billions, small and big businesses alike spend a lot of their budgets on social media marketing campaigns to increase brand awareness, and however crowded the online marketplace becomes, there are still numerous businesses that haven’t been able to get their ROI from their online marketing campaigns.
That’s because the internet is like the unforgiving Wild West – one false move (one unsavoury post later), and you will see your social media following dwindle by the day.
Here are the top five social media desert traps to avoid:
Ignoring Small And Big Data
In this digital age, somewhat artistry and creativity (in the traditional sense) have taken the back seat as things have been increasingly numbers-driven. In fact, to even begin the creative process, you have to acquire the data specific to your business and analyse it to create a strategy, effective marketing campaign, and business plan.
Small Data has a great impact concerning short-term and current business decisions, and it’s more accessible.
For example, social media is filled with small data about users and their smartphones or computers, as they create small data each time they log into applications. One of the best ways to understand a business is to focus on the end users, and small data can help assist with this as it is closer to end users and their individual experiences.
Big Data refers to the massive volumes of data produced digitally, including web data generated by emails, websites, social networking sites, streaming platforms, and more.
A few benefits of big data are better customer insight as it deepens that understanding of the dynamics of your market, competitive analysis, and overall increased market intelligence which can aid in prioritising different customer preferences. Big data can also improve business operations by optimising cost-saving processes which can increase customer satisfaction.
For example, artificial intelligence and big data, when married together, can be used to create predictive maintenance schedules.
Going Off-Topic Because Of An Undefined Target Audience
However hard you work on your social media presence, if you don’t know your audience, then it will be mostly a miss rather than a hit since not everyone on social media will fit your brand and would want to hear what you have to say.
Being careless with your stories will most likely leave your audience with a bad impression.
The more customers you have, the more money you make, no doubt about it–but it’s not enough to have an interesting topic or a one-hit gimmick that can engage the masses!
You need to cover interesting topics over time that are related to your product or service and keep the information you post on your social profiles relevant to your niche.
You must always provide value to your specific audience and followers.
You’re Online But Not A Robot
Even though most things can be done and bought online, as humans, we still crave that local business shop kind of feel.
As customers, we still want to be assured that we are talking to a person who cares about our concerns, and questions, and values our business.
A common mistake that businesses make is they tend to rely on too much automation.
If you become too dependent on automation, you might lose the human touch around which your brand persona thrives.
If you own a small business, then you can at least try to reply to customer requests personally, or if you own a larger company, then you could invest in a well-coded chatbot that can address customers in a professional and still personalised way before them being able to connect with a human assistant.
Not Engaging In Conversations And Being Transparent
Engagement (whether it leads to matrimony or gaining followers) is a two-way street!
It takes time and effort to create content that is both relevant to your target audiences and truthful to your brand.
If your online updates don’t get any engagements, then it is all a waste of time and money.
Social Media Marketing is also an art and a science in and of itself! A brand is all about the “story” and being transparent about your brand’s mission and vision with your customers can create loyal followers.
That is also why, creating Instagram Stories or Tiktok works if done masterfully! But encouraging your followers to react to your brand’s posts, no matter how good and unoffensive you may think they are, there will still always be negative conversations that will surface; but avoiding these negative comments will only damage your reputation eventually.
Instead, commit to personally responding to online “mentions”, whether they be positive or negative – especially the negative ones so that you can guide the conversation towards a positive note and make your customer feel empathised with.
A few other ways that you can use the power of social media to your advantage is to send customer satisfaction surveys and address issues, do online contests or giveaways, and even simply repost a customer’s post that positively reflects the company.
Not responding or acknowledging story mentions is one of the most common pitfalls when it comes to social media marketing campaigns and discounting the humanness of the brand.
Not Using Analytics And Treating All Social Media Platforms The Same
No matter what the internet gods tell you, not all social media platforms are created equal.
Your social media marketing strategy should be like a chameleon – matching every colour and taste of each user of every social media platform you’re a part of.
Since different social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram have their branding strategy, they attract different demographic users as well! But for you to do this, you must have a good tracking analytics tool to be in a position to see actionable insights that will provide past results to help you strategise for the future.
You must learn the language of each platform so that you can speak to the users in a language that they will understand.
Each social media platform is an entity on its own with unique opportunities that you can leverage to grow your business or increase its exposure.
A good social media policy demands different forms of content and most opportunities are lost by mostly small businesses which doesn’t expand their use of multiple social media platforms for their content.
With analytics and data, you would know your followers’ insight and your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
For example, if high-quality blog posts with images and videos work for your type of business, then post long-form on your well-designed website or Facebook business page; if your target audience is on the younger side, like Gen Z or Gen Alpha, then posting short but quirky and witty reels or stories on your Instagram or Tiktok accounts might be a way to go.
Now that you’re leading in your social media game by having identified your target market and being able to market your brand effectively by creating informative and appealing content for your chosen demographic, it’s time to make that exposure work for you by making it generate fruitful leads…
What is lead generation?
Apart from staying top-of-mind through your social media channels, capturing your potential customers’ contact information through these funnels is important to maintain this connection, since it takes multiple encounters with a business before a person becomes a customer.
Here are five ways to generate leads effectively through your website or social media:
Gift Exchange
Every day can be Christmas online if we try hard enough! Creating and “gifting” something of value to your niche is known as a “lead magnet” –a strategy that your quality leads feel is worth exchanging their contact information for.
Some examples of these include but are not limited to some sort of “guide”, free tools (ie. personality quizzes), free trials, free consults, and literal swag/merchandise.
Products & Testimonials
A carefully designed and curated Products and Services page makes all the difference, plus, you can and must include a well-constructed CTA (Call-To-Action) statement and button that can fully support your offers.
Other ways of assisting potential customers’ transformation into buyers are with the use of a somewhat digital WOM (Word Of Mouth) with a tasteful testimonials page and a live chat widget!
The goal of optimising your pages is that your visitor is introduced to such an appealing offer that they’re happy to hand over information in exchange for something valuable–what is more comforting than learning about other people’s positive experiences and opinions about your products and services?
Collaboration Is The Future
Social media selling by influencer collaborations is a powerful lead generation tool! Partnering with an influencer who is relevant to your brand and its reputation can not only help drive traffic toward your social channels and website, but it can add trust to your brand.
Just also make sure that your landing pages contain all the features and benefits, that the messaging is the same as the ad or piece of content leading to your offer, and that there is an easy form that your potential customers can fill out to obtain said offer.
Be Feral When Asking For Referrals
Not truly – but be enthusiastic when asking for referrals! It might be a classic old way, but the fact that it’s still part of marketing’s best practices means it’s highly effective.
Referrals are the best lead generation because they combine the power of Word-of-Mouth and Testimonials, plus, the only strategy is producing happy customers.
Nothing boosts a company’s credibility more–and it empowers your customers to do the talking for you and practically “close” a sale. To also create happy and satisfied customers and make them feel valued–apart from offering them loyalty and referral programs–conduct regular customer care calls.
A happy customer who has a continued relationship with you and your company is likely to buy again. It is cheaper to sell to an existing customer than to acquire a new lead. It comes full circle as most quality leads can come from your current customers!
Test! Test! Test! Mic Test!
If you didn’t hear us the first time, testing and gathering data is essential in today’s digital marketing world.
Reporting and metrics are needed to analyse the information to be able to craft content styles that your audiences deem valuable.
For example, test your email and CTA buttons through A/B testing–from their copy, subject lines, design, and content layouts. Send two different versions of your email and post different CTA copies and designs to a subsection of your audience. Then, collect and analyse which version performed better. All the hard work is worth it and will save you money in the long run!
How we can help
As we have said at the beginning: the key to getting a greater return from any marketing campaign is a strategy…and Krystal Designs will be your best overall strategy in gaining leads and making less to no mistakes!
With our team of experts, we offer you the most valuable thing of all–time. The time to make more executive decisions in your business and less worrying about the devils in your business’ digital details! We will run the tests and design quality content bespoke to your customers. Book a FREE Discovery call today, we currently have a limited-time offer for a free consult!
