Occasionally when working with businesses I hear hesitancy around spending the precious marketing budget on social media advertising. What if I told you social media marketing was so important you might be hurting your bottom line if you don’t invest in it? Advertising is all about the future of your business, you plant the seed today and you will reap the benefits for years to come. So why should you invest in social media marketing?
- Increase Brand Recognition and Brand Awareness
Social media and other digital platforms are a great way to build your brand. Engaging in these channels makes your business more relatable, human like and easier to engage with. As an added benefit social media is one of the most effective and cost-efficient ways to share content while increasing your brands visibility.
- Customers Expect You There
Customer mindsets have changed and they expect brands to have a website and a social media presence. If your business is not online it is very likely customers will give their business to one of your competitors that is online. A typical customer will spend a significant amount of time online researching a purchase before they even show up to your brick and mortar location. They are already half way through the decision-making process and it may be hard to change their mindset. This is why your online presence is so important. If your customer wasn’t impressed with you online you will more than likely never see them walk through your door. Let the gravity of that sink in.
- Your Customers Are There
I don’t think it is any surprise that people today rely on their smartphone or mobile device. On average a person spends 6 hours per day online and that is expected to increase year over year. If your customers are online you should be too! Customers today like shopping online not only because of the convenience, but because they get to control the experience. They get to decide if they review the product specifications, look at the pictures or read reviews. They even get to determine the order in which they review these items. Shopping experiences online are highly customizable compared to talking to a sales person that may or may not tell you the same thing he told the last 10 customers.
“On average a person spends 6 hours per day online and that is expected to increase year over year. If your customers are online you should be too!”
- More Customer Segmentation Available
When it comes to social media marketing not only can you segment on age, gender, education etc. you can also segment to a customer group based on their interests. Talk about precision in making sure the right people see your ads. You can even take this a step further and customize your messaging to fit the segment of customers you are targeting. Not sure who you should be targeting? Thanks to Google and Facebook tracking it is very simple to determine the interests and demographics of your current customer base and use that to target future customers.
- No Geographical Boundaries
The internet can be found almost everywhere so now you can reach and serve customers all over the world. You are no longer limited to the traditional customer base that is within 100 miles of your location. This can be huge for economies of scale with your business.
- Monitor Campaigns with Precision in Real Time
Tracking of social media advertising is much easier than traditional forms of advertising. Thanks to all the online tracking you are able to see exactly who clicked on which ad, how long they were on your website, what pages they viewed on your website and much more. And if that isn’t enough it is all in real time. Gone are the days of waiting for customers to call you based on a radio or television ad you placed. Customers see your online ad and they take action instantly and you are aware of this online interaction at the same time it is happening.
As you can see businesses can’t afford to not be engaged in a social media advertising strategy. While digital marketing is much more affordable than traditional marketing it is still important to know how to spend those dollars wisely. Want to start a social media marketing campaign, but not sure where to begin? We would be more than happy to get you on the path to success and help your business grow. Give us a call today.
