Effective Social Media Marketing Strategies For Growth

Social media provides a powerful platform for businesses to connect with current and potential customers. Implementing the right social media marketing strategies can help companies drive brand awareness, increase website traffic, generate leads, and boost sales.

What are Social Media Marketing Strategies?

Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites. It involves creating shareable content and engaging with users on various social networks to boost brand awareness and drive sales. The main social media platforms used for marketing include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest and TikTok. Developing a strategy will be crucial to success as you will need to learn how to juggle between all of the different platforms.

Define Your Goals and KPIs

First, be clear about what you want to achieve through social media marketing. Do you want more followers, increased engagement, lower cost per lead, or higher conversions? Define specific KPIs to track so you can measure performance and ROI.

Create a Budget

• Benchmark against competitors – Research what your competitors are spending on social media marketing to get an idea of viable budgets in your industry.
• Base it on a percentage of revenue – A common approach is allocating 5-10% of projected revenue towards social media marketing costs. The percentage can vary based on business goals.
• Consider costs per channel – Factor in platform-specific costs like Facebook/Instagram ad bids, sponsored content on Twitter, LinkedIn ad rates etc.
• Allow for content creation costs – Budget for content like visuals, videos, graphics needed for social media campaigns. Factor in influencer marketing costs too.
• Include staffing/tools costs – Account for employee costs or fees for social media management tools, analytics services, advertising management tools etc.
• Start small, monitor ROI – It’s best to start with a small budget, run trials, measure ROI and then scale up budgets. Start with $100-$500/month for beginners.
• Allow flexibility – Have a framework for monthly budgets but allow some flexibility to increase budgets for specific campaigns or new opportunities.
• Set campaign budgets – Break down the overall budget by setting budget caps for individual social campaigns, collaborations etc.
• Review and adjust quarterly – Assess performance every quarter and tweak budgets higher or lower as needed.

Create Shareable Multimedia Content

Posts with images, videos, and infographics tend to gain more traction on social media compared to plain text updates. Devise a content strategy that focuses on shareable visual assets tailored for your target audience.

Leverage Influencer Marketing

Partnering with influencers in your niche provides access to their engaged follower base. Negotiate sponsored posts, content collaborations, and social media takeovers with relevant influencers to expand your reach and credibility. Leading mattress brand Casper partnered with social media influencers on sponsored posts and giveaways. Influencers shared photos and reviews using Casper products, which exposed the brand to new audiences. This strategy helped Casper generate over $100 million in revenue in 2015. Source: neoreach.com

Optimize Posts for Mobile Users

With most social media browsing happening on mobile, ensure your posts and ads are mobile-friendly. Use vertical image and video dimensions optimized for mobile screens. Taco Bell redesigned its social media ads and posts to better suit mobile screens. This included using vertical video ads that took up the entire phone screen. The mobile-focused approach resulted in a 6% increase in sales.

Implement Hashtag Strategies

Research relevant trending hashtags and join in timely conversations to increase discoverability. Combining popular hashtags with branded hashtags can help attract new audiences. During major tennis tournaments, Wilson Tennis leverages relevant hashtags like #Wimbledon, #AusOpen, #WilsonTennis to engage with fans following tournament updates on social media. This exposes the brand to new audiences and is a great social media marketing tactic.

Run Contests and Sweepstakes

Contests that encourage social sharing and engagement can help grow your follower count and email list. Offer exciting prizes and feature influencer collaborations to gain maximum visibility. Starbucks offered free coffee via weekly contests on Instagram. To enter, followers had to like the contest post and tag a friend. The campaigns gained significant attention, with some contests attracting over 250,000 entries.

Analyze Performance and Engagement

Use built-in analytics to track engagement rates, clicks and conversions for your campaigns and posts. Identify best performing content types and strategies for your brand. Keep optimizing based on data insights. By consistently analyzing engagement rates, clicks and conversions, e-commerce site ModCloth optimized its social media content strategy. It shifted focus to video content after data showed higher conversion rates from video posts.

With the right social media strategies tailored to your business goals, you can maximize the return from your marketing investment in terms of brand awareness, leads and sales. Define success metrics, analyze performance, and keep improving your tactics. Leverage some of the free social media marketing tools.