The 15 Benefits of Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is no easy task. It takes a highly-skilled marketer to effectively connect with a target audience through strategy and creativity. Plus, it’s more than just posting on social media, sharing memes, and responding to comments. With social media marketing, you are building your brand. Your brand requires a strong foundation to ensure it continues to stand tall, strong, and successful. Using social media is critical for businesses to build relationships with their audience, not just for the purpose of increasing sales but also the brand’s equity and reputation. There are a lot of benefits of social media marketing. In fact, 90% of marketers say their social media marketing efforts increased the exposure of their brand. 75% say these efforts have increased their traffic. In this article, we’ll discuss the many benefits of social media marketing that we think you should be aware of.
Benefits of social media marketing for branding
Improve brand awareness
People don’t only interact with brands they are very familiar with and have bought products or services from in the past. In fact, 83% of consumers who were surveyed stated that they discover new products and services daily. The more effort you put into your social media strategy, the more people will see your brand. That’s exactly what we want.
Improve brand loyalty
When you are building your brand and fostering relationships with your customers, they will start to value you and your brand. 76% of consumers say they would rather buy from a brand that they feel connected to over a competitor. Creating those long lasting relationships with consumers is an important part of having a loyal customer base.
Humanize your brand
Nowadays, it seems a lot of businesses are taking the easy route and automating everything, including social media. This takes away from building meaningful relationships with customers. The ability to make real connections is a key benefit of social media marketing. Authenticity in your brand builds trust in consumers. That trust turns into loyalty, and that loyalty is what drives more business for your brand.
Benefits of social media marketing for content marketing
Content promotion
Social media is the perfect place to promote your content, whether it be blog posts, videos, or graphics. The content on your website is great, but it would be even better if people knew it was there. Sharing who you are and what you do will spark interest in your audience. It’s important to incorporate your content marketing strategy into your social media strategy.
Content sourcing
Did you know that you don’t always have to come up with your own content? You can actually ask your followers what they want to see. For example, you just shared a blog post on social media that got a lot of attention, so you ask your followers what they want you to write about next. Social listening also allows you to monitor what people are saying about your brand, your products, and even your competitors to give you ideas for future content.
Increase credibility
When you create and publish more content across your social media channels, consumers are more likely to see you as a credible source. Your brand credibility also relies on a robust content strategy. The more you share your content on social media, consumers will be drawn to your brand for more information about a relevant topic.
Benefits of social media marketing for insights
Stay on top of industry news
Businesses around the globe regularly share industry updates on their social media pages. The world of marketing is fast-moving, and you can’t afford to be left behind. Social media platforms are their own search engines and are a great way to stay up-to-date on things you need to know. Changes in your industry could affect how you do business, so knowing what these changes are is critical.
Learn more about your customers
It’s important to know your audience and their interests and behaviors, as I mentioned in a previous post on getting to know your audience. Social media gives you an abundance of information about your customers, and you can use that information to better your efforts for your marketing campaigns. Fostering relationships with your customers allows you to understand them better. On top of that, social media platforms offer analytics about your customers’ ages, which of your content they engage with most, and more.
Learn more about your competitors
Maintaining a competitive advantage is a huge part in why consumers are drawn to your business in the first place. In order to effectively maintain that advantage, you need to know who your competitors are and what they are doing. You also need to pay attention to what consumers are saying about your competition. Are there pain points with their products or services? Are they doing something that you’re not that is working for them? Knowing this information will help you understand your competitors and improve your marketing efforts.
Benefits of social media marketing for advertising
Create targeted ads
Social media advertising allows you to target your campaigns toward the right audience and make the most of your advertising budget. Marketers are using social media advertising more and more, and the entire US ad spend is projected to grow to $56.85 billion in the entire year of 2022. With ad targeting, you can create tailored marketing campaigns based on age and other demographics, interests, and behaviors that are relevant to your brand.
Created retargeted ads
You’d be surprised by the amount of people that visit your website or product page and don’t buy your product or service. Retargeted ad campaigns allow you to craft messages toward consumers who are already a bit familiar with your brand, whether they visited your website to browse or have left a product in a shopping cart. Using Facebook Pixel allows you to create audiences for your campaigns based on those who have previously been on your website. This allows consumers to think about your brand again and your products and services. The more they think about it, the more likely they are to actually purchase something.
Create immediate exposure for your brand
Advertising on social media allows you to gain immediate exposure for your content. With posting organically, you rely solely on your followers to engage with your content. Most of the time you just hope that your followers share your content so their friends and family will see it. However, with paid advertising you get to send your content out to thousands of consumers who are relevant to your business, even if they have never known you.
Benefits of social media marketing for business growth
Generate more leads
With social media, you are able to build your brand more efficiently and get more potential customers. Consumers are on social media daily, and it is a good way for them to show interest in your brand in a casual, low-commitment way. Lead generation is a key benefit of using social media for your business.
Increase website traffic
As mentioned previously, social media can direct consumers to your website. Sharing new content or blog posts on your social media pages are great ways to get readers. SEMrush claims that the amount of direct website visitors is a leading ranking factor. So, the more quality visitors you have on your website, the better. Make sure you are including links to your website on your posts and on all social media pages.
Partner with influencers
Influencers are a great way to incorporate user-generated content for your brand. When people are talking positively about your brand, their followers are more likely to follow you and become potential customers. One of the best ways to draw word of mouth is by working with brand influencers who will share content for you. 93% of marketers use influencers for their social media campaigns. Plus, 80% of consumers claim they have purchased something after seeing it recommended by influencers.
Social media marketing is a key factor in a robust and well-rounded marketing strategy.
Many businesses still don’t even use social media because they don’t think it is relevant to their brand. That actually couldn’t be further from the truth. Every business in every industry has the potential to benefit from utilizing social media in their overall marketing strategy. However, they should be using it effectively. Understanding the benefits of social media marketing will help businesses form their strategy and better their brand. Our lead social media manager says social media marketing is important because it’s the one place where you can find your customers.
If you find yourself needing help with your social media strategy, whether it be creating graphics, content, or advertising, get in touch with us to have us create a strategic and tailored mix just for your brand.
