Social network is an online service, website or platform that serves for communication of various public groups. In the network, absolutely everyone can leave information about themselves (age, place and year of study, job hobbies, etc.), to facilitate the search for this account among other users of the social network. It is worth noting that social networks can be either open sources of information and communication, as well as closed, where only a limited number of people get access. But, each social network has one common feature – the system of “groups” and “friends” operates. According to research by various analytical websites, every second Internet user is on social networks. Today, small and large businesses prefer Internet marketing as a tool for social media for business advertising. In this article we will look at the benefits of promoting the company, its products and services through social networks. Among them are the following:
- low cost of the advertising campaign (as opposed to traditional advertising media, which are twice expensive);
- each user is a real consumer of information;
- wide coverage of the target audience (in addition, the audience of social networks is increasing daily);
- feedback between clients and organization, immediate responses;
- humanization of brands in the eyes of the target audience (in this case, advertising is perceived as a recommendation, advice or opinion of friends, as a result, you gain more credibility);
- profound audience analysis.
The Most Efficient Social Media Content Types to Increase the Traffic
Lead-Forms Advertising
So what are lead forms? These are special pages that are being introduced on social platforms in order to convert the interest of potential customers into real orders and applications.
Pros:
- Works on both desktop computers and mobile gadgets;
- System loads the necessary information automatically. In other words, users do not need to register their data (name and surname), it will happen automatically;
- Ease of use. When the lead-form is filled, the user remains online and does not switch to third-party resources;
- Creating and setting up lead forms takes a maximum of fifteen minutes. Everyone will cope with this; no special skills are required for this.
Guidelines for using leads:
- Please note that this sales tool works better with simple and understandable products and services that do not require searching for additional information;
- In addition, such forms show excellent results, if the target audience is not profitable to postpone their communication with you. For example, if an event takes place in the near future or a steep action is coming;
- When using lead-forms it is necessary to test different advertising posts. This will help to get low-cost applications;
- Try to minimize the number of fields that must be filled by potential buyers. As experience shows, it is better to confine yourself to the name and mobile;
Mailing
In online marketing, mailings are the most fashionable and the most popular trend, which has not yet become boring to people. What is mailing? This is a series of consecutive messages to people who have agreed to receive this newsletter. The main goal of such actions is to warm the cold target audience and the subsequent sale of goods in social networks.
Pros:
- A large percentage of openings and views of messages. As a rule, about 85% of people read newsletters;
- The ability to add photos, videos, infographics, etc. to the newsletter.
- It is worth paying attention that it is necessary to send messages only to your subscribers, otherwise, non-interested users will send complaints about spam. As a result, your company account can be blocked.
Selling content
Here we are talking about regular posting on the pages of social sites.
Pros:
- Selling content is a real chance to reach a potential client, but it takes time;
- A huge advantage of expert content is as follows. If posted materials are really cool and interesting, they will be reposted and distributed online without your participation;
- Expert materials can clearly demonstrate the experience, knowledge and a high level of competence. This is a great way to improve the image of promoted products.
Note that selling posts must be served in the “bright candy wrapper”, otherwise you risk losing the attention of the target audience. In order to sell on social networks with the help of such content, we must constantly work to increase the number of subscribers, the level of involvement, and in every way maintain the interest of the public in products.
Social media celebrities’ posts, comments
It turns out there is a way to sell without sales. What is this about? To achieve loyalty to the target audience by creating a positive image of the company, demonstrating a high level of expertise, disseminating correct and useful information on social platforms. One of the methods widely used in advertising is the technology of using celebrities and other media people in promotion campaigns. This is one of the most popular brand positioning techniques on the market.
The advantages of using celebrity images in advertising are:
- Celebrities immediately attract attention, it leads a consumer to contact the advertising media, a nice trick to increase brand awareness.
- After the end consumer understands what the object of advertising is, he/she relates it to his/her own assessment of the need for it;
- Consumers projects their needs with the requirements of the star depicted in the advertisement. Simply put, the following mental algorithm occurs: if my idol appreciates this product, then I will use it to become the same as he/she;
Broadcasts and webinars
Classics of the genre, which is used almost in all the businesses. Promotion method that is time tested. The main thing is that your viewers should be interested in the topic. Targeting is an advertising mechanism that allows you to select only your target audience from all social network subscribers and conduct a webinar to them.
If you find a budget to target webinars on social networks, here are some tips:
- Target as much as possible by creating separate ad campaigns for each webinar. This will allow you to save the budget and attract the most interested audience to the webinar;
- Test different versions of announcements and analyze the most effective one in order to understand what interests your audience;
- Remember call-to-action – call to action: use the words “find out”, “sign up”, “join”, etc.;
- Think about the picture to the announcement – use something more interesting than a company logo.
Free or almost fee mini-products
We all admire “freebie”, this is our mentality. And this feature really works. Therefore, free samples of products and services are a cool sales tool in social networks. If people like your products and services, they will become your regular customers. Sampling is an ideal way to stimulate a trial purchase of a product and to tell about the novelty of the company. The opportunity to try a new product for free eliminates the barriers of “fear of making the wrong choice and wasting money.” Sampling technology has many variations and recent trends are in refusing to use expensive promotional personnel when conducting this type of promotion. Try to provide free mini-products for likes, reposts or comments.
Affiliate programs as a way to attract users via social media
The last way to increase the number of sales in social networks is to attract partners from former and current customers. By offering them a percentage of the profits, people will talk about the product and recommend it to their subscribers.
There are several effective techniques that should be applied while attracting new partners to work in the affiliate program:
- All the benefits and advantages of the offer should come first. Even a cursory review of the commercial offer should immediately direct these people to the person looking for the cooperation offer;
- Show the absence of risks and security of payments for work performed;
- Earnings scheme must be clear. Until a person receives a guarantee of earnings, he will not participate in this affiliate program.
Tools with which the effectiveness of SMM companies are being measured
Although social networks cannot directly impact your ROI, they can be a significant source of traffic. So, how to measure your height on these platforms?
The first is with built-in social media analytics. The community administrator can always extract the necessary data from the statistics:
- overall engagement during each week;
- new subscribers;
- views, likes and share.
For example, you can see that one post attracts only 10% of the total number of your subscribers, while the other becomes “viral” and is liked by the majority. Keep track of the most popular publications and try to understand the reason for success, to use this approach for future posts.
The second is using analytics (Google Analytics as an example). Here one should look much broader – what the users did when they came from social network to the site, and who they are. This tells a lot about the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns, whether you are attracting the right people and how loyal they are to your site. In meter reports we look at the following indicators:
- Visitors demographics and long-term interests;
- Visitors activity;
- Conversions on a social network segment (remember about attribution models);
- Sources;
- Report on the long-term interest of the audience segment.
In general, social networks are a powerful tool that can connect your brand with a new audience. Although it may not be so easy to accurately determine the ROI of posts in social networks, this form of marketing will help enhance the effect of promotional activities and develop good relationships with customers.
Conclusion
Social media monitoring is a great investment of time, money, energy and resources, so it is important to effectively measure the effectiveness of a company’s marketing. Using some of the described social media management tools, pay special attention to the result. Have you achieved your goals and achieved a satisfactory ROI? Will you, seeing the result, again invest in this method? You need to adjust and re-evaluate your campaigns and strategies constantly. This is the best way to ensure that your efforts lead to an increase in ROI.
