Social media advertising is one of the most important elements in business marketing around the world. This type of advertising can extend your market reach directly to incredibly large numbers of people. It is therefore extremely important to ensure that you fully understand the values of social media advertising as they apply to your business.
Social media advertising essentials
Social media is a particularly diverse range of media. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and many others are available for your advertising needs.
The major issue in this very diverse environment is based on market segmentation. You need to ask several very relevant questions:
- Is a particular social media platform relevant to your market? A huge social media site like Facebook can incorporate an equally huge range of interests and potential customers. For consumer goods, for example, Facebook advertising is an absolute must. For a professional practice or niche market, however, Facebook may be a secondary advertising option in comparison to your core market advertising choices.
- Does the social media platform have groups related to your business? This may seem like an obvious question, but specialist customers must be positively identified to make your social media advertising worthwhile. You can waste a lot of time, money and effort advertising on a social media platform where interest is minimal.
- What are the specific promotional opportunities? Because every social media platform is different, promotional opportunities will vary considerably between platforms. If you can engage in meaningful promotions for your business on a platform, your social media platform advertising will succeed.
Social media advertising practical issues
Social media advertising comes with multiple practical issues, including:
- Customer relations management: Social media is an excellent opportunity to engage with your customers, but like all good CRM, your response must be quick and efficient. You will need to allocate resources to your social media CRM, define costs, and ensure that your CRM is always covered.
- Costs: Social media advertising costs come in specific bandwidths. The most common form of social media advertising is Google advertising, which is wholly efficient and has the advantage of being very clear cut in terms of actual outlays. Other types of social media advertising, including agency advertising, may be more expensive and better used for specific marketing campaigns.
- Social media platform monitoring: This type of monitoring is best done by SEO marketing specialist companies. A great deal of very useful information can be extracted from social media advertising, but you will meet and political services to achieve the best values.
- Deliverables: Your social media advertising will need to deliver:
-
- Current information, particularly in relation to promotions
- User values, in customer engagement and direct, visible benefits
- Direct connections to online stores, or other sales outlets
Social media advertising strategies
Social media advertising strategies may interlock with a range of marketing initiatives. These initiatives may include e-mail marketing, special offers, club membership, customer loyalty campaigns, and many other classic marketing strategies.
- Mapping out your social media advertising campaign is a top priority for success. Structured planning will include:
- Coordination of promotions with your general advertising and other social media advertising.
- Added values where applicable for social media participants, like “Get 5% off with our special Facebook offer” etc. These promotions can be highly successful.
- Consistency and currency of online social media information with other related information available on your website and any other promotions. Some of the classic problems with social media advertising are “mixed messages”. Like obsolete information on the business website, old prices, etc., and these situations must be avoided stringently.
If you’d like to find out more about social media advertising, or would like to enquire about social media advertising services, we will be happy to assist.