Table of Contents
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social Media Marketing Services
Types of Social Media Marketing Services
Benefits of Social Media Marketing Services
What is Social Media Marketing?
Small business owners work hard and are, oftentimes, very busy. Do you feel like you don’t have the time to create daily social media content and/or social media advertising content, publish it, monitor your reach, and engage with users online every day? You’re not alone. You’re simply busy with your work!
Social media marketing companies help business owners reap the benefits of social media, allowing them to focus on what they do best.
In this post, we are going to talk about social media marketing, social media marketing services, and the benefits of hiring a social media marketing service for your business.
First, let’s start with What is Social Media Marketing? Social Media Marketing or SMM is when businesses use social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) to engage with their customers, reach new customers, promote their products and services, and ultimately increase their sales.
Social media websites started as online communities mainly used by teens, but over the years, they have grown to include audiences of all ages and have become platforms for individuals and businesses alike.
Before social media, marketing was mostly exclusive to email, search engines, television, radio, and print. Now, with these platforms available to anyone and everyone, social media has become one of the top marketing strategies for small businesses. With around 2.89 billion monthly active users on Facebook, around 199 million daily active users on Twitter, and a little over one billion monthly active users on Instagram worldwide at the moment, social media offers businesses an enormous available audience!
Google and Yelp are also helping small businesses get found and gain the trust of their customers in today’s digital world. Around 49% of businesses listed on GMB (Google My Business) get over 1,000 views per month, and 45% of consumers are likely to check reviews on Yelp before visiting a business. Why not use these platforms to your advantage to promote your business?
Social media marketing is made up of three main components. From content creation to advertising and analytics, there are many ways for businesses to use social media to market their brand. Let’s take a closer look at these three main aspects of social media marketing.
Social Media Content Creation
Social media marketing first started with content creation and sharing. Content sharing is basically what you do with your personal social media profiles, sharing photos, links, and interesting content. Social media gives businesses a space to publish content, drive traffic to their websites, and develop an audience that is interested in their products or services. There are many components to consider when publishing content on a business social media profile, including what time you should post, how often, and social media algorithms. We will share future blogs that go into more detail about these topics, be sure to look out for them!
Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising involves running targeted ads or boosting content to reach a certain audience. If you want to reach new customers, you can create targeted audiences with your social media advertisements based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and more. Facebook and Instagram ads target people with an interest in a product or service, while Google ads target people intending to buy a product or service. We will share future blogs relating to social media and Google advertising, including how to create an ad. Make sure to look out for those as well!
Social Media Analytics
Data and analytics help you understand how your business is performing on social media. Think about your business’s goals. Do you want to reach new customers? Do you want to increase your sales? With social media analytics, you can analyze your business’s reach, engagement, and sales.
Social Media Marketing Services
Now that we’ve gone over the basics of social media marketing, let’s get into social media marketing services. Using social media to promote your business can be tricky. You may be wondering why your social media ads haven’t gotten you any sales or why your content doesn’t get much engagement. From creating engaging posts to effective advertisements, many aspects of social media marketing require an expert’s touch. That’s where social media marketing services come into play.
As a business owner, you specialize in a specific industry, whether that be construction, finances, beauty, plumbing, automotive, etc. Marketing and social media marketing are industries in themselves. Social media marketing agents specialize in helping businesses grow online using techniques many business owners may not know. Let’s first take a look at the different types of social media marketing services and what they include.
Types of Social Media Marketing Services
Many businesses put social media marketing into one big category, but it can be split up into two; paid and organic. Paid social media marketing helps businesses reach new customers and retarget audiences quickly with paid social media advertisements, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram ads. Organic marketing helps businesses gain a following and build a community naturally through unpaid content. Here are some examples of each.
Both types of social media marketing can be beneficial and effective for businesses and should complement each other. Organic social media marketing can be effective without paid marketing, but paid advertisements don’t work well if you don’t have organic content and a community. The route you take depends on how you want to develop your audience and gain customers and your social media budget.
For businesses on a budget, starting with organic social media marketing is an effective choice. An organic social media marketing service will help your business develop a strategy and a content calendar, along with publishing and analyzing how your business is performing organically. This type of service involves the content creation and sharing as well as the analytical aspects of social media marketing. This is an effective approach to keeping an active online presence and developing an audience that follows and is genuinely interested in your business. This route uses creativity to get customers to come to you by developing an authentic and loyal audience over time. The focus is on building brand awareness and an audience that regularly visits your social media pages.
For businesses with a little more flexibility in their social media budget, organic and paid marketing is an effective option. A paid social media marketing service will help put your business in front of new customers quickly with targeted advertisements and analyze how your ads are performing. Paid advertisements can also target existing audiences, putting your content in front of online users who already know and follow your business. Instead of having your audience come to you, you bring your content to your audience through paid or sponsored ads. This type of service involves the advertising and analytical aspects of social media marketing and is an effective approach to increasing your audience and sales quickly. As mentioned above, it is important to have organic content and a community for any paid advertisements to be effective.
Think of your online marketing strategies as a funnel. A marketing funnel takes your potential customers through a journey from discovering your business to purchasing your products or services regularly.
Both organic social media marketing and paid social media marketing play important roles in the marketing funnel. The marketing funnel starts with Awareness, where potential customers discover your business. Customers can discover your business through a paid ad, on Google, on social media through organic content, etc.
Next comes Interest, where potential customers show interest in your products or services. Customers may save your ad or regularly visit your business’s Google My Business page or social media pages.
Following Interest is Consideration, where potential customers are considering purchasing your products or services. They may go through your social media pages and reviews thoroughly to learn more about your business, learning if your business is trustworthy.
Intent comes next on the marketing funnel. Intent is where potential customers have the intention to purchase your products or services. This includes visiting your website, adding products to a cart on your website, signing up for demos, etc.
Next comes Purchase, where customers have bought your products or services.
Last on the marketing funnel is Loyalty. This is where your products, services, and customer service are important. Customers evaluate their experience with your business and decide whether or not they will purchase your products or services again.
Going through the marketing funnel, you can see that organic social media marketing can be effective on its own, while paid social media marketing is less likely to be effective on its own. Once potential customers reach the Consideration stage, where they learn more about your business through your social media channels, if you don’t have any organic content, this is where the journey may end.
It is worthy to note that both types of social media marketing will involve an investment. If you choose to organically promote your business yourself, you will be investing time into creating a strategy that works. If you choose to promote your business through paid advertisements yourself, you will be investing time into creating strategic advertisements as well as money for the ads. Choosing an organic social media marketing service or a paid social media marketing service takes the weight off your shoulders, allowing you to focus on your business. Let’s take a look at some benefits of social media marketing services.
Benefits of Social Media Marketing Services
As a small business owner, you are always working hard! Do you feel like you don’t have time during the day to manage your business’s social media channels? Creating effective daily content and/or advertising content, publishing it, monitoring your reach, and engaging with users online every day takes up a lot of time!
A VerticalResponse survey in 2015 found that 43 percent of small businesses spend about six hours per week on social media, which adds up to almost a full workday. With social media on the rise and a global pandemic, you may find that your business spends more time online. Social media marketing can become a full-time job, but you already have one! Social media marketing services allow you to save time and focus on what you do best. You can reap the benefits of social media without lifting a finger!
Apart from saving time, there are numerous benefits to hiring a social media marketing service for your business. Are you wondering why your social media channels or ads haven’t made an impact or helped your business? Although organic and paid social media marketing can be done by business owners, using a social media marketing service can help you reach your business goals. As we mentioned before, social media marketing agents are specialists, which brings us to our next point.
Effective Content
Inspiration can be hard to come by. Coming up with relevant, engaging, and captivating organic and advertising content to target your audience can be difficult without the right expertise. Are you constantly asking yourself… “what should I post today?” Or “what should I write in my ad?” Many business owners find themselves in this position.
You will no longer have to ask yourself, “are my social media channels making an impact?” Teaming up with social media specialists helps ensure your business’s online marketing tactics are effective.
There is a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes into creating a social media strategy that works, starting with your social media audience.
Social Media Audience
One key factor in being effective on social media is understanding your audience. Your social media audience has the potential to turn into a loyal customer base if you are targeting the right people. Each business is different, making it difficult to understand your target audience without the right expertise. There are many factors, including but not limited to;
Audience Factors
- Age groups
- Gender
- Income Levels
- Education
- Marital Status
- Interests
- Whether you need to target B2B (Business to Business) or B2C (Business to Consumer)
- Online Activity
A social media marketing expert dedicated to your business’s success will analyze your business and its target audience and develop a strategy to help you reach and connect with them. They will monitor the development of your business online and make any necessary changes.
For example, boosting an ad about a children’s hair salon would not be beneficial if you are targeting people without kids. Targeting the right people is what turns content into sales and is important for both daily content and paid advertising content.
How do you target a specific audience through daily organic content? Here’s where more data comes into play. A social media marketing expert will research your target audience, what they want to see, what type of content they interact with, and develop a strategy based on their findings.
Business Growth
In the end, social media marketing is all about growing your business online and, in turn, increasing your sales. Targeted social media ads created by a specialist will help your business reach new customers and interested leads. How can organic social media marketing increase your sales?
Publishing regular valuable content on your social media channels allows you to create a connection with your audience and build trust, but that’s not the only benefit. Many people find products and services they need through social media. Remaining active on these channels helps you get found and lets your customers get to know your business. Don’t think your customers will search for your products or services on social media? Would they search on Google for a product or service you offer? Remaining active online with regular content helps your business rank higher on Google, making it easier for customers to find you.
Think about it, when you search for a product or service on Google, do you scroll past the first page? Barely anyone does! That means your business needs to be at the top of the search results. Positive reviews and maintaining an active online presence are two effective ways to get your business to move up on Google. Getting your business to the top of the search results on Google will help increase your sales.
If you want to use social media to market your business but don’t have the time, or you want to make sure that it is used effectively, a social media marketing service can help.
Adler Social offers affordable organic social media marketing and online presence services, helping your business stay active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google My Business. To learn more about us and how we can help your business, feel free to give us a call or schedule a free demo!
Katelyn Huras
