If you own a business, you know how many hats you have to wear … accountant, salesperson, human resources, janitor, etc. etc. Well in today’s commercial world, you are going to need one more hat and that is social marketer.
All the traditional advertising and marketing you have invested in will no longer engage your customers in the way that social marketing does. Just having a website today, won’t cut it. Today’s customers expect new information constantly and they want to connect with the people they are buying from. If you have any doubt about this, check out these points:
- Many tier 1 corporations have given up their primary websites and deal strictly on Facebook
- Without a Twitter presence, you don’t exist for many young consumers
- Consumers use their smartphones for all aspects of their lives, if your content isn’t mobile friendly, they will move on to your competitor who is
- If your content is not relevant and up to date you are missing opportunities to connect with current and potential clients
- Blogging and videos are used by your clients as sources of information
It’s all about the Content
Times have changed and your content cannot be all about you. Your customers get thousands of marketing messages every day, they are looking for something that will help them in their lives or at least entertain them. If you want to engage and compel your customers to be interested in you, you must give them something. You need to be seen as the expert and the “go-to” in your niche. For instance if you are selling garden supplies, don’t just blog about mundane gardening tips … tell them how to grow the biggest prize-winning roses … or how to have the best lawn in their neighborhood. Even better, post a video showing “how-to” grow roses or get the best lawn.
Your content must be current
Now that you have an idea of what it takes, just producing the content will not be enough. You must think like a publisher to attract sales and have current content whether it is on your blog, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube videos. This is a huge challenge for some business owners as they do not have the time or resources to put on this task. If this is your situation, you could benefit from outsourcing or engaging your employees to contribute, schedule and manage your online marketing content.
Most small businesses deal with a social marketing expert (either full time or on a consultant basis) to determine where, when and what they should concentrate their social marketing efforts on in order to reach their clients. You need to be wherever your clients are, whether it is Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc. etc.
Regardless of how you get it accomplished, you must start thinking about your marketing differently. Think of your clients as subscribers to your publishing efforts. If you deliver valuable, current and compelling content to your readers (customers), you will become the “go-to” and your business will naturally grow.
