5 ways social media marketing can help your business today

Social media has in recent years became the leading method of communication between users online and with more people using social media networks daily, it is important to acknowledge the fact that people are engaging with businesses and brands as well as friends, creating an urgent necessity for social media marketing.

In 2017, over 1.66 Billion people purchased goods online, this is over a quarter of the earths population spending over 4.8 Trillion dollars. This makes it transparently clear that the purchase of goods is moving rapidly online and to not only survive but thrive as a business you must adapt a social media marketing strategy in order to engage with your customers and build your brand online.

Here are five reasons why a social media marketing strategy is necessary for your business in 2018:

1. Social Media Increases Brand Awareness

A major advantage of establishing an online presence is the ability to build brand awareness, and show customers a broader side to your business, inviting them in daily and exposing your brand’s ethos to them on daily basis using social media. Increased brand awareness leads to increased trust from customers and in return leads to them feeling comfortable with making their purchases from you and giving your business their repeat custom.

Social Media platforms are constantly releasing updates and Instagram is a great example of brand awareness building through recent updates. Instagram have recently released a poll option, allowing followers to vote between two options, and a poll bar which followers who are watching their story will slide up or down depending on how they feel about the question at hand. This is not only great for engaging with your customers first-hand, but also will also have people talking about your business and your interaction with clients, further spreading the message of your brand.

2. Social Media increases conversion rates

Does social media increase conversion rates? Of course! Every press release, infographic chart, blog, image or video you post will gain traction and increase brand awareness as well as your online reach and possibly leading traffic to your website where people will be introduced to your products or services. Studies have proved that 100% of social media campaigns have a higher lead-to-close ratio than outbound marketing, this is because clients who follow your business on social media do not feel pressured to make purchases and aren’t torpedoed by e-mails and messages and are instead enticed to work with you with built up trust naturally, creating a higher rate of conversions.

Social Media platforms have also made it relatively effortless to share content, so online users will not hesitate to share your pages, blogs, videos or other forms of content, often leading to website visits and conversions.

3. Social Media Marketing increases thought leadership

Nobody knows your business better than you do, and the chances are, you are also highly educated in the sector to remain ahead of the competition. Social Media allows you to become a thought leader by creating and releasing educating and thoughtful content which can instruct and tutor people, attracting them to your page regularly. In order to fully utilise the ability of being a thought leader, you must engage with your audience, reply to comments and messages and encourage people to engage with you while active with content surrounding current topics in your sector and fully promote your command by using every feature that social media platforms have to offer.

4. Social Media marketing increases SEO rankings

Social Media allows content promotion, and although the links from social networks do not have as strong of an impact as authentic website links, it is still a great way to improve SEO while also building brand awareness, building your following and increasing conversion rates. Social Media also has a high chance of link building, because if your content is of high quality, influencers in your sector who are using the same platform could share your links on their pages.

Increasing brand awareness actually aids in increasing and improving SEO rankings because the bigger your brand gets through social media marketing, the more searches it will appear in for your product or service and in return this will boost your rankings with established search engines.

5. Social Media marketing is actually cost-effective

Social Media marketing is perhaps the cheapest way to advertise products or services., Creating social network accounts costs nothing, and is a quick and easy process. Although the learning of algorithms and other more detailed aspects of social media marketing takes time to learn and is better utilised in the hands of specialists, the basics are very cost-effective.

Even paid marketing is a great return on investment because for a small fee with paid ad’s you could be promoted heavily through big social media networks and your product or service could be potentially exposed to millions, including your targeted audience who you can carefully highlight when creating the advert.

Social Media Marketing is a great investment for any business, as the future of purchasing and business is online, and with so many social networks to employ and take advantage of, it is an exciting time to launch a social media marketing strategy!