It’s safe to say, social media is here to stay! It is no longer the new hot craze you can pass off in hopes that it goes away. Social Media needs to be considered at the strategic level of your marketing decision making process.
Social media platforms should be used to not only keep in touch with existing clients, but also to acquire new clients as well. The ultimate goal has always been to have a user’s clickstream, a user’s trail of clicks while surfing the Internet, end on a platform capable of capturing the clients contact information to help secure the sale. The ever so popular social media platforms have complicated this concept. There are more variables to consider when it comes to social media as well as more opportunities. Social media provides marketer two powerful new tools to covert users into clients. Social media allows marketers to scale one-to-one conversations and publish content without a media partner. These two behaviors combined allow for customer acquisition.
You can not depend on the contacts you make through social media activity to ultimately lead to a sale. Your website should be the tool that ties all of your social media activity together. Your activity on social media sites functions as a gateway to lead prospective clients back to your website, complete with developed content.
Effectively generating leads from social media platforms is no different than generating leads elsewhere. No one likes to be sold to in any environment. Social media should be used to engage your clients, create awareness for you and your brand and build a sense of trust.
Social media should be viewed as a way to open up new access points to your target market. These points, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc, should be leveraged to create content, context, connection, and community. Leveraging on these concepts will lead to generating new leads.
When utilizing social media a marketer’s ultimate goal should be to cultivate the most loyal and engaged fans. The idea behind this goal is that if you engage people who are interested in your product/service they will tell others about it.
Below are some tips for engaging clients through social media:
Know What Your Fans Want – Social media platforms should serve as a conversation hub for fans that welcomes open, honest, and transparent conversations, not sales pitches.
Become a Publisher – Provide objective information based on what your target customers’ interests are. Social media platforms should be updated on a regular basis with fresh content. It is important to keep your clients interested with frequent and interesting updates. Focus recently conducted a survey of marketers and found online content to be the second strongest marketing channel.
Integrate – Integrate your social media activity with all other aspects of your marketing plan. Include links to your social media profiles in your email signature, business cards, and any offline/online marketing materials.
Brand YOU – You should not be directly selling your product or service through social media, instead you should be generating leads by establishing yourself as trusted individual/brand in your community who is an expert in all areas. Brand YOU as the expert in your field and ask for questions related to your industry. Become their “go to” person.
Want to learn more about how to effectively promote your Social Media Efforts and marketing campaign? Contact 220 Marketing today or visit our website for a FREE CONSULTATION
220 Marketing specializes in Online Marketing and Management for industries such as Insurance Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, and Mortgage Marketing.