Hi there business owners, are you interested in strategies for social media marketing for your business?

I’m going to talk about one of the most powerful tools to get your business noticed online, social media advertising. If your business is already on social media, but you’re getting “zero” results, you should read this.

I will cover the 6 most common elements missing from social media strategies. As a business owners we all need a strategy for using social media, and the strategy we are talking about here is to get more leads, prospects and customers.

These steps are simple, and easy to follow, yet 90% of business owners fail to do it. The result? their message get lost in a sea of advertising “noise” not to mention making Mark Zuckerberg richer (apologies if Mark is reading).

“Interrupt Me” Style Advertising

Flashback to the year 1946 and a televised baseball match between the Brooklyn dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies was underway. The first ever advertisement was about to be aired on television.

It was for “Bulova” watches, the ad was simply a minute hand moving around the dial, the company that ran it paid a total of $9 – talk about the only game in town!

Today the TV advertising market in the US is worth over US$ 280 Billion annually.

This single ad began the era of “interrupt” advertising. Interrupt advertising tries to grab your attention. Contrast this with “search” advertising where you place your ad in front of people ready to buy – like google search.

Interrupt advertising is constantly around us. You can be bombarded with this up to 5,000 times each day. Your brain does a good job of effectively blocking this out as a coping mechanism. Otherwise, we would go nuts trying to process all the information.

This brain blocking is not so good if you want your message to get through to your customers, your audience. So how do you interrupt the right people with the right message? Get them to stop, look, and listen to what you have to say, without being a pest?

The Social Media Juggernaut

Social media is a great way to do this. People are already in information browsing mode, so the trick is to interrupt the right people, in the the right way.

You hear many people saying that social media is saturated or dead, this is not so. Worldwide spending on social media ads totaled US$ 230 Billion with 4.65 Billion users globally and growing fast.

While it is true that there is a lot of “noise” competing for attention on social media, and its getting more expensive, it’s still, the best way to reach the people you want to serve.

Facebook (93%) and Instagram (78%) are the two most used platform by marketers worldwide, so it makes sense to be clear on exactly how you want to use these platforms to maximize your results.

With so much advertising money going in to these platforms, its clear that they are working for business owners. Social media can be one of the most effective ways to reach your target customers if done correctly.

You are more likely to get your message in front of your prospects than you are using other media types. At a far better return on ad spend.

It’s popular and it’s busy, so your message needs to stand out

The popularity of social media marketing strategies has caused an explosion of advertising content. This is a challenge for you as a business owner as your advertising message gets drowned out in all the noise.

Also consider that these media platforms want to keep their users engaged as well as keep advertiser’s happy. So if you’re just spamming people with your offer and your content is doing a hard sell then;

1) The platform will most likely limit the reach of your ad, or charge you more to promote it

2) Users will simply scroll past it, especially if you are trying the hard sell.

You have about 5 seconds to get peoples attention these days before they “scroll on”. Don’t do what everyone else does, and just run ads asking people to buy, that’s a waste of money.

Targeting Your Audience With Laser Accuracy

Here’s the other thing that makes social media so good – audience targeting.

Social media platforms have literally thousands of data points on their users. Somewhere around 40,000 for an average user and growing as various platforms share data.

It may be disturbing to know how many ways people are tracked on social media, below are just some of the on-page actions recorded.

• Your clicks are recorded
• How often you scroll
• When you scroll and how often you pause
• The content you click “like” on
• Who your friends and family are
• The interests, likes and hobbies of your friends friends
• They know what clubs you’re in

Having this information makes it possible to be very accurate when targeting an audience with your message. Your ads will be many times more efficient in generating leads, customers and enquiries.

Strategies For Social Media Marketing – In 6 Steps

Let’s use a common business example to illustrate, say you own a bike store that sell cross country bikes.

Here is a basic process you can follow. If done on a regular basis, will generate a solid Facebook audience you can tap into when you make offers to them.

These steps apply to any product or service based business, and will work for you if you feed and grow your audience a little every day.

A Cross Country Bike Store Case Study

Here is a six step, simple process for starting a social media campaign to get customers online. It uses a bike store as a sample case study although these steps can be used for any product or service.

The Strategy

Before we begin any marketing activity there should be a strategy and an objective for what you want to achieve for your business. In this campaign the strategy is simple, engage with your target audience on social media, build authority, trust and an online audience via content that is valuable to them.

Use this information to craft your offer and message to be an excellent match for the pains, problems and aspirations of your audience. Develop your ad and use the platform’s tools to finely target this message, measure the success, adjust and repeat.

Step 1 – Setup a Presence on Facebook and Instagram

The first step is to setup a Facebook page for your business. Once this is done join several Facebook groups for weekend bike events, biking clubs and start talking with bike owners online.

These group members often have questions and new bike models, parts or general repair questions. By joining these discussions you are engaging with potential customers. You are also offering free advice and providing free resources that link back to your page and site.

Create an Instagram account as a business profile, ensure this account is linked to your Facebook business page. Once you have set these up, your posts will be sent to both platforms, Facebook for video content and Instagram for pictures and captions.

Step 2 – Engage With The Online Community Discussion

As a bike expert you are in an excellent position to help them, you post answers to questions. You can also use this opportunity to include free resources they can download without trying to sell them anything.

Social media discussions provide valuable feedback on what potential customers want, their problems and how you can serve them. This puts you in a position of trust and starts to build relationship’s with your audience.

Your next step is to invite people to follow your page, on which you publish articles, events and other free resources that provide valuable information.

This process does two things. Firstly it provides value to your prospect audience and creates “reciprocity’, making them more likely to respond to your future offers. Secondly, it positions your business as an “authority” in the space and builds trust.

Step 4 – Craft Your Message and Run Your Ad’s

Now you have an online audience, over time this can grow to become a very valuable asset. When you are ready to run paid advertising you will get value out of every dollar you spend.

Your message will cut through the advertising noise like a spear, hitting your target customers. A well crafted ad and copy is essential for implementing effective social media strategies.

Remember, you have only run your ad after building a relationship with your target audience. The best way to build this is to provide value and engage with them first. This process will also allow you to refine your ad’s message to their specific pains, desires and wants.

Step 5 – Refine Your Audience Targeting

Lets say you hear about a weekend bike event that’s happening in your local area. You can run your ads to target your audience in that geographic area, at that event offering them a deal the same weekend at your store.

Step 6 – Build Your Own Email Marketing List

Even better, over time you can sign people up to your subscriber list. This allows you to market to them over and over, without having to keep running paid ads on social media.

When you have your own email list, and especially a list of customers, your in a great position. That’s when your social media marketing strategies (and results) really start to come in to play, but that’s a topic for another post.

So Remember The Key Take Away Points

• Strategies for social media marketing are a powerful way to connect with your prospects.
• Interact with your audience in their groups and on your page to build trust and authority
• Provide free and valuable resources to position yourself as an authority
• Listen to what your audience is saying and craft your message
• Make offers, build your email list, refine and repeat.

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