“How much revenue will it get me?”
For the past few years, the above question has been the most common objection I hear from business owners and decision makers whenever we are discussing marketing their businesses on social media channels. To be realistic, this concern makes much sense. After all, hard earned money is being paid and logic expectations must include a good return for it.
According to hubspot, 92% of marketers in claimed that social media marketing was important for their business, with 80% indicating their efforts increased traffic to their websites. The issue here, is how to realize the importance of social media marketing and in what terms?
Do you agree that a successful business is not about sudden hyip lucky shots, it’s about sustainability in different aspects from sales, to marketing, to customer service, to finance and HR..? If yes, then we have now a good common ground to start our journey to demonstrating the real ROI of social media marketing.
According to my experience, I summarized the 3 most recognized social media powers that supported the sustainable growth of my clients’ business as follows:
1) Building Emotional Ties with Customers: The two-way communication that strongly differentiates social media from other media is a massive opportunity for business who care for building long term relationships with their customers. Using the right tone and context in answering questions, objections and even complaints from angry customers can enhance customer loyalty and keep your market share immune to competition. By sending personalized messages and greetings to your audience can show care that emotionally connects your brand with your audience leaving an impact that is hardly broken. Because we make sure to always use a lovely and humanitarian language when interacting with clients’ audiences, we’ve witnessed so many cases where followers defend the brand when someone posts negative feedback. This turns your audience into loyal sales people who will forgive you when you do something wrong, recommend your products to others and refuse the temptations of competitors.
2) Boost Brand Recognition: A healthy social media activity implies consistent messages being sent to a look-alike audience who share common interests, needs, life-styles etc.. This means that your brand will be viewed, mentioned and talked to by this audience. What does this mean? It’s the glory of FAME! Your brand will become more and more famous and will stay at the top of mind of your customers. YOUR SALES PEOPLE WILL ADMIRE THIS. A sales person for a famous brand has a much easier task to do than the sales people of unknown or new brands. Especially when your social media marketing includes creating content that is going viral!
3) Prospecting and Lead Generation: This is where we move from qualitative results to quantitative ones and it’s where our customers usually start feeling comfortable towards the investment they did. This needs two steps, the first is patience, and the 2nd is even more patience! The hit and run scheme won’t work here, and I believe it works no where except for dealing in drugs and arms. The process of building interest towards your products and services comes only after the awareness stage where we have to take our time smoothly presenting our product as a solution for a need that we have to address in different ways because it’s significant for every individual we are approaching. YES EVERY INDIVIDUAL! 10K followers for your page is 10,000 human beings with different cultures, lifestyles and needs however similar the audience may seem. That’s why reaping leads out of social media is a result that comes at the end of good activity and not an activity by itself. The good news here is that it happens, it happens a lot, and they will keep on coming when served well both online & offline.
Social media have been taking over the marketing industry few years ago, and I believe it has no end because it’s about human to human interaction. The digital platforms are only tempting channels that mainly connect people, and they are doing their homework neatly and nicely. Social media is an opportunity for those looking for a sustainable business growth especially for baby brands who are trying to find their place in a market conquered by big brands with deep roots.
DON’T MISS THE OPPORTUNITY!
Mohamad Bajouk
Marketing Consultant/ Trainer
BrandLift
