Some of the best platforms in the world to reach your target audience is on social media, hence why social media marketing is vital to growing a business in 2020. Also referred to as SMM, social media marketing refers to utilizing social media as a digital marketing strategy to reach your target clients and customers.
Now, many of you are aware of what social media marketing strategy consists of, the bigger question is how to get SMM to work so you can grow your business, brand, online presence. Accomplishing that can be a challenge, but I’m going to walk you through everything you need to know in this article. While there’s dozens of sites deemed to be “social media,” we’ll be focusing on;
- YouTube
- YouTube
- SnapChat
With that being said, there’s no reason why you can’t take what you learn here and apply it to other social platforms.
Social Media Marketing Strategy That Works
I’ve worked with thousands of companies and students over the years and a statement I often get is as follows; “I know social media works but it don’t work for me.” SMM does work, quite well actually but there’s frameworks you must follow to get the type of results you’re looking for.
It doesn’t matter how much you post social media content, if it doesn’t have the right message, no one is going to pay attention. Speaking of attention, it’s getting harder and harder to get noticed. This is why messaging is vital to your success, but in order to get your messaging right, you better know your target customers.
You see, social media is a tool to reach like-minded people. Everyone in the world has the same features and tools to use, so why does it work for some and not work for others? If you want to be a social media marketing Allstar, you need to be a marketing Allstar. Let me clarify that for you, if you want your social media marketing to work, you need to make your marketing work.
Marketing Is The Key To Social Media Marketing Success
Remember, social media marketing is a vehicle, it’ll help you turn prospects into customers but it’s your marketing that makes it all possible. If you want to implement successful social media marketing strategy, you have to shift your focus back to marketing basics.
Who’s your target audience?
You can’t put out a message without knowing who it’s intended to reach. Since social media marketing focuses around “content,” which can be video, text posts, or graphics, you need to focus on exactly what you’re saying. It’s all about your messaging, everything you’re saying to attract the right clients or customers.
In most cases, if a business is struggling to build attention on social media, it’s due to their content. Now, that could point at a lot of different things, so let’s simplify it so you can walk away with something you can begin implementing now.
The Power Of Feedback Loops
How do you learn exactly what your target market wants? YOU ASK THEM! And believe it or not, most people don’t ask their market. Rather, they guess and in most cases, guessing leads you down the wrong path.
All you have to do is post a social media post, ask them what they want. That’s it!
Let your audience do the talking. I want you to gather all that feedback and you should be looking for patterns. This is how you learn what to say to your audience.
Let me give you an example. When I first started my consulting business to help coaches, I wasn’t sure what to say. For 30 days, I focused on having conversations. I talked to as many coaches as I could and I gave them the floor. I did direct some of the questions, but I gave them to the freedom to speak.
- What do you want to get out of your coaching business?
- What’s the one thing you want right now more than anything?
- What’s your biggest struggle growing your coaching business?
I asked additional questions, but I focused on what they want and their struggles/pains.
What I learned, “getting new clients was their biggest challenge.” What did I focus on with my messaging? Getting New Clients.
See how that works? Now that I knew that, I learned exactly what to communicate and it worked from day one. That’s the power of a feedback loop. While I focused this messaging on social medial, I also used it elsewhere, in all of my marketing. You can do the same, you just need to find out what your message points are going to focus on. Never guess again!
The Purpose Of Social Media
Another point I want to make clear is the fact that social media is all about “you.” You’re on social media to talk to friends, see what everyone is saying, snoop on the gossip. Are you on Facebook right now to get help for your consulting business? Likely not, right?
You see, in order to get social media to work for you, you have to get attention. No easy thing today, attention spans are short and you’re going to have thousands of competing messages you have to deal with. Despite that, you can breakthrough because you’re going to learn exactly what gets their attention through your feedback loops.
Everything I’m teaching you today works as “one.”
Your target audience is not on social media for you, but if we can get their attention, we can begin to introduce them to our environment, our message, what we stand for and that’s the key to success.
Be Consistent With Your SMM – Show Up Daily
One of the best social media marketing strategies I can give you is to be consistent, to show up daily and build off that momentum. Sure, a few days in a row are nothing, but what’s going to happen when you’ve spent 60 days in a row posting content? If your target audience sees you showing up every day, you’re going to build social equality.
On day one, you’re planting the seed. On day two and forward, you’re watering that seed and nurturing it to grow.
You can’t win at social media marketing being inconsistent, it will never work. I know, but Richard, my competitor is posting once a week and they have a lot of engagement. They could, but that doesn’t money. Furthermore, they may have paid their dues years before to have that luxury today. Don’t worry about your competition in that sense, you focus on you and you only.
Social Media Marketing Strategy (The Core 4)
While this social media marketing strategy is basic, it’s powerful when you follow it through. It doesn’t matter where you are right this very second, you can make this social media marketing strategy work. Just follow what we just discussed.
- You must have the right message for your target audience.
- Use feedback loops and conversations to learn exactly what your market wants.
- Your content must get their attention, your audience isn’t on social media for you.
- Once you have your message and what you need to say, put it out to your prospects regularly.
If you can only focus on these 4 basic pillars, your social media marketing is going to work. On top of that, your marketing overall is going to work. It doesn’t matter what vehicle you use, website, blog, email, video, newsletters, it’s going to work.
Want to take your digital marketing skills to the next level? Or do you want to learn digital marketing to grow your business? Be sure to pick up our free training “The Art Of Digital Marketing.”
