In modern day and age leveraging social media marketing is an utterly essential strategy for both local businesses and larger, more ambitious startups. If you’re keeping track of current events in the world of digital marketing you are certainly aware that at this very moment success in the world of eCommerce is all about mobile and local optimization.
When designing your social media strategy, a few things should come to mind that you will have to consider as a standard for the year 2016. At this very moment search engines are giving social media much deserved credit which wasn’t the case in the past.
If you have any doubts that you should leverage social media, you should know that since this summer mobile devices have surpassed desktop when it comes to searches. While this statistic alone should affect your judgment you should also be aware of the possibilities that mobile responsive design offers to consumers. With the latest Google Mobile algorithm update, the world of digital marketing has changed forever. The very concept of content marketing will undergo some alterations as well. To catch up on some of the latest trends and strategies that you should employ in the following year I’ve consulted some of the high-profile strategies and experts from the world of online marketing.
#1 Personalization
Your content will have to become as personalized as it possibly can be. Count on the fact that in this modern day and age we have access to some of the most advanced analytical systems. The impressive amount of data allows marketing experts to gain a much more thorough insight of your target audience and consumers in general.
With conversion rate optimization in operation with that amount of data, you will be able to personalize every journey and every step of the journey of your prospects. This means that companies will have to plan on personalizing their messages and targeting their audience very specifically.
#2 Back to Basics
According to Neil Patel, renowned marketing expert, you will still have to take care of the essential parts of your social media strategy. For instance, you want to target specific social media platform, which means that you shouldn’t spread your efforts throughout twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ or more if you want positive results. Focus instead on one particular social media platform. Once you identify your preferred channel, which should be done in accordance with your target audience, you will have to build a direct strategy. Thorough comprehension of how your social media channels work will also help your conversion optimization process. At the very end your ultimate goal should be driving traffic through social media to gain a steady flow of conversions.
#3 Marketing Automation
Although Social Media does deliver results when it comes to launching a business, integration with other platforms is also well advised. There are far too many businesses that are simply located just on Facebook and have trouble to move to an official domain. Boosting your efforts through cross-channel strategy from the very start is well advised. This is where marketing automation steps in. Today, you can use tools like IFTTT or Buffer to integrate your posts and publish them as soon as they get online throughout all platforms. Handling various operation through different channels can be a daunting task and persistence is what matters in this case, and why not, you can even leverage press for your campaign. Here is a great article on how to get featured in press on ProOpinion.
#4 Be More Direct
According to SteamFeed, 93% of buyers decide to purchase right on your social media profile. It is evident that your visitors haven’t just stumbled on your page so keep that in mind when you are creating content for your business account. Make your call to actions more transparent, more obvious, and don’t be afraid to engage people more. Of course, constant presence and replying to comments is a must, but always keep in mind that less means more. According to the same aforementioned source, short Facebook posts, the ones with 250 characters or less, engage 60% more visitors. So apparently, your visitors know how they got on your page and you should use that attention to present your product in the best possible, but short manner.
Consistency is everything. There is nothing sadder than witnessing an empty Facebook page so if you are serious about your Social Media Marketing strategy then stay loyal to it.
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Nate M. Vickery is a business consultant from Sydney, Australia. He has a degree in marketing and almost a decade of experience in company management through latest technology trends. Nate is also the editor-in-chief at bizzmarkblog.com.