Getting results on social media has become increasingly difficult with the increasing saturation and spend businesses are investing into advertising. In 2014, eMarketer estimated that more than
88% of U.S. businesses
were using social media for marketing, and U.S. spending on social media advertising is
projected to grow to $39.62 billion by 2021
(paywall). This indicates that there may be tougher competition for customer attention. Getting results from social media is becoming more challenging, but by optimizing your efforts and campaigns, you can stand out from the crowd.
This article will outline several social media campaign strategies that can increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and help you to grow your tech business. During my time running a sports media company and a social audience management platform, I have been able to learn a great deal about social media marketing and how to create successful campaigns. At the sports media company, we heavily focused on social by establishing and growing a media network of accounts that were hyper-focused on basketball. By publishing original content for top-tier brands, we optimized our social strategy and drove engagement. Here are a few tips for how you can do the same.
Use Organic Campaigns
Firstly, utilize organic campaigns to create a connection with your target audience. With the growing amount of advertising and marketing taking place on social media, it seems that trust is becoming increasingly difficult to build. Organic media marketing creates value by enabling viewers to develop a deeper level of connection with a brand, which can lead to higher conversions. I believe peer-to-peer recommendations are the most valuable form of marketing, and organic content achieves this extremely well, as it allows the audience to easily relate to the content you’re putting in front of them. (While my company helps with this, companies can create organic campaigns independently.) Glossier, a cosmetics company, has demonstrated that personal recommendations and word of mouth are invaluable: According to the company’s CEO, more than 80% of their customers hear about the company from peer-to-peer recommendations. SoulCycle has created a cult-like following with strong customer word-of-mouth marketing. According to Fast Company, about 70% of customers who renew every month at SoulCycle come from referrals.
Companies can create very successful organic marketing campaigns through small acts such as sending free product to loyal customers or microinfluencers. Interacting with consumers in non-transactional methods like this allows brands to create organic word of mouth and a strong brand image by encouraging authentic reviews and promotion. Brands that utilize strategies like these can create brand advocates who are excited to tell their peers about their great experience.
Utilize Multiple Marketing Drivers
It is often crucial to utilize multiple drivers when you’re designing marketing campaigns. There are multitudes of effective drivers ranging from influencers to search engine optimization to keywords or even key partnerships, to name a few. By implementing multiple verticals, you can increase the presence of your campaigns and make sure they’re seen and covered across a variety of angles and audiences. The key to generating results from your social media campaigns is creating awareness, and I believe the best way to do this is to diversify your efforts. By experimenting with different marketing drivers, you will get a better idea of what works well for your content and brand. Once you discover which channels are working well, double down on them and put more resources behind them. The best drivers for one company may be completely different than those of another company. Because of this, I recommend trying multiple drivers and campaigns to find the unique mixture that works for you.
Track Your Analytics
It is crucial to keep track of analytics and data generated from your marketing campaigns. Before you set out and begin your campaign, decide which metrics are most important and reflect success for your brand. One important metric to track is your reach. Reach measures how many people you’ve touched with your message and content. You can break this down further into paid reach, viral reach and organic reach. If your marketing campaign has a large reach but low conversion, this is a good indication that you should switch things up. On the other hand, if your campaign has a high conversion rate but hasn’t reached many people, it may be time to invest more and increase your paid media spend.
Increase and improve your marketing success on social media by implementing new strategies into your campaigns. Competition for the attention of potential customers is fierce on social media. To stand out from the rest, utilize and diligently apply the strategies expert marketers practice in your social media marketing campaigns.