Part 2 of a 2 Part Series.
Social Media Marketing (SMM) is crucial to your business success for a variety of reasons. In today's digital age, if you aren't implementing an effective SMM strategy, your business may end up falling behind. Competition is cut-throat out there and you need keep up with, or surpass, your business adversaries. Stay in the game or pull ahead of that competition with affordable and effective marketing via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and more!
If you read Part 1, then you know I discussed the general topics of Revenue Generation, Interaction, and Image. Today I'll be discussing 3 other categories of social media marketing benefits...
4) Return On Investment (ROI)
Social Media Marketing can have an excellent Return On Investment (ROI) compared with traditional forms of marketing such as mailers, radio ads, television ads, magazine / newspaper ads, billboards, etc. You could easily spend hundreds or thousands (or significantly more depending on your business) of dollars on any of these traditional marketing methods. If you are a sole proprietor or small business owner, that price tag can be a risky or completely impossible option. Even a global corporation may be looking to tighten their marketing budget or get more value for their dollar (for example: Procter & Gamble this year opted for a frugal Twitter campaign as opposed to a multi-million dollar Superbowl ad). Social media marketing can be that viable affordable alternative, or a significant component, of your marketing strategy. Not only will your social media platforms save you money in the short term, these platforms and SEO-boosting power remain in place to pay dividends months and even years with minimal maintenance.
And because it's digital, you can usually modify your social media marketing platforms or strategy as needed. It is necessary these days to be able to adapt and make changes within a matter of days, hours, or even minutes. You could be spending a fortune on traditional advertising or marketing consultants when social media marketing could get the job done for a fraction of the price.
5) Analytics
This is an enormous benefit that you receive from implementing social media marketing into your business strategy. You usually get minimal data in response to traditional marketing campaigns. Sometimes you aren't sure whether your business is benefiting from one traditional method or another. With social media marketing, you can get incredibly detailed, immediate, and convenient statistical reports on nearly every aspect of your SMM campaigns. You'll get key measurables such as impressions, clicks, comments, likes, shares, subscriptions, referring links, sales, time on site, detailed demographics, and much more. Analyze this data and modify your social media posts and ads accordingly to achieve even greater results. You don't get that with a newspaper ad or television commercial. You can get these detailed SMM analytics from Google Analytics, CRM platforms, individual social media platforms directly, or other web services.
6) Integration
Finally, you can seamlessly integrate social media marketing into your overall marketing and business strategy. Your social media marketing complements and/or links to your email marketing, website, direct mailers, telephone, print ads, and radio / television ads. You may notice these days that half of the ads out there already have links to the company's social media URL or solicit readers / listeners / viewers to follow them on social media. Every email marketing campaign and website should be fully integrated with its SMM if it isn't already. And everything radio and television is already integrated or being integrated with online media. Magazines, newspapers, and newsletters are all online now as well. Complement your overall business marketing, sales, and customer service with social media savvy.
Of course there are dozens of other important reasons why social media marketing is important for your business success. I will continue posting more specific SMM articles so I can share my thoughts and experiences with specific social media platforms, paid advertising options, specific industries, and various business models.
I hope these two posts have been insightful and will help you recognize the benefits and necessity of incorporating an effective social media marketing strategy into your business model. I wish you the best of luck with your overall business success!
Make Sure You Have Also Read My Other SMM Posts:
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