What is social media marketing?
In a recent study by The Office for National Statistics, it was found that only 57% of the UK’s small businesses use social media for marketing purposes.
A staggeringly low number considering the benefits social media marketing can have on your business.
What is social media marketing?
Social Media Marketing is the use of social media, apps and websites to promote your products or services to a global audience.
Six benefits of social media marketing
If you've let your marketing slip. Or don't really know where to start. Here are six benefits social media marketing can have on your business:
1. It creates brand recognition
Social media marketing allows you to get your business in front of potential customers and get them looking at your brand even when they don’t actively need you.
This is crucial, because when they do need you they'll think of you first.
And that’s huge, especially when you consider the number of users across the major platforms:
- Facebook: 2.7 billion
- Twitter: 353 million
- Instagram: 1.16 billion
- LinkedIn: 740 million
- YouTube: 2 billion
- TikTok: 689 million
2. It builds customer loyalty
If a person interacts with your brand and marketing, they’re more likely to choose you over your competitor.
People buy from brands they know, so getting into the minds of your target audience can sway them to be loyal to you.
3. It helps you engage and understand your audience
Social media marketing is about giving your customers what they want. So, it’s the perfect way to connect with them and learn the language and words they use, allowing you to tweak your marketing to appeal to them.
You can also perform data mining (or hire a social media marketing agency) to drill down into your audience’s:
- Demographics
- Online behaviours
- Geographics
- Psychographics
Understanding these can help you craft a strong buyer persona.
4. It drives traffic to your website
By getting your audience on your website, you stand a better chance of creating a lead or making a sale. You’ve enticed them already. Now your website copy just needs to do the rest.
5. It allows you to show your personality
Social media marketing means you get to show the person or people behind the brand.
You can tell stories, like:
- What it’s like to work in your business
- How a product is made
- How you organised a community event
Marketing isn’t just about asking people to buy products and services. It’s also about showing the human side of your business.
6. It allows you to provide exceptional customer service in seconds
Customers expect to contact businesses through social media these days, which means you can connect with and solve any issues they’re having within seconds and turn a bad experience into a great one.
Working with a local marketing company
If you’re looking to work with a social media marketing company, how important is it that they’re local?
In all honesty, it depends.
For some businesses, it’s vital, especially if they need local knowledge that’s crucial to their brand and culture. But local doesn’t just mean in the same city or town, it can mean the same country too.
While for others, regardless of whether they’re in the UK, the United States or Australia. As long as the marketer is up to the job, location is irrelevant.
Let Ketchup handle your social media
Wherever you are in the world, at Ketchup, we consider ourselves your local social media marketing company.
Why?
Because as a social media agency, we’ve worked with organisation’s worldwide to help them paint the perfect picture of their business via social media.
So, if social media marketing feels like an overwhelming task, don’t panic.Contact us and speak to a member of Team Red instead.