5 Benefits of Social Media Marketing to Grow Your Business
Did you know that 74% of people use social media to help them make a purchasing decision?
Social media marketing isn't just for influencers who sell health supplements while posing in their best gym outfit.
Social media marketing can help drive traffic and sales for any type of business, whether you offer products, services, or have a brick-and-mortar store.
To learn more about social media marketing, keep reading. We've compiled a list of the top 5 benefits of social media marketing that can help take your business to the next level.
1. Social Media Helps Customers Find You
No matter how good your product or service is, you can't get any sales if customers can't find you.
While businesses had little choice other than to pay for costly newspaper advertising back in the day, digital marketing gives you many more options.
Naturally, customers can find you through organic search via a search engine. But on social media, customers can find you without having searched for you at all.
This is because one of the biggest social media benefits is that users can share their favorite products with the click of a button.
When someone with many followers enjoys your product and posts about it, then your product is instantly put in front of thousands of people who may not have searched for your product on their own.
2. Social Media Helps You Refine Your Audience
Creating social media accounts across different platforms is a great way to gather statistics on your audience.
Of course, you'll start out with a target audience based on your initial market research, but don't be surprised if you find yourself refining your target audience as your company grows.
For example, let's say you are an e-commerce company selling binders and other organizational office supplies. Perhaps you think your target customers would be professional offices, but when you check your analytics, you notice that your users are mostly students.
This knowledge would alter your online marketing, and you'd probably re-think your brand voice, photos, and how you interact with your customers.
When gathering analytics, make sure you know how to access them with each social media platform you use. This will usually be a tab or a button marked "Insights." Make sure you have a business account if it's required to access analytics on your chosen social media platform(s).
3. Social Media Gets More People on Your Website
One of the best parts of social media marketing is the fact that you can link back to your website in a natural way that isn't pushy. Your social media accounts make it easy for potential customers to navigate to your webpage without having to use a search engine or type in a URL.
For example, if you're using Instagram for marketing, you can add your company website to the top of your profile. This makes it easy to see and easy to click on.
You can also include a call to action (CTA) in your social media posts to encourage more users to navigate to your website.
For example, if you're a life coach, you could post an inspirational quote on your Instagram account. Then, you could include a call to action in the post where you encourage people to contact you about your coaching services. This would ideally be a link to your contact form.
The more interested people you have on your website, the more likely some of them will become paying (and hopefully returning) customers.
4. Social Media Helps You Give the Best Customer Service
According to 96% of customers, customer service is important when deciding whether to stay loyal to a brand.
There are two main reasons why social media lets you give the best customer service:
You can interact with customers one-on-one
Your customer service is on a public platform
Customer service on social media is one of the best ways to promote business growth because you're interacting with customers and giving them a personalized experience.
They won't feel like they're just a cog in the wheel of your company and will feel valued.
And since your customer service is public in the form of helpful comments on your posts or videos, they're there for other people to see.
When other potential customers see your amazing customer service and helpful attitude, they'll see how much you care about your customers and will be more likely to become loyal to your brand.
5. Build Trust in Your Brand: One of the Best Benefits of Social Media
There are two main ways that social media marketing can help you build trust in your brand.
The first is that it helps you build transparency. If someone had a bad experience with your product, they might not necessarily leave a review. Additionally, reviews aren't always trustworthy as they can be easily fabricated.
Instead, a dissatisfied customer might reach out to you directly or via comments on your social media posts.
When you calmly address customer concerns with a positive attitude, you show that your brand is transparent and that you are making the effort to improve your product. You also show that you listen to your customers.
The second reason that social media marketing builds trust in your brand is that it helps you build authenticity. People are less likely to listen to an unknown brand's advertising, which can be inflated to suit the brand's needs.
Instead, people are more likely to listen to their friend's or trusted influencer's opinions about a product or service.
If a person knows that their favorite influencer gives honest product reviews, then they're more likely to check the product out.
Ready To Take Your Business to the Next Level With Social Media Marketing?
You want to get your product or service in front of more people, build trust, and do all of this in a way that isn't pushy. Social media marketing can help you do just that.
We hope this article helped you see some of the top benefits of social media marketing and how it can help you, no matter what type of business you have.
Want to include social media in your digital marketing strategy but don't know where to start? Book a consultation with one of our digital marketing experts today.