How Can You Target Your Prospective Buyers Using Social Media Marketing?

20/06/2021

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Dramatic developments have taken place in the field of marketing over the last few years. Earlier on, businesses targeted customers by using posters and banners. Along came radio advertising after that followed by television. The internet boom, just like the Big Bang, has however opened up a completely new world of untapped business opportunities for anyone thinking of starting a new enterprise. The new era of internet and e-commerce also called for better marketing strategies and effective sales and marketing tools.

In an effort to reach out to the prospects, many small and medium businesses have tried social media marketing as a channel of advertorial communication. A majority of them have not reaped its benefits optimally. This can be attributed either to half-hearted attempts made by these businesses or to the absence of a thorough and robust social media strategy around brand building.

Not only does social media marketing save time and cost, it can also boost profitability through increased traffic circulation to your online store and encouraging better conversion rates. If you are a businessperson who has not yet ventured into social media marketing at all, then it is time to jump on-board. Done smartly, it can provide you with great returns on your investments.

First off, you need to identify the platforms that are relevant to your business needs. In other words, target social media platforms that your potential customers are active on and tailor your messages keeping your audience and the platform in mind. While consistent efforts in putting out the right content on the right platforms will provide you with organic growth in terms of the number of people liking your posts and talking about your products and business, etc., it might not help in meeting your more immediate and aggressive customer acquisition goals. Moreover, that is where paid social media marketing promotions come to the fore.

These paid promotions are in the form of sponsored ads on popular social media marketing platforms, offering a wider reach and potentially a higher traction to your business page. As a part of your overall e-commerce marketing strategy, diverting your social media traffic to your digital assets is key., This, in particular, applies to your online store’s product listing page for increased customer engagement and better conversion rates.

So How Do Paid Campaigns or Social Media Promotions Work?

Social media advertising or paid social media marketing services ought to be integral components of the marketing strategy of any business entity – be it an online business or an offline store. Such services play a vital role in elevating the effectiveness of your lead generation process. This is because it takes your brand’s promotional content right to the face of your target audience – when they need it. Think of the number of times when you have searched for something and found an advertisement or some sponsored content, related to your search, pop up on your screen.

It is important to remember that a good social media campaign is always supported by market data. This means that latest customer interests, demands and buying trends have to be factored in. When you develop your ad campaign based upon your potential customer data, you are likely to earn an extra edge over others selling the same products through more traditional channels of sale.

While big business entities hire digital marketing experts to strategize and manage paid social media marketing services, you too can run a social media paid campaign to promote your small business or online store. You will simply have to use the ad tool functionality that allows you to create, schedule and run targeted ad campaigns for a specific target audience. You can define your target audience based upon their location, interests, and other demographic details to ensure that your ad is featured before your potential customers.

Smart tip: Target audience should be research based.

The biggest contributors to the Indian economy are the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME)sectors. If you run a business in these spaces, it is time for you to consider the huge marketing and sales potential of paid ads. They are designed to take your business to the next level.

Here are some social media promotional tools you can use to grow your business. Have a read.

Facebook Ads

Even with the increasing popularity of many other paid tools for social media marketing, Facebook still holds the top slot in running paid ad campaigns. It is one of the most efficient platforms to advertise your products and services online. Facebook Ads guarantee the higher engagement of your brand with potential customers, thereby ensuring higher lead generation.

It is actually quite simple to post a paid ad on Facebook and use it for effective social media marketing. Activate the Facebook Ad tool and define your objectives by selecting from the various options provided (brand awareness, drive website traffic, page promotion, lead generation, etc.). Name your campaign, and set up an ad account. As the next step, define your target audience and provide target locations. When you choose specific locations for your Facebook ad campaign, your ads will only reach your target audience from those locations. Next, allocate your ad budget and the time duration during which your ad should remain live on Facebook. Upon the completion of this step, it is time to publish your ad. Make sure that your messaging is clear and easy-to-read.

Smart tip: Use attractive designs and a persuasive copy to grab your audience’s attention.

LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn is a smart choice for companies operating in the business-to-business (B2B) sector. LinkedIn ads are used extensively to build brand awareness, drive relevant traffic to your website, and to ensure a higher lead generation for your business. You can use LinkedIn Ads in various ways – for sponsored content, message ads, dynamic ads and simple text ads.

The first step would be to create a campaign manager account in order to publish a paid ad on LinkedIn. Once the account is created, you can set up your ad campaign by choosing your objectives – awareness creation (drive website traffic, post engagements, video views etc.) or conversion (gathering marketing qualified leads, lead generation, website conversions etc.). Next, select your target criteria based on your company size, the skill sets you are looking for, interests, etc. Once you have set the target metrics, define a budget and schedule your ad. Now, you are all set to publish your ad.

One major challenge, which many small businesses face with LinkedIn Ads, is that they can be quite expensive. Hence, one usually keeps the cost factor in mind while planning a LinkedIn ad campaign.

Smart tip: Customize LinkedIn ad objectives accurately as they will drive the rest of the campaigns and determine your return on investment.

Twitter Ads

Twitter is an extremely effective medium of advertorial engagement if used alongside Facebook and LinkedIn. Running your paid campaign on Twitter using the Twitter Ads tool will help you reach out to a wide base of potential customers. Twitter Ads usually offer higher click-through rates than other ad platforms. This is an indication of the level of engagement with potential customers. You can promote tweets, accounts and even trends by including Twitter Ads in your social media marketing strategy.

The process of posting a Twitter ad is quite simple and similar to that of some other platforms. You can start by choosing the campaign type, targeting your audience, setting your budget and then finally publishing your ad.

Smart tip: Monitor your ads regularly to understand the purchasing trends of your potential customers.

Instagram Ads

Instagram advertising is the new kid on the block and is performing really well as an effective tool for social media marketing. The Insta-Story feature has grown popular among many small businesses as well as corporate giants. The focus of Instagram is its emphasis on visuals. Hence, it is a great platform for people who want to display their products better to get marketing qualified leads.

There are various types of ad formats on Instagram – stories ad, video ads, photo ads, carousel ads, collection ads, explore ads etc. Each ad type performs differently based on the business goals and the call to action you select for your product.

Smart tip: Use compelling visuals and limit the text to about 20% of the body to reach more online buyers and raise the lead generation.

YouTube Ads

YouTube, being a Google entity, is often a compelling choice as a social media marketing platform to run paid ad campaigns for all small, medium and big businesses. YouTube is the best channel to run video ad campaigns. What is most attractive about YouTube Ads is that you only pay when a potential customer shows real interest in your advertisement. In addition, unlike many other social media marketing platforms, YouTube does not require you to have a minimum budget to post ads.

The first thing that you need to do, to start a YouTube paid campaign, is to create a YouTube channel. Remember, YouTube ad campaigns are run through Google AdWords. Therefore, do not forget to link your Google Ads account with your YouTube channel. Now upload your video ad, choose the best YouTube ad format based upon your business goals and set a budget. You will also need to determine the schedule and bid strategy. Once you feed in all the required information accurately, your YouTube video ad is now to go on air and be viewed by millions of online buyers.

However, as you must know that cost-per-click on YouTube Ads is determined through auction. Therefore, small businesses often find themselves bidding against industry giants. In addition, the platform’s suggested content can at times be unrelated making many ads miss the much needed customer engagement.

Smart tip: Set up video remarketing to reach out to an audience that has already expressed interest in your ads.

Pinterest Ads

Pinterest Ads should be included in the social media marketing strategy of every small business dealing with art and creativity. It is the perfect ad type for home businesses. You can use the Pinterest Ads Manager tool to create, edit and manage paid Pinterest ad campaigns.

Open ads.pinterest.com on your browser and click the Ad button. Next, click on the Create Ad tab and choose your goals for the campaign. Enter the name of the ad group and choose your target. Targeting includes audience specifications, keywords, interests, demographics, and ad placements. Just like other ads - define a budget, schedule and bid for your ad. Now pick a pin to promote your ad. Make sure that you set up billing to initiate a Pinterest ad successfully. If you do not set up billing, then the details of your promoted pin will not be saved.

Smart tip: Avoid using hashtags in your image descriptions. Instead, use that copy space for something that will drive results, as Pinterest does not provide optimization based on hashtags.

Quora Ads

Apart from being a popular question and answer platform, Quora can also be considered one of the most prominent online advertising platforms. It is one of the most effective platforms to drive customer engagement and generate marketing qualified leads. In addition, its unique positioning helps you build your brand’s credibility by engaging with your potential customers in real time.

To run a Quora ad campaign, you first need to have a valid Quora account. Install Quora Pixel on your website. This will help you track conversions and build an audience for retargeting. Now, create an ad campaign on Quora by defining your target audience and topics. Then, bid and publish your ad.

Conclusion

Investing in paid campaigns and spending money on social media ads is sure to earn your brand some degree of qualified feedback. The key, however, lies in doing it the right way, that is, in targeting the right people, at the right time with the right message to generate a real impact on potential customers. If the implementation is target-specific, your business will see a rise in marketing qualified leads and increased conversion rates.

Remember, your potential customers are active social media users and for your business to be visible there is imperative. Done right and done smart, paid campaigns on social media will help you tap into your business potential. This will help you earn better returns on your marketing investments.

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