This is an enormous audience your business could be losing out on if you have not yet embraced social media as part of your marketing strategy. As a small business owner, you may feel overwhelmed by the potential of social media and unsure of how to make the most of it. In this guide, we will hopefully demystify the topic and help you achieve marketing success on social media.

Start with a plan

Any marketing campaign must start with a plan. It’s important to understand what you want to achieve through social media? Whether you want to increase revenue or create brand awareness, having clear goals from the outset will help you craft the right content at the right time aimed at the right audience. It will also help you measure your performance and determine whether you are getting a return on your investment.

Some of the more popular goals that social media marketers set include:

• Increasing brand awareness
• Growing your audience
• Increasing website traffic
• Improving community engagement
• Generate leads and increase conversions

What you choose as your ultimate goal is up to you – just keep it simple and realistic and make sure that you can measure it. Refer to Hootsuite’s S.M.A.R.T goal framework when setting your goals.

Know your audience

It is critical that you understand who you are targeting with your social media marketing. Who do you want to reach and what kind of posts would resonate with them the most? Which social media platforms do they prefer and how do they use social media?

Research your target audience thoroughly before you begin. There is a wealth of information on the internet regarding social media demographics and usage that can help you make the right decisions for your marketing strategy. Dig deep into your own data as well to discover who is already buying from you and what their pain points are.

Choose your platform

Many businesses make the mistake of thinking they need to be on every conceivable social media platform. This is simply not true and definitely not sustainable. If you’ve done your homework and researched your target audience, you will know which social media platforms they frequent. Also, consider how much time you have to create and publish content. If you are only active on one platform, that is fine – as long as this is the platform where most of your audience is.

Below is a quick overview of the most popular social media platforms:

Establish your key performance metrics

Your social media goals will determine what metrics you use to determine your performance. Now you know what you want to achieve, it becomes easier to know how you will measure this performance

Just be wary of getting caught up in so-called vanity metrics. These are metrics such as likes, followers, subscribers, etc – things that make your brand look good on the surface, but can be meaningless to the achievement of your goals. Always refer to your goals when deciding on your key performance metrics.

All of the social media platforms have their own analytics data that you can delve into. If you’re tight on budget, you can start there, or you can consider using social media analytics tools to help you uncover data. Buffer has put together a list of some of the social media metrics tools available, as well as some information on how to access each platform’s native analytics. You can also find some handy tips on how to measure your performance manually from this guide created by Social Media Examiner.

Sprout Social has created this nifty Social Media Metrics Map, that links your social media goals to the Buyer’s Journey and outlines the most important metrics for each stage and goal.

Check out your competition

Take the time to check out what your competition is doing. What is working well for them and what isn’t. Are they covering content or topics that you are not? What are some of the keywords they use? Keeping an eye on your competition will help you to uncover opportunities and content ideas that can give you an advantage when it comes to your own social media strategy.

Create relevant content

In today’s market, content is king. Your goals and your audience will determine the type of content that you create. The important thing is to create quality content that will be relevant to your audience. Minimise purely promotional content and rather focus on engaging with your audience in a meaningful way. According Sprout Social, 60% of social media users are annoyed by too much promotional content from brands.

Also consider where your audience might be in the Buyer’s Journey and tailor your content accordingly. The following is a list of the types of content that you can post on social media platforms:

• Infographics presents complex information in visual format. Because we process visual information much faster than text, it makes for incredibly engaging and shareable content.
• Interactive content that allows users to engage with your content, such as quizzes, polls, Q&As or contests.
• User-generated content that you curate and publish
• Videos are a social media favourite and comes in different formats such as short form, live streams, podcasts and webinars
• Shareable quotes that reflect your brand values and inspires your audience
• Blogs that link back to your website
• Curated content that provides valuable information about industry trends and news
• Client testimonials will highlight your organisation as a trusted brand
• Downloadable ebooks and guides that help users understand topics or products
• Ephemerial content such as Instagram stories that is only displayed for a short period of time

Draw up a content schedule and consider using automated tools such as Hootsuite or Sprout Social that posts your content automatically according to your schedule. Make sure you post regularly and consistently and be responsive to your audience’s feedback and comments.

Measure your performance & Review your strategy

Measure your performance regularly and consistently, using the metrics you set up.

Take actionable steps on the information revealed by your performance review. Adjust your goals, your metrics or your content where you have fallen short and schedule another review after enough time to give your adjustments time to take effect.

Social media can add greatly to your marketing mix and is especially valuable to small businesses due to its open access and relatively low costs. Understand your goals, your audience and your platforms and you will soon see your efforts pay off.

The post A Social Media Guide for Small Businesses appeared first on CapriComm.

Introduce Yourself

Create a short introductory video that tells people who you are, what you do and how you can help them. You can use live-action format, infographics or animations, but be sure to tailor your message to appeal to your target audience.

A great example is that of Hubspot.

The video highlights in under three minutes who their target market is (marketers), what problem their target market faces (the limited results of outbound marketing and the challenges of managing inbound marketing) and how Hubspot solves this problem (through their integrated software). Using a combination of live-action, animation and infographics, they get their message across simply and clearly.

Share Your Vision and Values

You may ask yourself whether customers actually care about your company’s vision and values. In a recent article from Harvard Business Review, the authors asserted that values build relationships – that people feel engaged with a company when they feel they have the same values as that company. This influences how we make the final buying decision.

Zappos understands this and markets its core values extensively.

The video features Zappo employees explaining the values and how it affects their work and interactions, both on and off the job. It becomes clear that the values are an integral part of how the company is run and what is important to them. They may be a company selling shoes online, but they are fun, hip, creative and approachable. And their values are all about making life better for their customers.

Tell a Compelling Story

In How To Make Your Small Business Content Stand Out, we talked about telling stories and thinking about ways that you can create a story around your product or service. Video is a great way to do this, as this example from RAM Trucks shows:

The company understands who their customers are – people who live rugged lives or those who aspire to do so. Except for one or two shots of the product, the company barely mentions itself. Instead it tells the story of its customer and pays homage to their lifestyle and values. And with over 22 million views on YouTube, the ad has certainly resonated with people.

Another approach is that taken by Founders Brewing Company who tell their own story of producing the beers that they do today.

It’s a very human story about a business finding its own identity and working from a place of passion. This is a story that most people can identify with – the struggle of an underdog who came back fighting and won.

Show How Your Product or Service Works

According the Wyzowl’s State of Video Marketing 2016 Survey, 74% of users who watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service subsequently bought it and 77% of consumers said that they were convinced to buy a product after watching a video about it.

Product Demonstrations or Explainer Videos shows potential customers how to use your product and ideally should show how user friendly it is or how it would make their lives easier.

Look at how PadMapper explains how its product works.

It relies on animations to explain in very simple terms how its product works and how it makes it easier for customers to find the perfect apartment. The video is fun and makes use of appropriate humour to make its point in less than a minute.

Another great is example is from Australian company Oscillate Cat Containment Systems.

It is a pretty straightforward video, making the case for cat containment and presenting its solution to the problem many cat owners face. The video shows customers just how easy it is to install and how effective it is in keeping their beloved cats safe.

Introduce a New Product or Service

In addition to showing how an existing product or service works, you can also use the power of video to introduce new products or services  offerings to your customers. The Guitar Centre uses video to introduce their new products, such as this one:

You can also use a series of teasers to build anticipation before the actual launch. This helps to keep your content fresh and your brand top of mind even during those normally quiet periods before a launch.

Woolworths recently used a series of videos to build up to the launch of its StyleBySA collection – beginning with an announcement of the launch date and following that up with progressively more detailed videos about each designer and the different styles available.

Promote a Charity or Community Project

You can show your support for a local charity or community project by making a video about the project and your involvement in it. Not only will it give your brand a more human touch, but it would also help spread the news about worthwhile causes.

For Mandela Day, travel company Go2Africa, made a short video about one of their local charities, The Carpenter’s Haven.

The video focuses primarily on the charity and the work that it does and only briefly covers the company’s contribution. It shows a genuine interest in making a difference and to gain recognition for a local charity. They also included details about the charity and a link to its website on their YouTube channel.

Showcase an Event

Video does not need to be all about work. Why not show your customers your fun side by putting together a highlights video of your company events? Or perhaps give feedback about an important conference you attended to show how your company keeps up to date with the latest trends in your industry?

A great example comes from Hubspot who posts short clips on the annual Inbound Conference.

The video gives a good overview of what the conference was about and the key talk topics around Inbound Marketing that year. Although Hubspot has the advantage of getting great footage, you can produce something similar using still photographs, quotes that resonated with you or even a video of your own thoughts about the event.

Let Your Customers Speak

Customer testimonials provide social proof that your product or service does what your marketing promises it does. People feel a lot more comfortable buying from you if they can see that others have tried it and it has worked for them. In fact, according to the 2013 B2B Content Marketing Trends Report, customer testimonials are considered the most effective content marketing tactics.

GreatSoft, a software development company, uses video testimonials from their clients to prove how great their product is. You can check out their videos on their Facebook page.

Highlight Success Stories

You can take the standard customer testimonial further by delving deeper into customer success stories that illustrate how your product or service has helped them. South African software company Everlytic and Inbound software company Hubspot uses this approach very effectively.

In both cases the companies produced a variety of customer success stories from a wide range of industries to show that their software can be applied in almost any type of company. The videos explain what challenge the customer experienced and how that challenge was solved by using the companies’ products.

Launch a Competition

Holding a competition is a great way to get more people to interact with your brand. It also gives you the opportunity to engage with customers and learn more about them. You can use video the announce the competition, give an overview of the rules and conditions, and build some excitement around the prize.

Estates Gazette and Cluttons from the UK used video to market their competition – The Next Big Thing. The great thing about this particular competition is that its objective was to the benefit of the industry in which they work by advancing innovative problem-solving to real challenges in the property market.

Give a Peek Behind the Scenes

Giving your customers a behind the scenes look is a great way to humanise your product or service. They get to see how you work and what goes into delivering a quality product or service. It also gives you the chance to show your passion and commitment to your work.

You can make it even more interesting by creating a series of ‘A Day in the Life’, featuring different departments or staff members who all contribute to your product or service.

The Intercontinental Hotel Group created such a series.

Each video focuses on a specific employee, show us a little about their personal lives and talk about the important contribution they make to the Group.

Host a Vlog or Webinar

Instead of a standard blog, show off your expertise by putting together a vlog (video blog) or webinar (an online seminar attended exclusively by an online audience) about a topic that relates to your industry, product or service and would be relevant to your target customers. You can use either live-action video, animation, presentation slides or a combination of all of them. Vlogs or webinars is another great opportunity to engage with you customers.

Hubspot uses the format in their Google Hangouts series.

These types of video are typically a longer format. For a shorter option, you can do a news round-up style of video, such as that created by Socialbakers.

Celebrate Special Occasions

Special occasions such as Christmas, Easter, Spring, or even your company’s anniversary year is a great opportunity to get people’s attention. You can use this time to offer special deals or discounts or simply show how you and your team celebrate the event together.

Ezypay gets all their staff involved in making a fun Christmas message that shows the personality behind the brand.

Showcase a Project With Time-lapse Videos

If your work involves long-term projects where project management and progress forms an important part of your business model, then a time-lapse video is a great way to show this off. You can do this using still photography, videos or a combination of the two to show how a project comes to fruition.

The time-lapse video created by Dixon Landscapes gives a good overview of how the company transforms an ordinary garden into something spectacular.

Thank Your Customers

Finally, take the time to thank your customers for their support. You don’t have to wait until the end of the year or for a special occasion. Thanking your customers recognises their contribution to your company’s success.

Constant Contact managed to thank each one of their clients in a two-minute video.

A nice nod to the people who supported your business and helped your company to grow and improve.

There are many more ways in which you can use video to promote your business. The important thing is to make it relevant and interesting and to keep your company top of mind. The investment you make in video marketing will be well worth it. Research has shown that including a video on a landing page can increase conversion by 80% (EyeView); that 51.9% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI (Adobe) and that marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users (VidYard).

Video is compelling, interesting and infinitely shareable and its role in today’s marketing is only set to grow. Make sure that your company does not get left behind.

Sources:

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/2017-year-of-video-marketing

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajagrawal/2016/09/16/5-ways-to-use-video-marketing-for-small-business-growth/2/#7d5aaf3466ee

http://www.marketingprofs.com/chirp/2016/29791/21-video-marketing-ideas-for-small-business-budgets-infographic

https://www.wyzowl.com/video-marketing-statistics-2016.html

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The post 15 Ways to Use Video Marketing in Your Small Business appeared first on CapriComm.