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Marketing is a key aspect for all businesses, it's even more important for startups and small businesses looking to grow and establish a name in the market. It is very difficult to achieve this goal without an effective marketing strategy.
Marketing, like any other skill, will take time to master. At the start, it can be difficult to know what makes a good marketing campaign, and where you are making the right decisions. However, we are here to give you 5 simple tips to help you get started, and hopefully point you in the right direction!
1. You need a game plan
Creating a marketing plan is one of the most important steps in marketing success. Think of this plan as the foundation for your entire campaign, the more solid these ideas are, the more likely you will succeed.
A good way to start is to write down some overarching goals you want to achieve with your marketing, and then give details about what this might include.For example, if your overarching goal is to increase social media engagement, you may include details about increasing likes and shares.
If you want, you can also add appropriate metrics to each goal, such as the % of your followers who like your post. These can help you easily understand whether your marketing is successful, as well as help you compare how successful it is in different periods of time. You can choose to compare these weekly, monthly or even annually.
The marketing plan can help you track your success as well as help you visualise what you want to achieve. If it is also useful to refer back to if you are unsure about the next step in your marketing.
Pro tip: Most social media platforms have their own easy-to-understand analytics systems built in for business accounts. These allow you to view useful numbers in a digestible way.
2. Get to know your surroundings
Before you begin any marketing campaign it is important to learn about best practice on each social media platform. Generally each platform comes with its own set of rules and can help you achieve different goals. While there are dozens of social media platforms, the 5 giants that you should definitely explore are:
- Instagram
- Twitter
- Snapchat
Instagram and Snapchat are great for photos and tend to cater to a younger crowd. These two platforms are the best for sharing highly visual information, such as graphic design, or images of your business. Facebook and Twitter are generally more news based, a lot of people use their feeds on these platforms to keep up to date with what is going on. LinkedIn is all about business, and networking professionally.
Doing a bit of research can help you understand what platforms you can use to achieve each of your marketing goals. It is likely you'll find that certain goals are more easily achieved on a particular platform.If there is a brand or company who target a similar group of people to you, have a browse through their social media platform for some inspiration.
_Need some help getting started with your research? Click here to start learning about Instagram Best Practices!
3. Your social SEO is key!
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and this is the key to being found on the internet. In the same way people often use Google to explore subjects, or products they may search through hashtags on social media to learn more about a topic they are interested in.
It is important to make sure you use the right hashtags to drive people to your website, who are interested in similar topics. Make sure each hashtag you choose is relevant to your business and to each post.
Top tip: while using hashtags is important, using too many will make your social media look unprofessional. It is generally best practice to stay away from hashtag generating sites, as these often attract bot accounts and followers.
Want to learn more about marketing and SEO, click here!
4. Mix it up and be creative
“The biggest misunderstanding about consumers is that they only engage with short, concise content. The truth is they will engage with what is interesting, no matter how long it is... - Edward Bourelly, Omni-Culture Marketing, Inc.
People often think the key to success on social media is that short, easy to absorb and to the point content.. While it is true that people on social media have shorter attention spans, this does not necessarily mean longer content will not be successful.
Get creative with how you choose to present your content, use images, videos, audio or even animation to present your message. Above all more sure that your message is clear, and interesting!
5. Put it all together
Once you have a game plan, and know what you will post, just start posting! Social media is a great marketing platform as it is free, and easy to monitor. You can use the in-app analytics for each of the platforms to see your success almost instantly.
If you find something isn't quite going as well as you planned you can always go back to the drawing board, create new posts, and target different hashtags. On social media, success is about persistence and patience, so don't give up too quickly!
Want to learn more about online marketing? You can read some of our other blogs here!
