Is your social media strategy failing?
A lot of small business owners I talk to tell me that the reason they are on Instagram or Facebook is because everyone else is out there.
They tell me that there is no money to be made from social media.
I can see why that appears to be the case for a local coffee shop or a grocery store.
When was the last time you followed a business account that you were not already a customer of?
And even if you did, what are the chances of you becoming a customer solely from their social media account page?
Is Your Industry Social Media Friendly?
Well, there are some industries that are absolutely social media friendly. Restaurants, coffee shops, and even spas are some examples where a business can build reputation on social media and translate that into paying customers.
But for most other small businesses – retail stores, dentists, mobile repair shops – there is nothing really to gain from investing in social media.
Or at least, that’s the common perception.
And that is the reason why these businesses are not ready to put money into social media marketing.
While all these businesses do have a Facebook Page or Instagram account, it is something that the business owners run themselves. Simply because it’s nothing more than a branding asset.
That doesn’t have to be the case.
In this article, I will provide you with some concrete steps that you can take to not only grow your social media following, but also translate this into real money.
Here we go.
Create A Unique Story Angle
The first step in building a successful social media strategy is to build a “story angle”. Now, what’s that?
Let me explain. Like a personal Facebook or Instagram account, your business pages too build a following organically through friends and family – or people who have worked with you before.
While that is nice, this is not the audience you are after. You want to reach new people from your target group. And that is not possible by simply sharing any photo or video like you would from your personal profile.
There needs to be a compelling reason why someone is going to follow your account. That is possible with a unique story angle.
Here are some examples:
A wealth management consultant could have an Instagram account where he shares a breakdown of investments made by A-list Hollywood celebrities.
Now, who is not interested to know where Tom Hanks or Brad Pitt invest their money? I’m definitely interested!
Now, this is an angle that is unique and also a compelling reason for someone to follow. Add to this the fact that the account is talking about investment strategies that they specialize in. It attracts a very attractive and targeted stream of users to their account.
Here’s another example – a wedding photographer could share pictures that they have captured and critique them on why it was captured the way it is.
For example, you may be aware of the rule of thirds – is there a picture that looks appealing simply because the photographer applied this rule?
By offering this snippet of advice alongside each of their uploads, the photographer not only demonstrates their knowledge of the subject, but also exhibits their portfolio at the same time.
Again, such photo and video ideas for Instagram bring new followers who are very likely to refer them to their friends or family who is getting married.
Use the right Calls To Action
At the end of each of your social media post captions, make sure you include a very relevant and targeted call-to-action (CTA).
In the example wedding photography example above, the posts could go with a message like this:
Like what you see here? Please refer me to your friends or family looking for a wedding photographer.
If you are on Facebook, you can of course include a link to your website Contact page as well.
What this does that it nudges your prospective client into taking action.
There is one problem though – this social media strategy puts the ball in the buyer’s court. You get rewarded with a project if they choose to act. Or, you lose them.
So going back to the above example, if you had someone really interested in what you do, but do not know anyone getting married right now, they may not act on the CTA – even if they were indeed part of your targeted group.
For this reason, you must focus on building a list. By capturing your visitors’ email addresses, you can continue to “nurture” them so that when the time comes, they will act.
You do this by tweaking your CTA to a lead capture form.
In the above example, the photographer may tweak the last line of their caption to something like this:
“Like what you see here? I recently published a small ebook where I have shared 35 of such unique photography insights that will make your wedding photographs stand out. Click the link in my bio to download”
A little longer than the earlier text, but this drives people to the advertised link and download their copy.
Optimize Your Landing Page
At this point, you have a stream of prospective clients who not only view your posts on social media, but are also clicking through to your website.
However, as the saying goes, there is many a slip between the cup and the lip. In this context, it is the missed opportunities that arise because your landing page is not sufficiently optimized.
Your objective is to capture the email address of each one of your website visitors. Firstly, make sure that your page is optimized to render well on both mobile phones and desktop screens.
Second, check if the page you are taking the visitor to is seamlessly tied to the Call To Action you directed them from.
For example, if you talk about sharing a wedding photography ebook in your CTA, but take the user to a page where you are requesting business enquiries, then the chances of them entering their details is very low.
Now, Facebook lets you add a link to each of your posts. Instead of driving them to your email capture form always, you may consider linking them to a blog post or article that adds more details to the content posted.
In such cases, consider using popups that promote your ebook or any other lead magnet from any page of your website.
You could also tweak the pop-up to only show when the user is exiting the page – this way, it is non-intrusive and also better converting since they have already read your content and are primed for conversion.
Produce More Content. Publish Often
“Away from sight – away from mind” – it doesn’t matter how high quality your content is. If you are not posting often enough, your social media strategy may not be successful.
Why? Because, for a person to convert into a lead, they need to be exposed to your brand on a frequent basis.
When you post on a daily basis, your content gets distributed consistently. This increases brand exposure and enhances your “top of mind” awareness (TOMA).
It is said that when your brand enjoys high TOMA, the cost of acquiring new customers becomes much lower.
It is for this reason that you should outsource your social media marketing.
It doesn’t matter if it is to an agency or a part-time freelancer. By outsourcing it, you put someone solely in charge of the content. And can thus measure your investments and returns accordingly.
Treat every social media post as a campaign – so you have a deadline and specific objectives to be met.
Setting deadlines is a good strategy to improve productivity of your workers. And by targeting a specific goal (like acquiring 25 new email subscribers per post), you can push yourself to produce content that delivers results.
Outsourcing your social media campaigns does not mean you are not in control. Request your worker to produce multiple versions of each campaign and be responsible for approving the best content.
This pushes boundaries and helps you produce the best kind of content for your business.
Track, Tweak & Repeat
You now have a well-oiled social media strategy in place. You have –
- The right content to bring in the eyeballs.
- The right CTA to convert these social media followers into website visitors
- The right landing page to increase conversions
- A scalable strategy to repeat this over and over again
But is this delivering results? Acutely track analytics to check visibility and clicks on each of your social media campaigns to understand what works and what doesn’t. You could use custom URL shorteners like Rebrandly to track how your CTAs perform.
Study your conversions exhaustively to see what kind of users you are converting. Are these people likely to bring you business?
Once you have the answers to these questions, it is time to tweak your campaign and repeat the process.
Do not stop till you figure what works. Then, scale it up further.
