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During the COVID-19 era, more and more businesses are turning to social media for their marketing needs. Not only do platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube make it easy and convenient to launch new campaigns, but also they allow businesses and individuals to test out new campaign ideas on almost impossibly low budgets. But here’s the thing – you need to manage expectations for any new social media campaign. And that’s especially true if you are carrying out a social media campaign for the first time. It’s good to aim high, but you also need to have a realistic sense of where things are going to end.
Tip #1: Data is your friend
One distinguishing aspect of any social media marketing campaign is just how much data you have at your disposal. This is data related not just to demographics (such as the age, gender or location of a particular individual), but also to behaviors, tastes and habits. This makes this data remarkably powerful for creating custom-made social media campaigns that really deliver. Instead of blasting out a generic, one-size-fits-all marketing message to as many people as you can find, you can now create a customized, highly targeted message aimed at people with the highest propensity to buy or consume your products.
Tip #2: Diversify, diversify, diversify
The old adage “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” also applies to social media marketing. Social media can be a key component of your overall marketing mix, but it shouldn’t be the only type of marketing that you use. And, even within the world of social media marketing, you should attempt to diversify. Thus, while it might seem to make sense to focus on just a single platform at one time, this approach also ignores the benefits of diversification. Yes, Facebook can still represent the bulk of your social media advertising budget, but don’t forget to sprinkle a few marketing dollars on other platforms, such as Instagram or YouTube. The key is to find the social media platforms where your potential customers are hanging out, and then advertise across those platforms
Tip #3: Test and repeat
The best way to pull off a social media marketing campaign is by scaling into a purchase. What that means in practical terms is that you might only spend $50 a week at the outset to see “what works.” And, once you have a better sense of effective messages, imagery or ad formats, then you scale up that $50 weekly investment into $100, $200 or even more. That’s why social media marketing is so easy and convenient – you have enormous power over when to start and stop a campaign, as well as how much money you will spend over a specific time frame. So you don’t have to worry about blowing through a hundred bucks in a span of a few days. Test, repeat, and then scale into bigger marketing buys over time.
Final thoughts
One wildcard factor in the success of any social media marketing campaign, of course, is the amount of “organic” reach you can establish upfront. If you already have a huge built-in customer base, combined with a large number of followers and fans across social media, then this organic reach might be easier to achieve than for other brands or businesses. However, if you have a brand-new social media account, or you have an older account that has languished over time, then you might need to boost your social media content so that it can be seen by as many people as possible. The good news is that if you know your customers well, and you have a few creative types on board who can create engaging content on a regular basis, then you also have a solid basis for creating a winning social media marketing campaign.
