Here’s a fact that should shock no one: Social Media is the fastest, most direct and unarguably best way to reach consumers.

Here’s a fact that might surprise you: most people are using it wrong. Granted, most smaller brands are doing relatively well in reaching their customer base, but more than likely aren’t doing the kind of numbers that would warrant/justify continuing to invest in this marketing route, but pulling the investment after only a few weeks of testing (which 60% of owners end up doing) is the wrong thing to do. What should they do instead?

The answer is simple: Adopt an all-inclusive strategy that utilizes the Social Media funnel as 1-part of a much larger marketing schema.

I know what you’re thinking “well, how do I do that?” It’s not as hard as it sounds, but TRUST US, it is also not as easy as you think. Below, we break down the 7-things you can do today to get your Digital Strategy in order and start capitalizing on the vast world of social media marketing:

1. Know What You Want

Knowing is half the battle, so start with understanding exactly what it is that you want to achieve across your social platforms.

Set measurable goals, also known as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), that you can refer to on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis to assess whether you’re on task with your goals.

If our client wants to increase their user base by 30% in 3 months – this gives us something to work with, and so, we'll establish KPIs based on the conversion cycle.

2. Don’t be afraid to look in the rear-view mirror

Establishing an effective digital strategy starts with understanding what you’ve done (or haven’t done) in the past, and being brutally honest about the results you did or didn’t get. Some of the questions you’ll want to ask during this portion of the review are:

• how well did the past campaigns perform?

• Was there a period of sustained growth? (where your followers were growing every week/month)

• Were there points of stagnation? (instances where engagement was low/nonexistent)

• What content performs the best for me? (video, blogs, direct posts)

3. Speak the Language

Don’t let the planning and review of content take your focus off those you’re trying to reach with your content. You already know your audience (at least we sincerely hope you do – otherwise, we need to have a very different discussion), but the audience is often the first thing people forget amid the KPI setting, budget examining, and chaos that is trying to get your digital plan right.

4. Develop Useful Client Profiles

Whether you are a business entity or an individual brand (musician, artist, creative, etc.) it will be important to establish as least 3-7 profiles for the type of buyer you want to target.

The profiles don’t have to be too intensive, but you’ll want to include enough information in them so that your targeting on future campaigns will make sense down the line.

For example:

A small business whose ideal clients are creatives, entrepreneurs, and tech-savvy startups, will want to develop personas for each of these areas, and a painter whose ideal clientele consists of people between the ages of 24-36 with disposable income, of a certain lifestyle type and with certain likes/dislikes, will need to get granular.

5. Understand Your Limits

There are two things you need to understand to have a successful strategy – your budget and your channels. Your budget will provide a realistic view of what you can expect from your marketing efforts.

A client with a weekly budget of $30 will get very different results from a client who has $300 or $3,000. Your channels (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc) are going to dictate a lot. $25 per week across Facebook and Instagram goes a long way … $1,000 goes further.

6. Stop Wasting Time – Create the Damn Plan

Knowing what you want to achieve, reviewing your past performance, understanding your audience and content they like, and knowing your budget and channels you want to use are all great steps on the journey to creating a viable strategy – now you’ll need to actually create a plan.

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to get great results, you just need to know who/when/how to target to achieve the maximum results, and where to spend the money to ensure you receive a return.

7. Get Out There + Solicit Feedback

The final step to take is to launch. Choose a date to release your new strategy and then solicit feedback from your audience. Ask them what they like, what they want to hear, and how often they want to hear from you. Including them in the content you produce will ensure their engagement down the line. Keep in mind, that you can’t please everyone all the time, but there’s a large portion you can please by delivering content that’s consistent and relevant to what your audience needs.

There you have it, our 7 things you can do today to get you on the track to creating a digital strategy that is going to launch your business into the next phase. If you get stuck on any one of these, contact us today. We have Digital Media specialists who can help to create the type of strategy that will save you time and make you money because, in the end, it should be about increasing your bottom line.

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