Social media marketing is a powerful tool for businesses and having an effective social media marketing strategy can help brands achieve incredible results.

Though the potential is great, building a brand on social media is no mean feat. There are important factors to consider when managing your brand’s communication on social media.

As a strategic marketing agency with a passion for digital and social media marketing, we have seen what works on social media for a variety of businesses across different industries.

Through this article we are highlighting 7 strategic tips that will help elevate your social media marketing performance.

1. Pre-Plan Your Social Media Content.

We all know that feeling when you realize your team has not posted any content on your social media platforms in a long time. Oftentimes, the running of the business takes over and social media content creation gets sidelined due to other ‘more important’ matters.

Regular communication on social media helps keep your brand ‘top of mind’ with your audience whilst connecting with them and nurturing the relationship between your brand and its customers.

Having a curated social media presence is also important because social media pages also function as micro-sites for your business and help with SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Planning your content in advance will ensure you have a consistent presence on social media. As an agency we pre-plan our client’s social media content at least one month in advance, to ensure consistent and effective brand communication on all relevant social media channels. On a day-to-day basis we also look out for new opportunities to create and share content that resonates with the brand’s audience.

2. Consider Running Paid Ads on Social Media

Depending on your industry, and your social media strategy, running paid ads can be an effective way of achieving your communication objectives.

The beauty of social media is that you can start with a small budget and scale up once you achieve your winning formula.

The platform, visual, format, target audience, call-to-action (CTA), campaign objective, landing page and more, all have an impact on the performance of your advertising campaign.  Experimenting and continually optimizing your ads will lead to a successful, results-driven campaign.

3. Monitor and Optimize

As mentioned, to run effective social media campaigns, one must continuously monitor results, testing as much as possible and optimizing to obtain the highest return on investment (ROI).

This may mean running more than one campaign targeting the same audience, with different variables such as a visual, caption or call-to-action.

The optimization of campaigns can also mean using different ad campaigns to retarget a ‘warmer’ audience, including those people who have already engaged with your brand. Even though there have been changes when it comes to the pixel due to the recent iOS 14 update, one can still effectively retarget people who have engaged with your brand on the social media platform itself. Such actions can include watching a certain percentage of your video or liking and commenting on your post.

It is also important to note that campaigns need time to find their sweet spot. Be patient, monitor, tweak, and polish until you generate results.

4. Explore New Trends & Social Media Channels

Some brands have played down the popularity of social media platforms in the past. This resulted in them having to work even harder to build a community and brand presence on these channels eventually.

It is a fact that the digital world is a constantly changing one. New social media platforms, communication formats and trends must not be ignored.

With a digital team by your side you can ensure that no trend or opportunity is missed. At GRO we are continuously experimenting with new trends and channels in order to provide the best recommendations to our clients.

The key here is to do things well. It may seem like all fun and games however where there is attention, a thought-out strategy is crucial because this will ultimately have an impact on your results.

5. The User Experience

This is a crucial one. If your content or ad is directing your audience off social media to your own URL, the landing page experience must reflect that of the post they just clicked on. It is a total waste of money to run beautiful ads, with a great CTR (click-through-rate) and CPC (cost per click), to fall short on conversions because of a poor landing page experience.

The landing page must be treated as part and parcel of the ad campaign. If you are directing people to your website, you need to ensure that the page you are directing them to is optimised for conversions.

It is also important to train any team members who have direct contact with clients to reflect the tone of voice experienced on the ad. This also applies if you are using automated chat bots.

6. Valuable Content

Creating quality content that is of value to your target audience will lead to higher levels of trust, loyalty, and brand love. One needs to keep in mind that people’s time and attention have a high value and if we are to hook them with our content, it needs to be worth their while.

Whether it is as simple as saving your customers’ time with an informative post, or inspiring them to use your products in a way that benefits them, valuable content is key when communicating on social media. A creative social media management team can help generate content ideas that provide value to your audience.

7. Collaborations

Collaborating with established influencers and third-party platforms can be an effective way to increase brand exposure and recognition, as part of a holistic social media marketing campaign. When done right, collaborations can build brand trust with new audiences, and result in quality leads and sales.

Some important factors to consider when collaborating with content creators on social media include the audience demographics as well as their interests and spending power vis-à-vis your product or service offering.

It is also important to understand the content creator’s personal values as well as their follower trust and engagement. In an ideal scenario, the content creator is already one of your customers before you engage in the collaboration.

As for third-party platforms, it is crucial to choose a quality platform that reflects the image of the company. The relevance of content on the platform needs to be analysed to identify whether it is the right place to communicate the business’s message.

Elevating your social media marketing performance.

Social media marketing can sound overwhelming for businesses. However, we have seen first-hand what an effective tool it can be to build brands, generate leads and ultimately grow one’s business.

With over 72 billion euros spent in Facebook advertising in 2020, compared with 59 billion euros the year before that, and 47 billion euros the year prior to that, it is clear that businesses worldwide are finding social media advertising effective.

If you are ready to implement an effective social media strategy and lack the internal resources necessary, a reputable marketing partner can help. Working with a team of experts who will plan and implement your social media marketing plan, can be the ingredient you are missing to maximize your brand’s growth potential.

At GRO, we are a small, mighty team of marketing strategists and creatives who absolutely love what we do. Our brand identity may be relatively new; however, our team has been in the industry for over 15 years, helping local and international brands get their message across strategically and effectively across a wide range of industries.

If you are ready to take your business to the next level, request a call-back here.

This article was written by co-founder and Head of Marketing Strategy at GRO, Davinia Mallia Pulé