Why Is Social Media an Important Part of Inbound Marketing?

If you’ve been sleeping on using social media to put your business and brand out there – where many more people can see it – then it’s time to wake up. Social media marketing is an essential trick every business owner should have up their sleeves, and we’ll show you why.

Why is social media an important part of inbound marketing?

A social media user will spend an average of 3 hours per day on social platforms. And there are more than 3.5 billion social media users globally –the numbers are still rising daily.

That’s a lot of screen time you may not have been leveraging on.

And you can reach a good part of these people from the comfort of your office or home – it’s literally at your fingertips.

The advent of social networks has genuinely changed the business landscape, and it keeps changing it every day.

You can even conduct a sale online without your client stepping into your brick-and-mortar shop!

And this is just a small taste of the power of social media marketing.

Are you hooked yet?

Well, there’s more where that came from. We’ll have a look at some other reasons why your business just can’t do without social media marketing.

“A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is.” Scott Cook, Co-Founder of Intuit

One of the main reasons why you need to stay relevant on social media is the fact that it makes your brand more recognizable.

And if your business is being seen regularly, customers would most likely patronize you, even if they weren’t actively searching for any product at all.

Also, consumers can be fiercely loyal – and skeptical – so they’d most likely buy from brands they know and have patronized before.

This means that you have to create an attractive and compelling business profile on your desired social platform(s) and, at the same time, up your content game.

People cherish valuable content and would take their business to a brand that spreads value.

Therefore, being online won’t cut it. You need to post content that can help your audience. It’s merely giving and take.

Therefore, being online won’t cut it. You need to post content that can help your audience. It’s merely giving and take.

It’s not only about the visibility too.

Social media marketing goes beyond just advertising yourself. You just can’t dump lots of ads or articles and expect people to patronize you, without ever talking with them or actually finding out what they need. You’ll end up driving your market away.

Here’s another stat for you.

71% of consumers who have had a fantastic social media interaction with a brand would likely recommend that brand to their friends and family.

You can’t interact if you don’t actually communicate with your target market.

With the creation and spread of a lot of popular social platforms, you can have meaningful personal communication with your target audience and potential customers – near or far.

Being available and attuned to the needs and questions of your customers would mean better customer experience, which will mean more sales and new leads (if they refer to their friends and family).

In a cross-channel analysis by Lyfemarketing.com, it was discovered that social media marketing and advertising is 3x cheaper than using traditional means of advertising.

This means that you’re more likely to meet more people and make more customers with just opening a social media account than you’d have done if you used traditional methods of advertising, like distributing flyers.

Okay, it’s doesn’t end at just opening an account. You also have to put in your time to build your account with valuable content. But it’s still less expensive.

You can even pay to advertise on social media platforms. The best part is that, unlike traditional marketing techniques, you can tailor your ad to only be seen by the audience that’s actually interested in your services or products.

Speaking of marketing to your target audience, did you know that your business doesn’t need to be on all the social media platforms at once?

Yes, you aren’t omnipresent and would probably spend a lot of money trying to be in any new social network that pops up.

The truth is that your customers might not be where you’re putting your effort in.

If your target audience is millennials and you focus on LinkedIn, you might not the same returns you would see if you had invested that effort in your Instagram or Twitter account.

So, social media marketing makes it easier to know where your market is and point your time and money there.

Asides from creating brand awareness and advertising, businesses can use social media marketing to gather intel on what the competition is like and what customers are saying about you.

Following hashtags, researching keywords, and keeping track of conversations that revolve around your business and other businesses like it, would help you have an idea of what you may be doing right. Or wrong.

Listening to what people are talking about right now and what problems they are facing can help you create services or products that provide solutions to them.

However, you shouldn’t listen to every conversation willy nilly. Focus on those that actually concern your business and brand.

Try to deescalate the situation by being courteous and offering to help settle the complaint amicably, maybe throw in a freebie. Your reputation is vital. Protect it.

Having a little trouble getting people to visit your website?  Then you might want to try out social media marketing.

Embedding your website link in product photos, videos, and content you share on social can drive more traffic to your website, making it more relevant and more likely to rank better on Search Engine Result Pages (SERP).

This increases your website’s visibility so that people who are actively searching for your product can find it easily.

You need to be sure that your landing page and your website in general, are properly optimized and have an excellent user interface.

You see? Social media marketing has its uses, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

There is a truckload of other reasons why you should utilize social platforms to take your business to the next level.

And even though the sacred digital art of social media marketing doesn’t require the services of an all-knowing shaman in saffron robes, you may require aid getting the hang of it.

Copying any successful brand won’t cut it.

Every business has unique digital needs, and one size doesn’t always fit all – digitally anyway. So, you should find your own unique business flavor and do away with that generic recipe.

It’s also okay to need help. And that’s precisely why we are here.

We at MonoChrome Marketing are dedicated to finding out what your brand’s digital marketing strength is and tailoring our range of IT solutions to leverage on that.

Our goal is to bring digital life to your business and brand; to use our vast experience – over 15 years – in creative web design and social/digital management to put your brand front and center on the digital map.

Got any questions about social media and digital marketing? Or just want to check us out? You can reach out to us. We are here for you.