Social Media: The 3 Words CMOs Are Waiting To Hear (Even If They Don't Know It Yet).
Social Media can be an incredibly powerful tool in the hands of today’s marketers. But if you are presenting your strategy to someone in a position of authority… the CMOs, for instance… the main question they will have about your social media efforts is "what is the ROI?" This can be difficult to determine in social media campaigns, where the KPIs are often engagement, view length and shareability.
So, here is the antidote to the ROI problem: make clear to your CMO that instead of short-term ROI, your social media efforts will be measured on 3 metrics which will lead to long-term growth: confidence, content, and conversions. These are the three core elements that every marketer should use social media for marketing. And why you should invest time, money, and resources into it...
Confidence is built by having a strong foundation of followers on your social networks who believe what you say because they know you have their best interests at heart when posting something new about your company or product. Content is key because people want information from companies they trust - this means providing valuable insights into products or services with videos that show things, not tell them. Conversions are the result of a good brand reputation and trust; you want people to be interested in your product or service and then actually purchasing it because they've already engaged with you and got used to your voice and tone.
Why should a business use social media for marketing
First, it should be stressed that Social Media, first and foremost, is not a traditional advertising platform. Bring their attention to their mindset when they use social media platforms? Rarely are you in a buyer frame of mind. You are there to check in with friends and family and maybe to consume and/or engage with content.
The biggest opportunity social media affords-- and the one least effectively taken advantage of-- is the ability to instantly connect with customers and prospects on an individual basis, from anywhere in the world. The reason advertising was such a powerful tool for more than a century was that a company could interact individually with its customers beyond the local market. Advertising made it possible to reach a mass market with a mass message. It built massive companies, no doubt. But it also created a distance between the company and consumer.
Social media allows for a return of the intimacy of the old-word open market. It's no secret that it's much cheaper to sell to a recurring customer than it is to gain a new one. Social media makes it possible to build relationships between a brand and individual customers, which in turn means instant market intelligence and easily enabled brand evangelists.
There are also a number of analytics tools available online, which allow companies to track who's visiting their website and what they're doing when they get there. They also allow you to see where your traffic is coming from and how many people are following you on social media or subscribing to your newsletter.
They key is to stop thinking like advertisers, and transition to a broader marketing mindset.
The 3 words CMOs are waiting to hear about social media marketing (even if they don’t know it).
One possible use case for Social media marketing is to generate confidence, engaging content, and inroads to conversions. If you build your strategy around these three cornerstones, then you have a solid foundation that ought to provide a buffer against the direct-ROI question.
Confidence: You should start by emphasizing how social media marketing can instill confidence about your company among your followers, making it them more likely to consider you when they have a problem your product or service solves. Measuring confidence entails tracking the engagement, conversations and shares among your followers.
Content: Next, talk about how the content serves as fuel for the engagement that leads to confidence. First is your unique content. Second is the user-generated content that results from the engagement with your original content. The first is your chance to establish your authority around a particular topic. The second provides the social proof that others are taking you seriously… and that you're taking them seriously in return. This is what will lead to the trust between marketer and their followers. The community becomes the funnel that you can then sell to (responsibly).
Conversions: Finally, make sure you emphasize how much social media can boost conversions. The easiest way is to set up funnels at specific touchpoints within your community. You can nurture your community so that when they encounter a problem you solve, there is almost no friction for them to choose your solution. This is the holy grail of social media marketing, and if you can convince your CMO that it's worth the investment, you should have a good chance at getting the project approved.
How to build confidence on social networks and through intentional content.
Building a company's confidence on their social networks while getting people to be more faithful isn't an easy task, but there are many things that companies can do in order to accomplish this. They would want to start by making sure that they're posting content that is worth reading and engaging with. This will give the person who visits the page something interesting to consume. Secondly, they want to make sure that they are engaging with others on their social networks on an individual level so that each comment or tweet received is seen as valuable and attentive. Lastly, companies need to keep in mind what their goal is for their social media marketing campaign. That clarity of purpose will come through in their content. If they can figure this out, they should have no problem building confidence on their social networks because they can direct their energies in the right direction.
There are many different types of content that companies need to share to build confidence among their consumers. This ranges anywhere from company-related news since it's important for people to know what's going on with a business, to industry-related news. This can help show people that they're keeping up with the times and being proactive about what's going on in their market. Another article of content that companies need to share more often is educational pieces since these allow the company to show off its knowledge. They want people to know why they are the experts. If people understand this, they're more likely to follow the company and engage with it when they need their products or services. Lastly, companies also want to make sure that they are continually and consistently generating new content throughout the year to ensure a constant stream of fresh material for people to view.
How do you get conversions from your brand reputation and trust.
A good conversion marketing campaign will usually focus heavily on targeted online content.
Do your research to see what your prospects are looking for and create pillar content that speaks to those things. Around that, post filler content that is more entertaining-- shorter with a more informal tone. It can also take excerpts or offshoots of your pillar content and engage them around core concepts.
Pay attention to the content that really draws engagement. These are the ideas that you can use to create lead magnets… videos, pdfs or mini courses, that you provide in exchange for their opting in to an email list. Once on your list, you can nurture them until they are ready to drop into a product-launch or sales series.
As you can see, getting conversions doesn't happen overnight. It takes planning and patience in order to get the results that everyone wants. You need to sow before you can reap. If you produce content that's high quality and to the point, then you'll find that your conversions will be much more successful. In order for this to happen, though, all three elements of Social Media Marketing need to be in place. If you're smart with how you structure things, the conversions will happen in a seemingly automated fashion as your content nurtures members of your community over time.
The importance of understanding Confidence, Content, Conversions in Social-Media Marketing.
When it comes to social media marketing, it's vital that you have all three elements in place in order to be successful. Each one is important in its own way, and if you're missing even one of them, your campaign is going to suffer.
Conversion is usually key in mind when it comes to the CMO, because the CMO has to justify the expenditures. When it comes to social media marketing, people in the C-Suite or on the Board will be pushing to understand the quantifiable ROI. After all, if you're not converting people into paying customers, then what's the point? That's why it's so important to have a strong content strategy in place.
Ultimately, a well-executed strategy around these three KPIs can actually reduce your reliance on paid advertising. That's because getting sales through ads is more expensive than building an audience. And once you build an audience with a site you control as it's hub, you can deliver your ads and sales messages for free.
In summary, a strong social media marketing program is vital, but the true KPIs might not be obvious. You need to convince your CMO that your program can generate these three KPIs and drive the business in a positive direction.
Conversion: Generating new customers and increasing online sales through funnels that engage with your audience and community.
Content: Focusing on creative content that is engaging and reaches target audience.
Confidence: Building trust with your company/brand through social media campaigns and community engagement.
Knowing that these are the aims of your efforts will allow the CMO to envision real, tangible impacts that can be quantified, even if a direct ROI number can't be measured in terms of revenue.
