Marketing and sales are a huge part of a startup’s success for the short and long term. Founders start businesses to sell something and selling that product requires a dedication to sales and marketing.
Marketing is a lot like a startup itself. It’s all about the long term game and making consistent plays. Certainly, quick wins and rapid growth are great. But if you’re not thinking about the long-term, then most probably your business won’t last too long.
Marketing is all about creating a clear campaign focused on selling something. Marketing involves a combo of owned, earned and paid media, and there’s a difference between focusing on a specific idea with campaign marketing vs always-on marketing. Across all of the channels, you’ve got to communicate clearly about what you offer. Founders need to not only attract the right potential customers, but they need to communicate with those customers so well that they will part with their money and become a part of your community. Here’s the whole reason why we all get into business in the first place. To make money in exchange for something that makes a difference to a person’s life – and ideally, this is done in a smooth, clear, and simple way. (more…)
“ We noticed a massive jump in enquiries. The way SLAM works with you every step of the way exceeds any other Marketing company we have ever worked with. They not only implement effective strategies, they manage the whole process and report back to you with the results and ways to further grow your business. We are very grateful for all SLAM has done for us at Sukhavati.”
We all know how huge social media is– businesses big and small are jumping on board and making the most of what social media networks have to offer. Gaining likes and followers is fantastic, but how do you know if social media is turning fans into customers?
These days, you would have to have a very good reason not to be using social media as part of your marketing strategy. According to the latest Yellow Social Media report, 65% of Aussies are using social media, and 95% of those users are on Facebook, yet only 30% of small businesses are using social media. That’s a lot of missed opportunities! Learn more about why you should be using social media in the video at the top of the page.
The Yellow Social Media report also reveals that only 51% of large businesses are measuring their social media ROI. It is notoriously tricky to measure the ROI of social media because insights aren’t always available and the definition of “conversion” often needs to be altered. That said, even businesses with a small budget, can use a number of tactics to work out if their social media activity is working in their favour by using free tools and analytics provided by Facebook and Google Analytics and subscription based apps.
In measuring your conversions, ROI and overall success with social media, it is important to match metrics to the goals you wanted to reach by using social media. A return on investment could mean increased brand awareness, as well as revenue generation, so look at how many clicks, video plays, photo views, comments, shares, etc. your content is receiving. This will let you know if your brand awareness is increasing and where you might need to make changes.
Consider tracking anecdotes and correlation as a measurement for ROI. Anecdotal evidence could include asking your customers how did found you, or what drove them to make a purchase? You could measure by correlation if you seen an increase in sales at the same time as an increase in social media activity. If you’ve recently run a competition or have had particularly engaging or viral content, this could be linked to increased sales activity.
Google Analytics can help you track how many customers are visiting your website from your social media networks. Look at their activity on your site – depending on your goals, a download or subscription could be counted as a conversion.
Measuring the amount of traffic you need to drive to your website or store via social media can also be calculated. Start by calculating your Customer Lifetime Value, that is, the amount of revenue a customer will generate for a company during the customer’s engagement with a brand.
Say your CLV is $2000 and you allocate 10% of the CLV ($200) to use social media to acquire new customers. Now let’s say you’ve outsourced your social media to a consultant, who will cost you $1000. Divide the cost of the consultant by your social media spend and you will find that you need to acquire more than 5 new customers to achieve a positive ROI.
There are every evolving ways to calculate your social media ROI and this is just the beginning. Calculating how much bang social media is generating for your buck comes down to matching metrics to your company goals, looking at insights and developing measurements which best suit your products and services.
One of the most common questions that business owners have when it comes to social media, is,
“How do I make money from it?”
You can increase your sales and grow your business using social media, but it won’t happen overnight. Building a loyal customer base takes time, and you will need to use social media to grow and nurture your community of current and potential customers.
As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, you need to start by knowing what it is you want to achieve from using social media. If sales are your primary focus, you need to remember to keep your online communication broad and forget the hard sell.
Increasing sales from your social media efforts should be approached in a similar way to how you would attempt to increase sales offline; with superior customer service, occasional discounts and special offers, product demonstration and information and brand development. Think about what sells in-store and apply it to your online activities – happy and rewarded customers are more likely to be loyal and repeat customers.
When creating social media networks, keep in mind what elements of your business you want to build, what weaknesses you can strengthen and what strengths you can promote.
Below are five types of social media strategy you should be using. It’s up to you to decided whether you focus on one strategy, combine a few or go for the whole hog!
Brand maintenance – monitor mentions of your brand, respond to comments, queries and complaints. Post updates.
Community building – build relationships with internal advocates, and external brand ambassadors or groups of similar interest. Join groups to share your business and exchange advice. Nurture your community, be engaging and social.
Influencer outreach – identify and engage influential people around your passion points or industry. Consider collaborating with like-minded people.
Reputation management and development – repair a damaged reputation, develop thought leadership. Add recommendations and positive testimonials.
The big splash – big creative campaigns, which garner a lot of short-term attention, such as competitions, discounts and offers. These campaigns don’t have to cost much, and are great for brand exposure and tapping in to the best part of social media: virality.
Think about your calendar of events, upcoming products, etc. as to how you can combine these strategies to promote your business.
Remember; don’t get discouraged when results aren’t happening quickly. Most people dedicate about 20% of their Facebook use to interacting with brands to learn about products, offers and discounts. Be social, be engaging and find creative ways to keep your fans interested (not just on Facebook).
