Posted by Not everyone has the capital to invest in a fully-fledged social media marketing campaign that will turn heads. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t get involved and see success with social media marketing. There are ways to run a campaign that will be just as effective as a more expensive one.
Let’s go through a few tips on how to kickstart a social media marketing campaign on a budget:
1. Understand your audience
This really applies to all marketing campaigns or businesses, but it’s worth mentioning for social media marketing specifically. When budget restrictions are in place, you can’t afford to be marketing to everyone and anyone. That’s why it’s important that you understand your target audience inside out.
2. Choose your social media platforms wisely
When thinking about your target audience on social media, it can be easy to get wrapped up in numbers. You might see that a certain platform has 2 billion monthly active users and immediately think that’s where you need to be.
However, not all of those users will be interested in what you’re selling. For example, suppose you’re selling a product aimed at young teens. In that case, you’ll probably find less success using Facebook as your primary platform, given that the average user age ranges from 25 to 34. Instead, focus on platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, or even TikTok.
3. Use Google Analytics and understand the data being presented
One way of identifying your target market is by viewing past visitors to your website or app. Look at Google Analytics to see where they came from before landing on your site. For example, if most of your traffic comes from Twitter, that’s a good indication that you should focus your efforts there.
It’s also ideal for creating a persona for your target customer, which should include their age, gender, location, interests and dislikes, and behavioral patterns online. This provides a clear picture of who you’re targeting and will make it easier to find them on social media.
According to top UK storage company, Henfield Storage, “You need to consider things like age, sex, location, interests, and even whether they’re in a relationship. You need to visualize this person like you would a real person. This way, it becomes much easier to target them on social media.”
4. Create meaningful content that will resonate with your target audience
Your content must be exciting and engaging enough to get people to stop scrolling through their feed long enough to read it. This is why “clickbait” style headlines often work well on social media. They pique people’s curiosity and make them want to find out more.
If you know what sort of content your audience is interested in, you can create content that appeals to them. This could be in the form of blog posts, infographics, images, videos or even just short captions to instantly get your reader’s attention.
Many real estate businesses, for example, find success on social media by posting blog posts about the local housing market, infographics about the home-buying process, or even beautiful photos of properties they’re trying to sell. Let’s not forget those real estate tours of fancy, high-end properties on youtube that get a lot of engagement from users and get millions of views daily!
5. Utilize User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is a great way to get free content for your social media marketing campaign. This is any content that’s created by users of your product or service, rather than by your business.
This could be in the form of a review, testimonial, mention or even just a photo or video of someone using your product.
6. Generate content through your subscribers
One way of getting UGC is simply asking your customers or fans to send you content that you can share on your social media channels. You could even run a competition where the prize has their content featured on your page.
Youtube channel ‘Daily Dose of Internet, for example, publishes their viewers’ videos to be featured on the channel, with the credit going to the original creator.
7. Take advantage of testimonials and user reviews
If you have any particularly glowing reviews, make sure to share them on social media. You could even create an infographic or video testimonial from a satisfied customer. This benefits your campaign by building credibility for your product or service and giving you free content to share.
8. Create a content strategy
Posting your content erratically will confuse your followers and decrease the chances that they’ll actually see what you’ve worked so hard to create. If your content is the bee’s knees, your followers want to know when to expect it!
9. Establish a posting schedule
You can determine a posting schedule on all the data you’ve collected on your audience’s social media habits. This will include your past engagement rate, the time of day your followers are most and impressions.
Creating a content strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. You can start by mapping out the content you want to create, then figure out when and where you will post it. This could be a social media calendar, which you can then use to plan and schedule your content.
10. Optimize your content
If your company sells customized cakes, you’ll want to ensure your social media posts keywords such as ‘customized’, ‘cakes’, ‘birthdays’, ‘celebrations’, and so on. Doing this will make your content more discoverable by search results, and attract people who are interested in what you do.
Including keywords doesn’t mean cramming them into every post. It’s about using them where they make sense, and in a way that sounds natural. Spamming keywords will not only turn off your followers but could also get you banned from the social media platform.
The top home service company, Sidepost, has increased traffic to their blog by nearly 300% simply by adding relevant keywords to their blog titles. Phi Dang, Sidepost’s director says “Our keywords are now helping us reach an audience we weren’t able to before, and as a result, we’re getting more leads and conversions.”
11. Engage with other users
Social media is all about interacting with other users or being social. This helps to create a sense of community around your brand and will make people more likely to become customers or fans.
However, engagement is a two-way street; it shouldn’t be all one-way traffic. It defeats the point if you’re routinely plugging another company’s products but rarely mention you back. Thus, establishing genuine long-term relationships with other businesses is worth the investment and can be fun too!
Comment on their posts and visa versa
One way of doing this is by following them and commenting on other social media account posts. This is an excellent way to get your business’ name out there and engage with potential customers. Just ensure you don’t come across as spammy or you’ll quickly get unfollowed.
Use influencers to broaden your reach
Another way is actually to meet other social media influencers or businesses and create content together. This could be in the form of a joint webinar, short videos, or even just a quick mention on social media. This type of content is excellent since you’re crossing over onto their audience’s radar and vice versa.
12. Invest in free or low-cost tools to collect data
We’ve already mentioned google analytics previously, but plenty of other great free tools can help you improve your social media marketing.
Twitter Analytics
Twitter Analytics is a great tool that provides detailed analytics on your Twitter account. This includes the number of mentions, retweets, and replies you’ve received and your top followers. You’ll receive this information monthly, which you can use to improve your Twitter strategy.
Hootsuite Insights
Hootsuite Insights is another great free tool that gives you detailed analytics on your social media accounts. From knowing what your competition is releasing to be notified when a customer complaint has gone viral, Hootsuite has you covered.
TrackMyHashtag
This AI tool is designed to help you track, measure, and optimize your hashtags on social media. By finding out the most popular and trending hashtags, you can make sure your content is seen by as many people as possible.
Final Thoughts
Social media marketing doesn’t require an air balloon full of cash to get started. Utilizing this article’s tips and tricks, you can create a social media marketing campaign that won’t break the bank. So what are you waiting for? Get started today!