There’s little doubt that technology has changed our lives- the way we are influenced and how we influence others. But for marketing, it’s more than just doing the same old thing using new tools. Social media marketing isn’t your grandmother’s marketing – it’s different from what most of us have traditionally learned about marketing.
Here’s a few things you will need to know.
Traditional Marketing 101
Most everyone thinks of marketing as the business of promoting and selling products or services.
Marketers commonly refer to a “funnel” to describe the way they attract new prospects and convert them into customers.
What Do We Mean By Funnel?
Traditionally, we’ve prioritised our limited resources and time on trying to find and convert new prospects.
Keeping those hard-earned customers has often been an afterthought.
That’s because, until recently, there was little we could do to keep existing customers that was drastically different from the tactics used to attract new ones.
Historically, the best you could do after turning a prospect into a customer was to provide a great customer experience and just hope they come back to buy more – and bring their friends with them.
But technology, namely social media and email, has changed the game.
Social Media Marketing — Flip that Funnel
Social Media Marketing is about recognising that your existing customers are your best assets.
And technology now enables us to influence consumer behavior both before and after the sale.
With low-cost and easy-to-use tools like social media and email, you no longer have to hope that customers come back and bring their friends with them.
Now you can reach out to your existing customers to remind them to come back, and make word-of-mouth as easy as clicking the share, like, or tweet buttons.
Bottom line: successful businesses understand that marketing does not end with the sale, but rather it begins after the first sale.
Social Media is an Important Part of Your Marketing Mix, but Not the Only One.
Social media marketing is not a replacement for other marketing tactics and we highly recommend that you continue to do what has worked for you in the past.
Traditional marketing activities that still work for you, like advertising in a newspaper, sending direct mail and attending networking events, are still essential.
However, for most, social media marketing is now a critical component of an effective marketing strategy.
In fact, social media marketing works best when combined with other marketing activities, especially email marketing.
If you want a marketing partner that is passionate about helping you grow your business then get in touch. It’s what we’re best at.
