I have been interviewing many business owners over the past 3 months. I have been exploring areas for my Marketing Solutions business to focus our attention upon as we head into our second year of operation. One area which has specifically been a topic of great discussion has been Social Media. More specifically Facebook advertising. I was somewhat surprised at a resistance level I had not anticipated encountering when I asked if business owners were utilising Social Media for their businesses? And if yes, how successful were they in deploying their activity? So when I received a lot of negative feedback about this marketing platform, I was taken aback as the business owners explained their fears of using Facebook and the concern they had that it would damage their reputation if they marketed through Facebook and received negative feedback. Many of the business owners explained that they weren’t even on Facebook themselves so didn’t see why their business needed to be!!

In my head, the response was to say “don’t let your own fear & reluctance to be on social media stop you from marketing your business on those platforms. Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean you should do it.” But you have to respect that when someone doesn’t fully understand the platform or have an interest in it themselves then they may not see the benefits they can achieve by being on that platform for their business. Therefore it takes an amount of educating and clarifying the myths that circulate from horror stories that are passed on and exacerbated by word of mouth. Fundamentally though, we all have favoured mediums to digest content, whether it is TV, magazines or newspapers, but all too often we as business owners limit ourselves to market our own businesses only through the media outlets that we personally enjoy receiving content and where we sit comfortably.

Now given that there are over 2 Billion users on Facebook and Messenger your ideal client avatar is most likely lurking there and is receptive to sponsored content that you provide based on their interests, behaviours and demographics. No matter what your product, goods or services are, there is a high likelihood that you will achieve success by utilising the many tools at your disposal to access and engage these potential clients through social media advertising content provided it is well targeted and has a relevant call to action that resonates well with your ideal client.

Traffic is key to any business marketing activity. There are some merits in the saying “done is better than perfect” however, it’s not just a matter of sticking up a picture, chucking in some words and lumping some budget behind it hoping it will fly. Users nowadays are far more sophisticated having become exhausted with the monotonous un-targeted messaging that has been filling their newsfeed for the past few years. They need to be “warmed up” from cold traffic to warm leads before they are ready to make a purchasing decision. Depending on the value of your product or service you may need few or many touch points in order to lead your ideal customer to the point where they are ready to make that all important purchasing choice to buy your product.

Having worked with a number of different business owners recently I have witnessed first hand the transformation that we have achieved for customers that have not even opened a Facebook account who now have a new found fascination with social media marketing, it’s mechanics but importantly it opened their eyes up to how much money they were leaving on the table, firstly by not being there in the first place, but also their ability to reach their customers and reduce their cost to acquire the customer in the first place. Having spent so much money on traditional marketing methods such as direct mail, radio or billboard advertising they were impressed to see how low their acquisition cost became when they started to achieve results through Facebook ads.

Social Media like it or not is here to stay and the marketing proposition that it offers with our young generation who are consuming data faster than ever is critical for businesses to stay relevant and reach their ideal clients whether they are a multinational corporation, an SME or highly skilled professionals such as dentists, chiropractors and personal trainers.

So as you now ponder how and where you should be marketing, take stock of the pace of development that the digital world is creating in the B2B & B2C marketing space. For many, it is a daunting prospect to move to digital and social marketing strategies and I have been astounded at how many business owners I have spoken with that have advised me that Social Media is “not for them”, that “they don’t get it so they don’t do it”, “It’s just for kids and they wouldn’t know where to start as they’re too old” or the worst “they tried it, didn’t know what they were doing and wasted their time & money so gave up”. My answer to them every time is it’s never too late to start, and more importantly if you don’t know how or don’t want to do it yourself then hire someone who does get it, who knows how to do it and can implement an effective social media growth strategy for your business to get you a constant flow of your ideal customers whilst lowering your cost of acquisition.

Social Media marketing when done well looks simple leading many to believe that they can do it themselves, but that’s where those people fall into the trap with “the anyone can do it mindset”. There is a very complex strategy to be developed, content creation or curation, audience targeting and re-targeting, post scheduling to reach the right people at the right time, automation for email and messenger follow-ups, managing the constant shift of algorithms to ensure that your content still reaches it’s desired audience and the list goes on … not to mention your irresistible offer that finally makes the purchase decision a simple click of a button without hesitation.

So in summary, if you are getting splinters sitting on the fence watching your competition sweeping up your ideal clients because they have an effective digital and social media strategy in play and you’ve been one of the many reluctantly resisting the shifting tide towards digital, then take action and find the expertise that can help you direct your marketing budget effectively in to the right social platforms and deliver you great content to convert those leads you are struggling to attain today.

If you need help with your marketing activity then book a call here Book A Call or email me at [email protected]