Times have changed, and few people still appreciate traditional means of marketing. Outbound marketing, though still priceless, has begun reaping less results because of its intrusive and disrupting nature. Outbound marketing encompasses un-skippable ads, billboards, phone calls, and radio or TV advertisements. These types of outbound marketing are also referred to as “mass marketing.”
Mass marketing methods are no longer as profitable as they once were — which is why social media inbound marketing is the new go-to. Pop-up advertisements and pushy pitches are more likely to irritate than entice customers. People today like to choose if, when, and how they consume marketing materials, and this is why inbound marketing is a company’s best way to go, especially on social media platforms.
Social media inbound marketing is a non-intrusive and appealing way to attract people’s attention to your brand. This is because inbound marketing strategies delicately incorporate who you are and what you do into people’s lives by providing them with solutions to certain problems they might be facing in a seamless way, even on social media.
Check out more social media marketing insights in our article on Social Media Marketing for Tech Companies: Strategies for Success.
Social media inbound marketing: why is it relevant?
Nowadays, almost everyone is on at least 1 social media platform. This implies that including social media in your marketing strategy allows you to reach vaster audiences with the click of a button (and a whole lot of planning, of course.) It makes no difference if you own a small, local business or a large, multinational one. Social media is much more than a trend. Even though social media alone will not drive business development, it is a crucial component of your business marketing plan.
Social media platforms will help you interact with consumers, increase brand awareness, and improve lead generation, but you must first have a robust content marketing strategy. This means that you have to know when to post and what to post to get the most out of your efforts.
Setting up and optimizing your social media presence using an inbound marketing strategy is thus of huge importance, seeing as 74% of consumers turn to social media to direct their purchasing decisions and 53% admit they are inclined to buy from companies that are transparent on social media.
After you’ve optimized your SEO, content marketing strategy, and email marketing campaigns, social media is the stage where you can extend market presence. In other words, social media acts as a booster for your chosen inbound marketing techniques. Social media also allows you to understand more about your audiences and communicate with them on a regular basis, which leads to enhanced consumer loyalty.
Benefits of Social Media Inbound Marketing
Social media is among the best practices in inbound marketing strategies because it serves a wide range of advantages, among which are:
Getting to know your audience on a more personal level
Social media is an excellent tool for better understanding your target demographic. People use social media to share things that they enjoy and find useful. Hence through trial and error, social media can indeed reveal to you what your audience actually enjoys.
Whether your sites provide informational content or descriptions of your offerings, your audience will respond to what is essential to them. This allows you to tailor your material to their needs and thus increase engagement with your brand, which only positively influences your ROI.
Establishing a proper brand image
One of a company’s most precious assets is its branding. Establishing brand recognition is among the most crucial marketing goals for any company. This is because customers like to shop from brands they are familiar with. Establishing proper branding leads to long-term benefits, which include loyalty, recognition, word-of-mouth marketing, and increased credibility.
Fortunately, social media makes brand building simple and profitable. Placing your logo frequently yet strategically is an excellent method to increase brand recognition. This means that placing your logo on the pictures or videos you post as well as it being your profile picture is essential for recognition.
Increasing your reach and conversion rates
Social media inbound marketing strategies can help you attract and capture more leads, turn your leads into customers, and keep your customers engaged with your business. Social media platforms are the most used digital platforms so almost all of your target audience is there.
Add to that, social media inbound marketing strategies also allow you to track your results and see what’s working and what’s not working. You will be able to track your reach, likes, comments, views, and click-through rates. In turn, you can quickly adjust your strategies as needed!
Supporting your inbound marketing funnel
Your inbound marketing content strategy should be designed to attract, engage, and delight your target audience. You can create a social media inbound marketing content strategy that will help you achieve your business goals by following the inbound marketing funnel:
Attract: The goal here is to attract visitors. By creating content that educates and informs prospects you help them see the true value of your brand. You can create Instagram guides, informational posts, or interactive 2D animated explainer videos.
Engage: The goal here is to engage visitors. By creating content that is interactive and engaging, prospects can be more likely to remember your brand and come back for repeat visits. This is where you start creating content that shows your brand’s unique value proposition through demo videos, testimonials, and more content that shows your product or service.
Delight: The goal here is to delight visitors. By creating content that is fun and exciting, you can encourage prospects to share your brand with their friends and family. Content like funny sketches, memes, relatable Reels and TikTok videos, and other trending content.
Social Media as an Inbound Marketing Tool
As we’ve previously stated, curating content for social media audiences is of very high importance. You don’t want to overwhelm your audience with irrelevant content because this would drive them away rather than pull them towards you.
An effective inbound marketing content strategy emphasizes attracting, engaging, and delighting targeted website visitors by delivering a captivating experience that educates and motivates people to make a change – placing their interests and needs ahead of your profit line.
Social media inbound marketing content strategies are made up of several steps, being:
- Deciding which stage of the buyer’s journey to target (awareness / consideration / decision)
- Understanding your audiences (buyer personas)
- Determining the topics you want to write about
- Getting the right keywords and FAQs
- Deploying your content in different forms (webpages / videos / podcasts)
- Curating your content for different uses (website / different social media platforms)
Tips for your Social media inbound marketing strategy
Do you want to enhance your inbound marketing approach? Social media is key in the early stages of the inbound marketing process when you draw visitors to your website. Social networking, alongside SEO and your blog, is a key tool for generating new viewers and, ideally, converting them into customers.
Create profiles on platforms where your target audience is active
Create a social media profile on at least one platform where your target audience is active. For example, if your target audience is active on Instagram, create an Instagram profile for your business. Not all demographics use all social media platforms. Therefore, an experienced inbound marketing agency will make sure to know exactly where your target audience spends most of their time on social media.
This however doesn’t end here, you need to post engaging content on your social media profile that is likely to engage your target audience. For example, if your target audience is interested in fashion, post content about fashion trends and ask for your followers’ opinions.
Add links to your website to attract more traffic
Your target audience members are almost always on social media, which makes it one of the most powerful tools to increase brand awareness. Social media exposure in an inbound marketing strategy can significantly boost the results you see, especially when your content is engaging and informative. Check out this blog post to see which type of content to post on Instagram to garner the most engagement and interaction.
When you post more content that drives users to your website, you increase brand awareness and increase website click-through rates (CTR).
Show that you care by interacting with your social media audience
This is a highly-important point because consumers now know that most businesses only care about selling their products or services. Interacting with your audience is a great way to show them that they are your primary concern, which thus helps you form a bond with them and earn their trust – when they see your brand as “one of them,” they will be more likely to become paying customers.
In order to do this, you will want to make sure that you are engaging with your target audience in a way that is consistent with the overall tone of your brand. For example, if you are a company that offers luxury products, you will want to make sure that your social media posts are not too informal, as this will be a turn-off for your target market. At the same time, if you are a business that is known for being laid-back and quirky, you will not want to post on social media in a stiff and formal manner, as this will make your brand seem inauthentic.
Use videos to grab attention
There is no doubt that video is one of the most attention-grabbing forms of content on social media. In fact, according to HubSpot, posts with videos attract 3 times as many inbound links as plain text posts. Not only that, but videos are also more likely to be shared and liked than other types of content. In fact, Facebook reports that people are 1.5 times more likely to share a video than a text post. So if you want to grab attention on social media, start using videos. You can use them to promote your products, share announcements, or just give your followers a behind-the-scenes look at your business. You can also use hashtags and social media SEO to reach a wider audience!
Post free valuable content: tips, tricks, and how-tos
When your brand is seen as a solution provider – especially for free – you will be associated with positive emotions. Everyone loves free advice that works, and you’re bound to get more traction when this form of content marketing is used. Psychologically, you’re offering a “No Risk Trial” when you offer free tips or advice. This is a powerful psychological tool that many marketers use however it’s important to stay authentic and relevant.
Add to that, free content creates a positive brand image. When your brand is seen as a provider of free tips and advice, you’ll become a better, more approachable brand in the eyes of consumers. In other words, if you’re able to help people, you’ll build more loyalty, and people will be more likely to buy from you. Simply, when you give your audience without expecting anything in return, you’re able to build trust with your audience, and eventually you’ll create a more loyal following.
Ask for interactions and increase engagement
Improve your email marketing with Inbound Email Marketing.
To be successful in your inbound marketing strategy, ask for interactions and increase engagement on your social media platforms. You can do this by having a conversation with your customers and/or clients. Asking questions and providing helpful answers will increase the number of interactions you receive. It is also important to post content that is relevant to your industry and to your target market. This will help to increase the number of people who are interested in what you have to say. Social media is a great way to connect with potential and current customers, so make sure that you are using it to its full potential.
Make sure you don’t slack on engagement. Replying to a comment once won’t help your strategy. In fact, whenever you are providing value to your customers, it is important to engage them on a regular basis. Engagement will keep them coming back to your site, it will help you build a relationship with them, and it will allow you to create a community around your brand.
Final thoughts
The inbound marketing strategy focuses on optimizing your online presence, which includes working on your social media channels. When you truly commit to a social media strategy, the quality content you provide and the interactions you get with your audience create your reputation. The bottom line is that social media is a powerful tool that can be used to increase brand awareness, build brand identity, engage with your target market and boost sales. In order to maximize the benefits that social media can provide, you will want to make sure that you are using it in the right way.
Don’t hesitate to contact us to find out more about how our inbound marketing plan can help you boost your visibility and engagement rates!
