Social media is taking the business world by storm, as it is a terrific platform where your business can share meaningful information and useful content with a significantly larger proportion of both the target market and wider markets. There are many benefits that social media brings to businesses of all sizes, however we are focussing on the impact social media has on small businesses as it is one of the most popular methods to market your business. For those who are not very fond of the idea and concept of putting your business onto social media and in front of countless ravers (or haters), we go through some of the main advantages social media can bring to your small business.   

1.  Audience, audience, audience.

So you have your business, and have realised that you actually want to take it further and expand into new and bigger markets. Well, that is completely fine but it is imperative that you are mindful of one of the main ingredients to any business. That’s right, the audience. Your existing and potential customers are the component of business that keeps your door open. Meaning, without having a solid clientele base, you are not making the most of the available resources to you in today’s day and age. In order to grow the number of customers that buy your products or services as well as consolidating the relationships you have with them, you need to know more about them. What does that mean? Basically, getting to know your customers is a critical component when it comes to your business. But how do we find more information about our customers? Yes, the answer is social media. But you knew we were going to say that because social media is a great way to find out more information about your audience.

For example, let’s talk about social media giant Facebook. Facebook (and other social media platforms) have specific sections that actually analyse data for you and extract information that is useful to your business. If you plug in specific pieces of information about your business and who you would like to reach, Facebook brings forward people who have similar interests, their ages, genders, where they are from and even the language they speak and the level of education they have attained. Pretty neat right? So why do you need to know about all that? The simple answer is that by know all these pieces of information, you can shape and alter your campaigns, services and products to better suit your audience and what they are actually looking for. By knowing their interests, you can target specific sections of your desired market and share relevant pieces of information that will trigger their attention and increase the likelihood of turning them into a loyal customer.

2. Precision Aiming.

The term “target audience” is commonly referred to when talking about marketing for your small, medium and large business. In order to create and maintain a relevant relationship with your customers, you must project content that is meaningful and useful to them. The added bonus that social media can bring to your business is that it enables you to target your audience in an effective and efficient manner. As previously mentioned, when it find out basic information about your audience, such as where they are located and the language they speak, you can use it to your advantage by specifically sending those clients a relevant message to spark their interest. This specific action is called geo-targeting, which is a great tool when it comes to portraying information about your products and services to a specific proportion of your audience. You can target things like gender, age, their language, education status and relationship status on social media platforms such as Facebook.

This is a simple and clear cut way to sift out content and offers to customers that may deem it as irrelevant. For example, if you have multiple stores around any given country and want to announce the opening of a brand new store in a specific area or state, then you can adjust the sharing of the content to audiences that live in or near that area. Thanks to geo-targeting, you can now market your business with ease and precision to the audiences that are most likely to benefit from your content. After all, no one wants to read about offers and deals that are half way across the country as it is simply not relevant to that specific audience that is far away.  

3. Grow your loyal fan base the modern way.

Even all the skeptics of social media would agree that building a larger clientele base is a necessity if you are serious about growing your business. When your small business makes the leap over to social media, sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram allow you to reach out to your target audience and even existing clients. It can be a great way to extend the existing relationships with clients over social media as it can be a great way to see how their business is going after using your services or products. Simple and hassle free communication between your business and the client is also possible, ultimately working to strengthen the relationship and increase the likelihood of continuation of business.

Not only can you reach out to existing customers, but you can also access new and wider proportions of the market by engaging over social media. This increases the awareness of your business and what it has to offer if you regularly posts updates of your latest products, new services, exclusive discounts and other exciting offers that will attract new customers and thus increase opportunities to close a sale. It is often through the engagement of social media that businesses increase website traffic and generate new leads in significant volumes. Make you your business makes the most of all available resources that social media has made available in order to break into new markets that could have otherwise gone unnoticed.

4. Learn What Your Customers Think. Quickly.  

Is gaining customer perspective a winning situation? Yes. Social media is always home to swift environments that can be a great way to extract information quickly, especially for those who do not have much time to do consumer research. Customer feedback is an invaluable piece of information for your business and the way the products and services are received by your target audience. For example, when you spark conversation about a new product that your business has on offer, social media is a great way to find out what existing and potential customers have to say about it. Sharing new ideas and concepts on social media is a great way to engage with your clients on a deeper level. There are a lot of things that you can do when it comes to getting customer feedback quickly via social media including consulting what your new business website should look like.

Feedback regarding services are also favourable as you can collect insight straight from the course and be assured that it is accurate. Both positive and negative feedback is great, as it can help shape future products and services by building upon the positive aspects and changing the negative aspects about your product or service. Generating new ideas via engagement with customers on social is a great starting point when considering devising a new product, as you can tailor it to suit the specific needs and wants of your target audience.

5. Generate New Leads Without The Big Price tag.

Sometimes having a website just is not enough when it comes to generating new leads and sales. You can effectively market and promote the unique products and services of your business in order to get customers interested and aware. This is especially beneficial as friends of customers can also see the content you have shared, meaning you can expand your market, thus increasing web traffic and increased sales and profits. For example, platforms like Facebook and Twitter have the option of generating ads for your business, with several preferences. You can choose how long your ad lasts for and what day, time, or area on the page you would like it to appear on.

The great thing about generating new leads via advertising on social media is that you are in total control of your budget and expenditure. This means that you can select how much you would like to spend without having to worry about going over your limit. Fast, simple and effective. Saving money without having to compromise on quality should always be a priority for any business owner, which is why social media is a terrific way to generate quality leads through effective advertising at a fraction of the cost.

Discover MLK Marketing’s social media packages today to expand your business online. Reach out to potential and existing customers to showcase your business on several social platforms of your choice. We also offer other marketing services including innovative web design, Search Engine optimisation, branding, app development and more.  Contact us today on 1300 720 032.