Small businesses now have the opportunity to make use of social media marketing strategies to connect with and engage existing and potential customers but only few entrepreneurs manage to actually employ these tools successfully.
Is this your case?
You've done all sorts of marketing. You're posting 20-30% off discounts, you've tried social commerce, you're putting your logo and your company name up in Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Pinterest 2-3 times per day. You've even spent a lot of money on AdWords and Facebook Ads. And nothing is working.
How come you're not getting any sales? And what's worse you're not even getting any followers. You're not getting any people you can repeat your messages out to. What are you doing wrong?
First of all, if you've asked this question to yourself, don't feel bad. Your case is extremely common. Just because you have access to the mediums of communication doesn't mean that you're actually doing the right communicating.
Why discounting isn't working? - Posting up 20% discounts, 30% off coupons, using social commerce - that's not marketing. That's called Promotions.
Why Facebook and Pinterest sharing isn't working? - Making your logo and your URL visible in social media 2 or 3 times per day is not marketing. That's called Branding.
Why your Adwords campaign isn't working? - Paying money for space with Adwords, Facebook Ads or Youtube promoted videos isn't marketing. That's called Advertising.
Social Media Marketing Tricks and Strategies For Your Business
So basically you've done everything except marketing. Now, how to do it right? I believe this information will be very useful for many of you.1. Discounts vs Value Exposure
Instead of discounting the cost of your product, demonstrate its value!
Psychologically what happens when you discount a new product from an unknown company is people immediately think:
"Oh, no one's buying this product that I've never heard of from this company that I've never heard of."
Discounts only work on products that people know from companies that they've heard of. Otherwise customers doubt its authenticity.
So instead of doing that you better reveal the value of your product. When's the last time you did a video about your product where you demonstrated it working? When's the last time you actually posted a competitive matrix of feature by feature spreadsheet comparing your product against those of your two or three competitors including the price just like a consumer report does?
Demonstrate the effect of your product! Let's say you're selling jeans. The effect is not that they cover someone's butt. The effect is when you walk by someone and he or she says "Wow.. what a gorgeous ass!".
Figure out the key selling point of your product and demonstrate it in real life.
2. Twitter and Google+ Presence Techniques.
Instead of doing the branding and getting people to remember your logo or your website address, get them to remember their relationship with you!
People buy from people they like.. Not from logos they want to stick on a bike! You can use social media to build relationships with thousands and thousands of people, all at once. And it's not about blasting out messages at them. It's a real simple 2 step process since you obviously don't have time to hold 1000 conversations per hour. First thing you do is use a vicarious relationship building strategy. Second is how you use it.
When's the last time you did a search for all the people with a problem that your product solves?
Create a search filter in Twitter and Google+ for a question that someone would ask where the answer is your product.
Let's say for instance you sell low calorie Eccles Cakes. What question would people ask to arrive at your product? Try a search filter that's: who (sells/makes/bakes/delivers) Eccles Cakes.
You'd be amazed to find thousands of people who ask in their blogs, Twitter and Google+: "Who sells low calorie Eccles Cake?". Answer them! But don't sell! That just comes off spammy.
Instead send them a recipe of how they can bake that cake all on their own. Then at the end of the recipe just simply put a little footnote that says "But if you'd rather not slave in the kitchen for 3 hours, you can just order it at www...".
That is how you build relationships vicariously. You show good will to one person publicly and thousands of people over the next coming months will find that piece of good will. If you manage to make them feel this warm and fuzzy towards you, they will buy from you.
Remember: People buy from people they like!
3. Facebook Presence and Ads Tricks.
Instead of liking your company, ask people to like a concept!
If you've ever tried to market in facebook and you've seen fan pages that have millions of people that have liked them, you probably have thought: "If I just blasted 1 message out to all of the fans of such page, my CTR, my conversion rate and my sales would just skyrocket". And you'd be right.
The average length of time that a message posted on a facebook fan page ends up on someone's wall from 8 to 24 hours. If you try the same thing on Twitter the message stays visible in someone's stream for about an hour which is nothing compared to the visibility that you get from Facebook.
So how do you get a million or at least hundreds of thousands people to like your Facebook page?
There's a technique that I don't know why I haven't seen to be shared anywhere and I will make it available for you now.
There's a facebook page for example that's called: "My room was clean, but then i needed something....".
This page has 6,540,576 likes untill this very moment. So maybe you wonder why would a page called like this has so many likes. Who started that page? Who would have benefited by starting a page like that?
Think of it from the reverse side. Imagine if a company like Fantastic Cleaners, for example, had started a fan page for cleaning in London. How many people would actually click "Like" on a fan page for the company "Fantastic Cleaners"? Very very few people. Because they know in fact that they're going to get spammed with ads. So you need to reverse the psychology and instead of asking people to like your company, you ask them to like a concept, an aspect of their life. Now it becomes relevant, related and non spammy when you post to your millions of followers that: "Hey, these guys are now offering 30% discount for house cleaning if you book on Saturdays." + an eye catching relevant image. Does that make sense?
Let's see another example:
If you are, for instance, a cosmetic surgery clinic and you are to start a Facebook Ads campaign for potential customers to like your page, how many people would click "Like"? Just think about that for a second. Would you want your face to show up on both the news feed of your friends and on a page displaying that you liked a plastic surgery clinic? That would imply that you've actually been their client.
However, what if that page instead was named "Ski Jump Noses" or "High Cheekbones"? How many people like high cheekbones? Almost everyone right? Tens of thousands of Facebook users would start clicking "Like". Now you have the targeted demographic that likes high cheekbones. You've got these people subscribed and hooked to your page and you can blast relevant on point messages to them.
These methods are less intrusive than older marketing methods, and because social media relies on people being, well, social, they turn out to be a powerful and an effective way to spread your message across the wide web. So, if you are smart when using these tools and patient enough, success has no other choice but to knock on your door.
Glad to share my experience and I hope you’ll find it useful in your own endeavours.
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