Today more than ever, businesses recognize the immense opportunities that come with having a reliable online presence. No one can deny the real importance of social media marketing.  If used wisely, social media can be a powerful business tool.  For several years it has been demonstrated that Social Media Marketing is the fastest growing marketing trend with a reported 9 out of 10 businesses employing some form of a marketing campaign on social media.

In this article, I will cover 15 of the most important reasons why social media marketing is important for your business.

01- Increased Traffic

The first and not so obvious benefit of Social Media is that it also helps to increase your website traffic. By sharing your content on social media, you are giving users a reason to click-through to your website. On your social account, the more quality content you share, the more inbound traffic you will generate while making conversion opportunities.

Many people, and companies too, make the mistake of just posting on social media channels, leaving alone their website, if they have one. This is a horrible mistake. Why? First of all, you should understand that your social media channel is NOT yours. You, as user, are given access to use it. Despite that is “free”, you are not the owner.

If they decide to change their algorithm, suspend or DELETE your account, which maybe has thousands or maybe millions of followers, THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO.

What you have on your website is YOURS; as long as you renew the domain and the hosting server, it stays there and nobody takes it away from you. In your social media channel, the validity of the account depends on them, not on you.

People who make millions of dollars a year with their Internet platform, use the Power of Social Media to bring TRAFFIC to their website, and there they have a whole marketing system and strategies set up that allow them to CONVERT that traffic into CLIENTS, which in turn translates into SALES, and these ultimately become MONEY.

The proper way to do it is, first and foremost, to create high quality content on your website and then share it on social media platforms. In this way, you will benefit of the power of this traffic, and if people is engaged with your content, they will not only await that you post it on your channel, but they will come back for more quality content on your website. Besides, it’s on your website that you have the full control, not on the social media channel.  And something very important is that you make sales on your website, you receive money on your website, not on social networks. That is why your website should be the center of your business on the Internet.

It’s good to remember that aside from traffic, the share rate of social media content also increases the domain authority for the content that was shared, resulting in a higher position or ranking on search engines.  A gold rule is that the first thing you must do is to think about the importance of a good domain.

02- Improved Brand Recognition

Using social media allows your customers to connect and interact with your business on a more personal level. If you already have an established brand, social media might be an opportunity to further develop your brand and give your business a voice.

When your company posts on regular basis on social media platforms, it allows your company to interact with the clients on a more familiar way. This constant interaction creates a picture of credibility and an eagerness to listen to what the clients have to say. Once customers are familiar with your brand, they are more likely to recommend your brand to friends and family, therefore increasing your brand reach.

03- Obtain valuable audience insights

The nature of social media allows for the platforms to collect immense amounts of data about each individual user. As social media users, we provide information about what are our favorite hobbies, our jobs, gender, age, location, and a lot more. All of our social media activity including shares, likes, retweets; provide information about ourselves and our feeling toward various brands.

A majority of businesses with successful social media presence utilize some sort of social listening, which are analytics tools that constantly gather useful customer data and track conversations about target brands or themes. Using social listening tools allow us to gather pertinent data about audiences to establish campaigns based on the results.

04- Fast customer service and satisfaction

One of the greatest advantages of having the services of a Social Media Marketer, is that your company almost immediately gets an online voice, not just your website.

Creating a voice for your company is important in improving the overall brand image. Customers appreciate the fact that when they post comments on your page, they receive a modified reply rather than a computerized message. A brand that values its customers, takes the time to compose a personal message, which is perceived naturally in a positive way.

The traditional way of submitting complaints was getting mailing with your dissatisfaction with a product or service. Times have changed and customers have changed with it. We’ve dumped our strongly worded letters and have moved on to sending very rash and aggressive tweets to the companies. Over 67% of consumers now go to social media for customer service, which means the need for social media customer service is essential. Utilizing response automators or even real humans (which is best) to answer inquiries on social media, companies can make sure their customers receive a fast service.

05- Low Marketing Costs

Compared to conventional marketing, Social Media Marketing does not require a lot of monetary resources.

As the business landscape continues to evolve, traditional marketing methods begin to fade out in favor of less resource-intensive methods. Therefore, using social media to market products and services is an efficient way of reducing companies’ operational costs.

If you decide to use paid advertising on social media, always start small to see what you should expect. Being cost-effective is important as it helps you attain a greater return on investment and hold a bigger budget for other marketing and business payments. Just by investing a little money and time, you can significantly increase your conversion rates and ultimately get a return on investment on the money that you primarily invested, then you can move up to other levels.

Importance of social media marketing

06- Reach of targeted audience

Many people think that effective social media is simply having many followers. While this is important, it is not the only way to reach your audience on social media.   While this is important, it is not the only way to reach your audience on social networks, let alone the smartest one. No, no and no.

Something very important that you should know is that the reach of followers in social networks has been decreasing. On Facebook, for example, for the year 2012, the reach was at 16%. That means, that if a person or company has 100 fans, or people who like their Facebook page, and that person made a publication, it reached about 16 people, not 100.  By 2018, that percentage was reduced to almost 7%. This is simply worrisome. You can see more here.

You may be thinking that if this percentage is so low, why would you bother posting on social media? Here’s the point: You have to see social networks as part of an ecosystem where your website is the central axis. It is true that this percentage is very small, there is no doubt. What you have to do is work smartly.  Continue publishing and serving your audience in the best possible way. When you have a special post, prepare the necessary conversion elements and pay for the promotion of that publication. Do not publish it by publishing it.  Make sure that it has calls to action so you can take those visitors from prospects to customers.  In short, you MUST use ads.

Social media advertisements are inexpensive ways to promote your products to particular users at the right time.

For example, a company can launch a Facebook ad campaign targeting users based on location, age, interests, groups they belong to, etc., for very cheap click rates. Another upside to social media ads is that we can measure the performance and effectiveness of any ad campaign as it is running.

In traditional media this is simply not possible, for the simple reason that, in order to analyze the performance, you have to wait for the campaigns to end. In digital marketing campaigns, you can see in real time if it was successful or not, and you can make the necessary adjustments in real time, to improve the conversion rate. This allows you to handle the budget very precisely because you can see in detail what works and what does not.

07- Potential of converting Followers into Customers

Social media is a good way for engaging and interacting with customers. The more you communicate with your audience, the more chances you have of conversion. Set up a two-way communication with your target audience so that their wishes are known and their interest is catered with ease. Moreover, communication and engagement with customers is one of the ways to gain their attention and convey them your brand message. Thus, your brand will reach more audience in real terms and gets itself established without any hassle.

A potential customer can determine a lot from a business by seeing how lively their social media activity is. As human nature dictates: we want to go where our friends like to go. If a brand can convert a follower into a customer via social media, that customer usually becomes a more loyal fan. 53% of Americans who follow brands in social media are more loyal to those brands.

With the increased brand visibility that comes with advertising in social media, more leads will visit your website, and the chance of conversion increases. With a well-articulated media-advertising plan, a company can improve its sales and profits.

By the way, in the marketing jargon, the word leads means prospect or potential customer.

08- Competitors Research

Social media is a great way to observe your competition. It allows you to see what your competition is doing, and they can see you too. It is a fair treat for everybody.

You can see how they interact with their audience, the frequency of posts, the type of content they produce or share, etc. Social monitoring is a GREAT way to gauge your industry and see how you stand up to your competition. In other words, you can see what your competition is doing and do it too, and even improve it.

09- Improve Loyalty

For any company to stay afloat, it needs a loyal clientele base. New customers are a happy addition, but without loyalists, the conversion rates would be somewhere between sad and non-existent. Advertising on social media creates an open service platform where customers can express their views and feelings about the services and products offered. By listening to consumer opinions, customer satisfaction levels rise exponentially, and along with them, loyalty to your brand is forged.

When you have a social media presence, you make it easier for your customers to find you and connect with you. By connecting with your customers through social media, you are more probable to upsurge customer retention and customer loyalty. Developing a loyal customer base is one of the main goals of almost any business. Customer satisfaction and brand loyalty typically go hand in hand.

It is essential to often engage with your customers and start developing a bond with them. Social media is not just limited to introducing your product; it is also a leading platform for promotional campaigns. A customer sees these platforms as service channels where they can directly communicate with the business.

10- Market Awareness

One of the best ways to find the needs and wants of your customers instead of directly communicating with them is Marketplace awareness. It is also considered as the most valuable advantage of social media. By observing the activities on your profile, you can see customers’ interest and opinions that you might not know otherwise if you did not have a social media presence. As a complementary research tool, social media can help you get information and a better understanding of your industry. Once you get a large following, you can then use additional tools to examine other demographics of your consumers.

11- Brand Authority

No matter that you be a starting entrepreneur or a big business, you need to build authority with your brand.

When customers see your company posting on social media, especially replying to their queries and posting original content, it helps them build a positive image in their minds. Regularly interacting with your customers proves that you and your business care about them. Once you get a few satisfied customers, who are vocal about their positive purchase experience, you can let the advertising be done for you by genuine customers who appreciated your product or service.

12- Better Search Engine Ranking

It’s not a secret that in order to appear in an effective way in search engines, you need to either pay advertising or implement a good SEO strategy (organic results).

Now, if your business has a social media listing, chances are, it will appear among the top search results of a related product or service, leading to a wider visibility. Search engine optimization tools are another attractive option due to their ability to drive more traffic to company websites and achieving higher search rankings on the same.

13- Instant Content Distribution

In a world where people want instant gratification, the need to provide customers with instant content and marketing has become something very important. Social Media channels make it easy to publish information and in no time reach many people.

14- Real time Feedback

One of the most useful benefits that the Social Media Marketing service provides is the real time feedback. Your customers might ask about almost any topic concerning your company or service and they will get a fast answer from the marketing team. This send them a message of confidence.

Because of this, companies can integrate the “human factor”, allowing a more natural relationship with consumers. Social media can act as the informal medium between a brand and its audience to provide information, contests, giveaways and much more.

Of course, the period is defined and handled on the channel, but it is a good way to keep in touch with your leads, that eventually will become your customers.

   15- Revenue       

The last and no less important reason in this list is Revenue, in other words, making money. Having an effective social media presence allows for more users to traverse through your lead funnels and have them end up on a page where they can make a purchase. If your website is well-made and converts well, it is safe to say your sales will increase with social media growth.

This method is the responsible of generating thousands of dollars to many companies that do this every single month. Facebook is the big leader giving the example of how well advertising work. They made $40 billion dollars just in 2017  by using targeted advertising to audience.

Then, in the year 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and there was a global health and economic collapse, they managed to more than double that sum, ($84,169 million) and in 2021, they almost tripled it ($114,934 million). This gives a loud and clear message of the power of Internet marketing.

CONCLUSION:

• Social Media is an awesome and excellent way of attracting new customers.

• Social Media Marketing has become an extremely important and powerful business tool. The Internet is no doubt the main marketing highway in the world. Now more than ever, businesses recognize the immense opportunities that come with having a reliable online presence.

• By spending only a few hours per week, over 91% marketers claimed that their social marketing efforts greatly increased their brand visibility and heightened user experience. Undoubtedly, having a social media account for your brand will benefit your business and with a regular use, it can also produce a wide audience for your business in no time.

• Social media is becoming one of the most important aspects of digital marketing, which provides incredible benefits that help reach millions of customers worldwide. And if you are not applying this profitable source, you are missing out an incredible marketing opportunity, as it makes it easy to spread the word about your product and mission.

Final words…

Undoubtedly, Social Media Marketing has many benefits for startups and established brands. By regular updating your social media channels with the right strategies, you will get more traffic, improve your SEO, get better rankings on search engines, have a better relationship with your customers and also you will build brand authority.

Chances are that your competition is already working on these strategies, so do not let your competitors take on your customers. The earlier you start, the faster you see the growth in your business.

One of the biggest problems business people face is the lack of time, knowledge and technical processes of putting together the many steps that a profitable strategy needs in order to work correctly. Yes, it is TRUE: There is no doubt that you can generate from a modest income online to a high level of it. It’s not a secret that many Internet Marketers cross the barrier of the 7 figures every single year. There are even some of them that goes way more than 8 figures a year. Yes, I am telling you the truth. By the way, when you read “figures” that means Millions of dollars.

Do not make the mistake of saying that you don’t have time or budget to do it. Even with a small budget, you can see results and a good ROI. You can start now! Allow me to help you. Let’s work together! If I can do it, you can do it too!

LFStudio provides social media marketing services with various pricing packages to suit business.