Social Media: A great marketing tool for SMBs

Social media is the new way of communication. It hasn’t been here for long (maybe just over a decade) but it already is the most widespread method of communication. Social media has become so important that it is one of the biggest contributors to website traffic. The advent of so many social media portals has got people of all races, ages, and religions glued so much so that most people spend at least an hour collectively on these social media portals.

Using this vast networking platform for marketing can amplify your brand awareness exponentially. After all, content marketing strategies on social media brings about a level-playing field for small companies to match their marketing strategies with those of large enterprises and MNCs. Thus, for SMBs with little to no visibility, social media marketing is a great tool to reach out to potential customers and create their brand awareness by posting engaging content.

Challenges SMB’s Face When it Comes to Marketing

SMB’s face many challenges when they try to reach out to potential clients. These challenges can at times be pretty daunting and somewhat confusing. Here is a list of the challenges they face:

• Compared to their competitors, they have lesser brand awareness and visibility among the target audience. This makes it tougher to push through the competition and make their voices heard.
• With a limited budget, the adaptable marketing strategies get limited, hence implying a limited reach.
• The limited budget calls for a creative marketing team that can make things happen inside this constraint. But as a small business, you can’t allot a big team just for marketing.
• In this fast-paced world, where trends rise and fall by the minute, staying above that wave to be heard is a big challenge.

How Social Media Helps?

Social media nowadays is not just a way of communication for people. Now people can get the latest news, buy things directly from social media, connect with companies and build communities with like-minded people. These things make social media more than just a pastime for individuals, and it paves the way for sharing and consuming valuable information with peers. You can reach out to anyone, with less effort and barely any problems.

These developments have paved the way for social media to become an important marketing tool for companies to use. It helps companies connect with the target audience conveniently. It makes it easier for companies to reach out to such people and interact with them, creating a strong social media presence. It can help strengthen brand perception and trust, by providing key information to a wide customer base. This ability to reach out to a large customer base with good content makes social media marketing a lucrative idea. It is easier to implement, doesn’t require a large team to handle the mandate. It is also a money-saving option, costing up to 60% lesser than traditional marketing tools.

Social Media marketing depends heavily on content, in the written, photo or video formats. On basis of this, you can connect with people who might be interested in your company’s products. For a successful social media campaign, you need good content and the help of social media influencers to help spread the word about your company. When people see your content being promoted by someone they follow, they are inclined towards your product as well. The network that you can create on social media to connect with your target audience is ultimately what gives widespread reach to your content and help in building brand awareness.

Another big advantage of social media marketing is that your content is instantly shareable with the click of a button. This makes interested customers a source of spreading brand awareness for you, improving your reach. It also provides a platform for customers to reach out to your company for any grievances they might face. By promptly addressing such concerns, you can improve your brand’s trust. Customers take this as a sign that you are listening to and are aware of their problems, helping with improving brand perception.

Thus as an SMB, using social media strategies can help brands grow quickly and be recognised by potential customers. The two-way interaction allows customers to reach out to the company, building upon brand trust and loyalty in customers. With the help of good content, strangers can be made interested in the products/services, making them visit the website and find out more about your brand. These interested/potential customers can then be engaged with the company, turning them into leads, thus improving the overall sales of the company. It also helps you provide richer customer experiences before and after sales, making people come back to you for repurchase.

You can also collaborate with other people and brands for mutually benefiting campaigns, helping you build relationships for the future.

Conclusion

With the rapid rise of social media, it has become the number one medium for people to connect and share ideas. This increase in people’s interactions online makes social media the perfect tool to reach out to a large number of people efficiently and effectively at the same time. The content can also be targeted, made specifically to interest a certain group of people, who can be potential customers of the brand. Using social media influencers, you can reach out to a large audience, increasing the base of people you reach. Also, the progress and results of social media marketing are instantaneous and trackable, giving you an insight into what strategy works and what doesn’t. This is an important part of media marketing as this is what makes the results tangible.

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