The traditional marketing model was to obtain as many eyeballs on your own product or service’s message as possible and hope that a percentage of customers purchase. Yellow pages, radio advertising, direct mail, television commercials, magazine ads, etc.. are types of these traditional advertising methods. These conventional forms of marketing are no more effective as many consumers have grown to be blind to the ‘one way’ messaging. The message has been overdone and folks no longer trust advertisers. A recent survey found that only 14% of people trust ads while 76% of people trust consumer recommendations. Accordingly, more marketers began seeking alternative methods to connect with potential consumers.
Marketing on the Internet was originally made popular by utilizing Websites and optimizing those sites through SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION (SEO) techniques. While still a worthwhile strategy, SEO has been updated by Web 2 2.0 strategies, such as social media marketing. Social media marketing is when companies utilize Blogging platforms 2.0 platforms, such as blogs, social media sites (like Facebook, Google+, Foursquare, Twitter, & YouTube) and other emerging online marketing tools. The benefit of web 2 2.0 platforms versus traditional means of advertising, and even traditional online marketing, is that it involves ‘two-way communication’, where users are empowered to generate content and companies are incentivized to talk to their customers.
The days of broadcasting your product or services message out to the masses and longing for a response have died. People don’t want to obtain nameless, faceless companies. Not merely are consumers paying attention to the ‘man behind the curtain’, but they also need to know what others say about your product or service. A recent study figured 80% folks Internet using moms were influenced by word-of-mouth from family and friends when making a purchase decision. No other media platform allows for small businesses to reap the benefits of consumer word of mouth advertising like social media marketing.
Benefits Of SOCIAL MEDIA
Increased New Customer Acquisitions – The main advantage of social media marketing is that you will have the opportunity for connecting with networks of potential customers that you would otherwise struggle to come across utilizing other traditional marketing techniques and even SEO.
Word of Mouth Marketing- Referral marketing has always been the most influential way to generate sales. With social media, you are able to create raving fans who will voluntarily promote your product and services to their networks of friends. Social Media Management agency to say, if your product or service is poor, you might suffer the reverse benefits of this.
Brand Awareness – Branding your organization using social media marketing is a lot simpler, faster, and less costly to achieve compared to the traditional advertising medium as well as website marketing.
Customer Retention – Blogging platforms 2.0 platforms will be the perfect places to communicate with your customers about new products, special promotions, or just to educate them on your business. Through consistent, FREE communication, it is possible to keep your company before your customer’s eyeballs that will in turn result in repeat business and referrals. Remember, the main element to this type of communication is to be content rich; avoid these avenues to pitch your service or product.
Rapid Results – The effective and successful implementation of a social media plan will create almost instant results for the business. This increase can be quantified through increased site traffic, increased lead acquisition, and ultimately more sales. Unlike radio or TV ads, where your customers disappear once the ads go off air, these web 2 2.0 platform benefits will continue long-term so long as the communication and updating of one’s social media marketing presence is maintained.