The past decade has seen a revolution in the world of marketing. Traditional marketing has taken a backseat and social media influence in the world of purchasing has taken a front-row seat. Before this huge shift in tactics, marketing was a cumbersome and expensive deal to undertake for most brands, especially small businesses. Reaching a targeted set of audiences meant conducting elaborate events which put a huge dent in all of the brand’s marketing budget. With the success of social media influence, however, there have been a few noticeable advantages when it came to making your brand more purchasable and approachable to the audiences you were aiming for -
- Showcasing our company’s products and services became easier and more interactive with your consumers.
- Brands coil reach their target audiences with much less money and a lot more accuracy and ease.
- The way brands interact with their customers was, quite literally, transformed.
Social media influence doesn’t bring in revenue overnight. Building and securing your position in the minds of your audience via social media takes time. It’s a marathon, rather than a sprint. A marathon, which has the prospects of bringing in huge profits if persevered at and utilized efficiently. That is because, today, 3.5 billion people use social media. That is half the world’s population. Out of those, 54% of purchasing audience goes on social media as their first stop before purchasing any goods or services. The question shouldn’t be “Why Social Media?” The question that brand owners should be asking is, “Why not Social Media?”
However, if you are still asking the former, here are a few points to drive the essentiality of social media influence home.
Creating An Omni-Present Brand
Depending on the age, an average person has 8 to 9 social media accounts. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Quora, and the list goes on. So, the best way to slide your brand into their daily social media influence is to be present in at least some of the platforms that your target audience is in. This gives the feeling of your brand being present ‘everywhere”. This ensures that your consumer’s awareness about your brand increases and therefore, they are more likely to grow to trust your brand for their future purchases.
Easily Personalizable
Establishing a strong personal connection has always been the essence of marketing. With the social media influence, however, it has been a priority. 81% of customers have stated that they gravitate towards brands that customize their ads according to their needs and appropriateness. How do you do that? Social media allows you to have a peek into your consumer’s personal lives inconspicuously. That helps you develop a more personal interaction, as you can serve them ads depending on their interests and previous interactions. Another classic way of personalizing the marketing experience is to utilize chatbots that ensure the brand has a more personalized and humanized experience. Also, research shows that chatbots are more well-received when compared to emails. Chatbot response rate is at least 55% more than that of e-mails.
Higher Loyalty Points
Social media influence has another great impact on business - it helps build customer loyalty to the brand. As we have seen, some brands have a great number of loyal takers and that is because the company has taken the pain to connect with their consumers in ways other brands haven’t. Social media influence has opened up a new path for that. The first step to doing it is to create your brand’s page to enable communication with your consumers. With social media at your help, the interaction between the brand and the customer doesn’t have to stop at checkout. By sharing their images you can show the audience that you care about their after-purchase experience as well. This ensures that the love for your product becomes contagious and before you know it, you have hundreds of brand evangelists. One of the keys to creating a truly loyal following is consistency over time. Social media is also a great way to build a loyal following and then transition them into a channel you own such as a newsletter or emails.
Increases Industry Collaboration And Referrals
One of the biggest positives of the social media influence wave has been the incorporation of collaboration which has become easy and cheap. With influencer marketing on an all-time high, 65% of marketers have agreed that influencer collaborations have boosted their sales. However, collaboration on social media goes beyond just the influencer angle. Different brands can collaborate much more easily than they could before and boost their product and service recognition with just one post. Also, social media influence serves as a digital word-of-mouth referral of sorts. Consumer behavior analysis shows that 71% of purchasers usually go for brands that have greater positive reviews on their media handles. Providing amazing service and products are at the crux of getting good referrals but research also shows that in case of negative reviews, keeping a positive attitude in dealing with them is the key to ensuring a better response from future consumers.
Builds A Credible Brand Image
When a consumer is researching a brand, one of the first places they go is on their social media handles to check out the reviews as well as the functionality of the brand. Social Media influence ensures that every brand is held accountable for its products and services. Therefore brands with more positive reviews are always preferred over ones with negative or even no reviews. Hence, building and maintaining a proper social media presence is essential in the modern day to create a brand image that is credible and trustworthy to your consumers. Social Media Marketing can be a great and daunting field to navigate unless you are adept at it. While it can bring in unimaginable revenues, one wrong step can also prove disastrous for your brand. We, at Advertising Salt, house a team of expert analysts and creative geniuses to ensure you never take a wrong step when it comes to building your brand. So, give us the chance to guide you to the highest clouds of social media success on the shoulders of creativity and innovation! Contact Advertising Salt today to flavor up your brand’s social media influence!