3 reasons Small businesses should invest in Social Media Marketing

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If you run a small business, chances are that your operating budget is always small. With that in mind, you want to spend money wisely and on things that really matter. Marketing is an important aspect of business and should be given some decent budget. Whether business is small or large, the extent of its success largely depends on how effective its marketing strategies are.

Information Technology has brought a lot changes in the marketing industry. The landscape keeps on evolving as more and more people come online. With almost everyone on Social media, the potential to reach out to customers is easy, fast and endless. Small businesses have a lot to benefit from Social media marketing if they promote their products and services through that medium.

Social media marketing for small businesses - 3 benefits

Consider the following 3 areas that Social media marketing is amazing for small businesses:

• Targeted audience: One great thing about Social media marketing is that the audience is never generic for promoted content. Many social media platforms allow promoted content to be shown to a specific audience based on some pre-defined characteristics, interests or demographics. Because of that, the object being promoted reaches the intended audience.

The demographics for a Social media marketing project could be based on a specific location. For example, I could choose to promote my goods or services to people living in a particular continent, country, state or city. If my intended audience is based on location, there would be no point promoting it to people outside that location. So a small business that sells local footwears or writing material would better promote to an audience within that location.

Targeted marketing could also be based on gender, age, interest, passion, or other definitions. When you advertise through radio or Television, it is difficult to narrow down your audience based on demographics. But in social media marketing, it is easy and always very effective to do promotions designed for a specific demographics or market in mind.

• Budget for everyone: Social media marketing is most cheaper than traditional marketing forms. It allows small businesses to operate based on their budget. Often, promoted content on Social media is billed based on results obtained. Hence, each budget will always produce some result based on its size. There is often no fixed budgets or minimum requirements financially before anyone could participate. Basically, the bigger the budget, the larger the audience, the more likely that results would come.

Small businesses with equally small budgets may not afford sustained marketing on traditional channels like Television, Radio or printed materials. But on Social media marketing, there is something for everyone no matter your budget. A $200 marketing budget will produce some result, although a $2000 marketing budget will likely turn up bigger results. But the point here is - social media marketing is cheaper and gives small businesses the opportunity to participate and have results even though they operate with a smaller budget.

• Engagement: No other marketing channels bring the customers closer to businesses or service providers than Social media. It helps small businesses stay in touch with their customers. It enables them to build lasting business relationships with their customers. Through social media marketing, small businesses could interact with their customers and obtain valuable feedback.

When a small business makes a post about a new product, customers are able to engage with the post and let the business know how they feel about it. Customers could rate a product low or high and that gives the business a good perspective of how consumers feel or what they want. When a small business promotes products on Radio or Television, it is mostly a one way communication where the audience just listens or watches. But on social media marketing, the audience participates by providing feedback. It is more of a two-way communication.

Connecting with customers or clients through social media marketing is easier too, since it takes nothing to come online and interact with a post. It is faster because your customers are always online and receive notifications if they follow your page. It is also a cheaper way to stay in touch with customers.

Finally

Small businesses have a lot to gain if they do social media marketing. The above 3 are not just the benefits. There are more. For example, it helps a small business grow their brand rapidly and build a loyal fanbase. So if you run a small business, you might want to consider Social media marketing as one of your business promotion strategies.

Posted Using LeoFinance Alpha