Social media provides an extraordinary opportunity for marketing managers to promote business and generate revenues.
There are a few basic principles that marketers must embrace in order to maximize revenues derived from social media tools. The key to success in social media is to build relationships with loyal customers and new prospects that will contribute future earnings.
As simple as this may sound, it takes consistent effort and close monitoring to keep any marketing campaign on course.
Focus On Increasing Revenue From Existing Customers
Since it is cheaper to keep an existing customer happy than it is to attract a new one, there are obvious reasons to focus on current customers.
Many companies use social media for customer service purposes. Addressing customers’ problems or concerns in a friendly and responsive way via social media is a proven way to keep customers happy by building trust.
The low-cost associated with social media tools makes it the perfect method for reaching out to customers and staying in touch.
One method used to generate additional revenue from existing customers is to give them incentives to buy more often. Add-on services or upgrades are a common way to encourage new business from customers.
Offering special deals for social media followers has proven to promote customer loyalty and additional revenue.
Offering a discount after the third purchase is one example of a method being used successfully by many companies. Social media offers the perfect communication vehicle for spreading the word about these types of discounts and promotions.
Another widely used strategy for earning more money with existing customers is to educate them about premium services and products, and to sell them more than they planned on purchasing. The more customers learn about your company and the many products and services offered, the higher the probability that they will buy something else.
The challenge is to educate them without coming across as totally self-serving. A light-touch must be used in the social media world. Nobody wants to be sold. Approaching customers as helpful “teachers” is a preferred way to peddle additional services.
Build Relationships Through Customer Engagement
While many marketers focus on traffic on any given day, it is crucial to also measure loyalty. Since the goal of a social media effort is to build a loyal following of repeat customers and prospects, incorporating measurement tools for assessing repeat readers and followers is recommended. Being attentive to the audience and monitoring for questions and comments is critical for relationship building purposes. A two-way dialogue is the start of a relationship.
Other ways to build trust via social media tools is to offer useful content aimed at solving their problems. Content that is frivolous and is poorly targeted to a company’s target audience offers little value to the customer. For this reason, companies must be sure that content be informative, relevant or entertaining to earn the readers’ attention.
Evaluate Social Media Performance For Improved Results
Marketing professionals must be willing to use analytical tools to measure everything so that they can respond to campaign challenges and measure the success of different content. Refining online marketing efforts and defining what works best is part of any serious marketing strategy. There are many free and inexpensive tools available for social media analysis. Both Facebook and Google offer analytical tools, to name two of the major players in the social media world.
This is a guest post by Sarah who represents a site called Monetise.co.uk. She enjoys writing about business advice and tips. Feel free to visit her site for more information on Lead Generation Services.
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