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Marketing Trends You Should Not Ignore When Crafting Your 2023 Marketing Plan

January 31, 2023 No Comments

In an ever-changing landscape, today’s marketers are required to stay on their toes. As technologies advance and business conditions shift, so do the components that make up an effective marketing strategy. This is especially important for startup founders, who consistently need to find creative ways to market their innovative products. Despite operating on a limited budget, startups can indeed execute successful marketing strategies and campaigns by leveraging trending tactics while remaining up to date on evolving sociopolitical and legal changes that impact marketers.

As a fractional CMO at a number of growing startups, I too must stay on top of the constant evolution of the marketing space, strategies, tactics and tools to provide accurate and timely marketing guidance. Here are four of the most powerful marketing trends I have come across that you should consider when you’re developing your startup’s marketing plan in 2023.

1. Data Privacy And User Centricity

The last two years brought about major changes to the way user data is collected and used. These changes were driven by increased government legislation; consumer mistrust and an extreme level of competition in the technology industry may also have contributed. Consumers seem to be more aware and outspoken than ever about who is collecting their data, how it is being used and what rights they should have to protect it. From the death of third-party cookies to Apple making significant changes to its privacy features, the management of big data is becoming rapidly more user-centric. Companies are handing power back to the user and letting them control how much data they are willing to share. I think this trend is only going to continue through 2023.

These changes could impact your startup’s marketing strategy, as marketers must now meet consumers’ high expectations when it comes to safeguarding their data. You should cultivate trust among your customers by being transparent, such as by including easily accessible privacy policies and terms and conditions on your website. And without third-party cookies to rely on, your startup may have to target consumers differently, without using their specific data. For example, you might do so contextually. Additionally, consider incentivizing your consumers by offering them a discount or promo code in exchange for their email address or phone number, and always provide an option to opt out. This way, you are connecting with consumers who feel that they are gaining something in return for their data.

2. Podcasts And Audio Advertising

According to Statista, “the number of podcast listeners [could] surpass 160 million in 2023 after increases of around 20 million each year.” The versatility of podcasts makes them a great opportunity for marketers in that consumers can be reached anywhere at any time about virtually any topic. In the case of startups, you can use podcasts to showcase the innovations and solutions you provide, which can help position your brand as a thought leader in the industry. Consider starting your own podcast or have your startup’s founder be a guest on a podcast with an established following.

Audio advertisements in podcasts also flourished this year, and I expect this to continue into 2023. A study by Signal Hill Insights and Cumulus Podcast Network found that three out of four weekly podcast listeners say they have taken action after hearing a podcast ad. Podcast listeners can enjoy a seamless listening experience when the host integrates ads into the show instead of using prerecorded audio ads that do not fit in and disrupt the content. Podcast advertising can be an effective tactic in your startup’s marketing strategy, as it can raise awareness among your target consumers, especially if you run ads on podcasts with topics that are closely related to your product.

3. Augmented And Virtual Reality Experiences

The Covid-19 pandemic’s acceleration of all things virtual caused businesses to invest in innovative technologies that would help them weather the storm. When physical stores were forced to close, many brands developed augmented reality experiences so that consumers could get the in-store feeling at home. For example, Burberry’s Pocket Bag AR campaign in 2021 allowed consumers to design and view their own 3D handbag sculptures based on Burberry’s new campaign. In years to come, I expect that AR and VR technologies will only become more integrated into marketing campaigns as consumers signal that they want unique experiences and interactions with the brands they love.

AR and VR experiences can provide a space for startups to flex their creative muscles and do what they do best: innovate. From virtual try-ons to wearable NFTs, there are plenty of ways to incorporate augmented reality into your marketing strategy. While it can be expensive, startups may also be able to find more affordable options.

4. Purpose-Driven Marketing

While purpose-driven marketing is not a new strategy, it seems to have become more prevalent in recent years in response to consumers’ interest in social causes. Purpose-driven marketing involves centering your organization’s marketing and communications efforts around a social cause. This strategy not only humanizes businesses but can also help consumers foster a deeper connection with the brands they use and trust. There are copious examples of purpose-driven marketing from small and large brands alike, but one of the most famous is that of the footwear brand TOMS and its “One for One” model that donated a pair of shoes to someone in need for every pair it sold. Supporting a social cause through your startup’s marketing strategy is a great way to build consumer trust and brand loyalty, especially when the cause is something closely related to your startup’s core values.

Staying up to date on marketing trends in your respective industry can help you understand what channels and tactics are in demand. By applying this knowledge to your marketing plan, you can ensure that it is timely and relevant and allow your marketing communications to reach their target audience exactly how and when they need to. Startups working with limited resources can start by implementing one or two of the above trending tactics to strengthen their 2023 marketing plan.

Feature Image Credit: getty

By Roshni Wijayasinha

Founder of Prosh Marketing, a Fractional CMO & Marketing Agency that helps Startups & SMBs build their marketing practice and go to market. Read Roshni Wijayasinha’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

The Instagram Marketing Plan That Brings Sales

May 25, 2022 No Comments

Sourced from KHTS Hometown Station

Are you unable to bring UK Instagram followers to your business profile? Then you must be lacking something, and it needs your consideration. We have collected the top branding plan after detailed research to boost your brand on the photo-sharing application.

Many businesses feel the urge to showcase their products on every social media stage. And in the wish of more, ignore the policy. Never do such mistake if anyone desire to approach the right audience. Because Instagram is so different from other famous social sites, it needs a perfect marketing policy.

What are the top Instagram Branding Plan to bring sales

Start here to create your unique style for our brand and bring more engagement and interaction to your post. Yes, you can buy real Instagram likes UK and followers for the marketing plan but how. Stay tuned; you will also learn this.

Set your aims for Instagram:

Before posting on Instagram, you must verify one thing: Why are you on Instagram? Do you have any goals here? As famous as the site is, your answer must be no, “because everybody else is.” To be growing on Instagram in the long term, you need to set goals and objectives to explain your time, energy, and financial investment. It is essential for businesses.

Be sure to specify your Instagram aims first. And guess what? Your Instagram can have several aims — you can also post product pictures while sharing user-generated content (UGC). It’s more about the type of your posts and more about why you are sharing them. If you know the reason, you can learn how to achieve your achievement and use Instagram features to achieve your aims.

Decide your Instagram targeted followers:

Before you start marketing on Instagram, determine the audience you want to reach. If you have other marketing plans, use them to keep up your attempts. Consider age, gender, interests, motivations, income, location, and pain points. Your post style, captions, and Instagram features depend on the target market

Conduct a competitive research about your competitive profile:

After you decide on your Instagram audience, do detailed research to see what other firms post in your sector.

Quickly view the relevant accounts to find which posts are having the high interaction:

What are their captions are
What popular hashtags they are using
How often they post and how often.

So, having all this data help you to create the right content and compete with the others.

When reviewing your competitors’ content, note the chances they missed. Using content that other profiles; will help your business be distinct from the others.

Create a logical brand on Instagram:

Random or interrupted content can confuse your audience, and you may lose UK Instagram followers. To avoid this, maintain a permanent brand image on your Instagram account. Consider posting pictures with your brand in mind. Adding great stories to your captions can make your business more related.

Listen to Your Customers:

As you increase your Instagram presence, you will search for more and more users raising their voices with questions and proposals.

For example, Instagram is used as a user facilitate channel to answer your users’ questions to help them decide on an appropriate purchase.

As a result, Instagram is another site for gathering responses and understanding what people want from your store. These beneficial visions can help you to better your products and significantly improve your Instagram marketing plan

Create Instagram-Specific Landing Pages:

Only Instagram provides the option to reach the landing page. Go for the valuable bio link to drive traffic directly from this platform to your site.

We never lost this real estate.

For example, do not just post a simple homepage link in your Instagram bio. But be sure that your landing pages and website are also mobile-friendly. So, make sure that your landing pages are suitable for most of Instagram mobile user support.

That’s why many brands assist with landing pages specific to Instagram or, at the very least, landing pages suitable for cell phones. The advantage here is two-fold:

you create complete shopping skills for viewers
It provides you the chance to measure how well your Instagram followers turn.

Build up your Instagram follower base:

It takes serious time and energy to increase your following. Many businesses buy real Instagram followers UK to kick start their game on this photo-sharing application! Buying followers from an authentic seller will increase engagement and brings more likes.

More to add: This is what you can focus on to follow the right path.

Confirm your username is identifiable and searchable. If people fail to search for you, they cannot follow you! Complete your bio. It is the last thing anyone sees before they decide to follow you, so make sure to know who you are and what are you doing.
Once your profile is improved, begin posting. It’s a good plan to expand your catalogue with 15 to 20 excellent posts before you seriously start attracting people. If customers visit your profile and find it blank, then it is possible that they may not be following you.
Then, start following accounts of interest to you and link them with your business. Think of Instagram as a community and find other companies or influential people in your area who may entertain your products.
Inspirit others to share your content. Contact the influencers to share your account and products.

Sourced from KHTS Hometown Station

In News

Plan the Marketing Work, Then Work the Marketing Plan

January 28, 2022 No Comments

By Christina Mautz

I’m one of those truly weird marketing geeks who loves planning, simply because I can’t stand just doing “stuff” without having conviction around whether or not it’s the right stuff.

So how do we approach marketing planning with the greatest chance of success? Here’s how I’ve worked with my teams on planning, along with a few tips for planning during these hybrid times.

Start With the Customer

As with most things in marketing, good planning starts with the customer. This typically means revisiting your ideal customer profile (ICP) and customer segmentation. Has anything changed? What is your data showing — is one segment far outperforming another? Has your ICP changed, or (for enterprise) has your buyer’s committee expanded to include more influencers? Ask yourself these critical questions before you start formulating those brilliant marketing ideas. It’s also helpful to look at the market and see if any outside factors have had a significant impact on your customers’ businesses. For example, how has the global pandemic affected your businesses? What changes have you made as a result?

Don’t Ignore Your Competitors

Unless you’re working for one of those huge tech companies that have few (if any) competitors, it’s also a good idea to take a look at what your competitors have been up to. Have they launched new features that they’re promoting? Have they changed their pricing strategy? Have they updated their website with new messaging that makes you think a little differently about your own?

While I think it’s smart to stay more focused on your customers’ needs vs. playing chicken with your competitors, it’s helpful to stay current on what they’re up to so you don’t find yourself scrambling to compete one month into your new marketing plan. I find it particularly helpful to create SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities, threats) grids for each competitor as well as my company. Doing this can help you define where to place your bets. If you go this route, be sure that you don’t make assumptions about your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses — rely on objective facts you gather from actually using their product(s), from customer reviews on third party review sites, and from your competitors’ websites.

A List Is Not a Plan (and an Objective Is Not a Goal)

One of the biggest mistakes I see marketers make is jumping right to the fun stuff: that list of marketing ideas they want to try! No matter how creative or even how data-driven that list is — and even if it’s a timeline or calendar view — it’s still just a list of stuff unless you’ve started with an idea of what you’re trying to achieve. In other words, what is your objective? It’s important to understand that an objective is not the same as a goal. For example, an objective might be: Grow business from the Retail segment. Whereas your marketing goal would be: Deliver 1,500 MQLs from Retail by June 30, 2022.

The objective helps set the stage for the marketing strategies you’re going to employ. Whereas the goal is simply a measurement of whether or not you achieved the objective.

Strategy … the Hardest (and Most Critical) Part

I’ve seen great marketing plans that started with an objective, had a great list of creative marketing tactics … and still failed. Typically when this happens it’s because there was no clear glue between the objectives and the tactics. The “glue” that’s missing is the strategy, and it’s often missing because it’s the most misunderstood word in business. I guarantee that if you Google the word “strategy,” you’ll likely find multiple different but somewhat overlapping definitions. I think of strategy as the way you define at a high level how you’re going to achieve your objective.

Feature Image Credit: travelnow.or.crylater

By Christina Mautz

Sourced from CMS WiRE

In News

Should Your Small Business Hire a Marketing Agency or Build a Marketing Team?

March 29, 2021 No Comments

By Tanner Simkins

Which marketing plan works best for the modern entrepreneur: outside or in-house? Here are four important factors to consider.

As your small business grows, at some point you’ll need to take your marketing strategy to the next level. While many leaders of new and small businesses are used to taking on a variety of roles, there will come a time when it makes sense to pass marketing roles on to the experts. Doing so is vital for making sure that your business continues to develop new customers, build its brand, and stay competitive in its industry.

For many leaders the realization that they need to work with marketing professionals leads to questions of whether to turn to a marketing agency or hire an in-house marketing team. There is no right answer to this question, as it depends on the business’s resources and needs. That said, there are a few issues that leaders should consider when determining whether to hire a marketing agency or to develop an in-house team. Here are a few key factors to think about.

Type of expertise

What type of expertise do you want? An in-house marketing professional offers in-depth knowledge of your business. This person (or these people) will know exactly what your team does and exactly what your team is about. Additionally, every moment will be spent on your business, and they’ll be fully invested in your business’s success.

In contrast, when working with a marketing agency, you’ll get access to an entire team of marketing professionals with an array of expertise. While you might not get the same level of knowledge and investment in your business, you will get a team on the cutting-edge of the industry with a variety of applicable skill sets. In addition, you’ll get a fresh perspective and a new look at what your business is doing. Finally, marketing agencies have the benefit of working with a variety of businesses, which means they bring a wealth of industry knowledge to each client.

In-house marketing professionals and marketing agencies both bring unique areas of expertise. When determining what’s best for your business, it’s important to consider the type of expertise your business wants and needs.

Budget

Budget is an important factor to consider as it’s generally more expensive to hire your own marketing professional than it is to work with a marketing agency. When you hire a marketing expert, you need to keep in mind that you’re not only going to have to pay their salary but also all of the additional expenses that come with hiring quality employees including recruitment costs, payroll taxes, pensions, benefits and training.

As a result, while you might think the salary of one employee is equivalent to the retainer for a marketing agency, it’s also important to factor in all of the additional costs. In most cases, the reality is that working with an agency is less expensive than having in-house marketing experts.

Timeline

Timeline is another key factor to consider. In some cases, small businesses find themselves pressured to develop a marketing strategy. This can happen if customer growth plateaus, competitors begin gaining market share, or new products are not taking off as anticipated.

In these situations, businesses need immediate action and should consider a market agency.

Marketing agencies can jump in immediately and quickly develop a marketing strategy. It takes much longer to recruit, hire and train your own marketing professional.

Communication style

Another factor to consider is what sort of communication you’d like to have with your marketing team. Having someone in-house means that you are working side-by-side, have regular communication, and can get ongoing, immediate updates.

You won’t have this sort of access if you work with a marketing agency. Generally, when working with an agency, there are a lot of in-person meetings in the beginning as a strategy is developed. After that, things shift to primarily e-mail and phone communication, and you won’t have the same sort of constant communication and access. For some leaders, this is fine, for others, it’s a major negative for working with an agency. Either way, it’s important to think through this difference and determine what’s best for you and your team.

Working with marketing professionals to develop an effective marketing strategy is an important part of sustaining and growing your business. While marketing is something that most leaders take on in the beginning, it’s a consuming job that at some point will need to be delegated to maximize results and to effectively manage your team’s time.

Marketing is never done, it is a long haul. With that in mind, it’s important to turn to marketing professionals who are fully dedicated to growing businesses. Determining whether to work with an agency or to build your own team can be tricky, but weighing the right factors will enable your business to make the right choice and to move forward with the right team.

Feature Image credit: golero | Getty Images

By Tanner Simkins

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

10 Questions To Ask To Know If An Omnichannel Strategy Is Working

February 9, 2021 No Comments

Sourced from Forbes

With everyone social distancing and spending more time at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic, marketing through a variety of channels is vital to a company’s success. A robust omnichannel marketing plan ensures that the business can connect and engage with consumers at multiple touch points.

However, because of its distributed nature, it’s easy for an underperforming channel to slip through the cracks and go unnoticed. To help manage this risk, marketing teams need to be able to identify weak points in their omnichannel marketing strategies so that they can make needed adjustments and not waste time or money on ineffective channels.

1. ‘Are we really where we need to be?’

So many people jump onto a platform because it’s where they were “told” to go, or because they think it will be the “next big trend.” But what if your audience isn’t on that platform, or is no longer engaging on that channel, but has gone somewhere else? Then, you need to revaluate your efforts. Ask yourself the basics: “Where is my audience? And what do they need?” – Christina Hager, Ovations Digital

2. ‘Are we tracking the right customer data?’

Are you tracking the right data to adapt your marketing strategy to evolving customer preferences? The pandemic has emphasized the need for flexibility, and marketers cannot improve what they are not tracking. A robust omnichannel strategy requires communicators to tailor their message for each customer and every touch point. This can only be done by tracking how customers engage and respond. – Marija Zivanovic-Smith, NCR Corporation

3. ‘Do our channels create a unified message?’

One question marketers need to ask themselves is, “Do my channels work together to create a unified message, voice and brand?” When omnichannel marketing is done correctly, the customer can be shopping online from a desktop, on a mobile device, via phone or in a brick-and-mortar store, and the experience will be seamless. Once you’ve achieved a cohesive experience, you’ll know you’ve done it right. – Christian Anderson, Lost Boy Entertainment Company

4. ‘How do customers make a purchase?’

This is a very important question for retailers to answer so that they can adapt omnichannel marketing strategies and customize the shopping experience in ways to maximize revenue generation and profit. The pandemic accelerated digital adoption. Retailers must reprioritize digital, but fight the urge to go all-in on it at the expense of profitable customers who require consultation. – Anand Rao, AutoNation

5. ‘Do we offer seamless transitions across channels?’

One question marketers should ask is, “Can customers seamlessly transition their conversations with our brand across channels?” Today’s consumers are on the move. They may begin a conversation with you from their laptop and need to switch over to SMS text or a phone call midway through. Forcing customers to start over will cause frustration; it’s imperative that your company empowers them to transition across channels without disruption. – James Freeze, Interactions LLC

6. ‘Are we investing in the right cloud technology?’

Retail marketing is all about supporting customers on new “journeys.” This could include letting them create a cart on a store’s app that they can then use to check out at a self-checkout in the store; or it can be as simple as using contactless payments in more stores. Retailers who want to get ahead need to be selective and invest in the right cloud marketing tech now. – Lynn Kier, Diebold Nixdorf

7. ‘Are all of our campaigns connected?’

Marketing team leaders should ask themselves, “Are all of our campaigns connected and informing the success of each other?” Too many omnichannel efforts are all working independently across the various channels and not creating enough benefit for each other. – Jonathan Sasse, Metova

8. ‘Are we automating whenever possible?’

There aren’t enough hours in the day to manually harmonize content across every marketing channel. So, use marketing integration software to automate tedious workflows and manual tasks. Then, do a quarterly review of every channel’s performance. If one channel is lagging behind others on your key performance indicators, it’s time to reintroduce a focus group and see where the pain points are. – Amine Rahal, Regal Assets

9. ‘Can all touch points access updated customer information?’

The question to ask is whether all customer touch points have access to the most updated customer information so that they can deliver relevant messages to each customer. To deliver a seamless omnichannel strategy, data silos need to be removed by centralizing customer data, unifying it and making the (constantly updated) information available to each channel for a better customer journey. – Tom Treanor, Treasure Data

10. ‘Are our digital channels equipped to manage inbound?’

Customer care must be a priority. Marketing and communication professionals should ask themselves if their digital channels are equipped to manage and respond to inbound customer service requests. The digital transformation that took place this year is here to stay, and brands must prioritize their customer care efforts so that they can continue providing exceptional experiences on an ongoing basis. – Andrew Caravella, Sprout Social

Sourced from Forbes

Communications, PR, public affairs & media relations executives from Forbes Communications Council share first-hand insights.

In News

Streamline Your Marketing Plan With 75 Percent Off This Email Platform

October 21, 2020 No Comments

By StackCommerce Team.

Kirim.Email filters out spam, bots, and other drags on your marketing bill.

Online marketing can seem pretty impersonal; everyone has a social media branding plan, but it’s disheartening hoping for even a quick glance from potential customers amid the flood of memes and clickbait.

That’s why it’s more important than ever to maintain the fundamentals of email marketing. Email addresses are like gold to up-and-coming businesses, and those newsletters and messages you send are read on customers’ home turf—making them a lot more likely to respond. Of course, email marketing isn’t without its own hazards. To deal with them, you need a service like Kirim.Email to streamline your plan and weed out any wasted (and potentially harmful) contacts.

The all-in-one tool lets users build a list of subscribers and send an unlimited amount of emails from one central dashboard. Schedule them weekly, daily, or multiple times a day for no extra cost. More importantly, Kirim.Email automatically validates all your addresses, and can detect and delete “zombie” accounts or those that are simply a front to send spam or malware. Not only are these fake addresses potentially harmful, they’re an added drag on the cost of your marketing campaign.

That’s hardly all the service does, though. Build your own landing page directly through Kirim.Email, with full functionality and access to thousands of graphics, photos, and other assets; set up surveys through Google Forms or Google Sheets and incorporate them directly into the list with a third-party add-on. And do it all with no coding required. Kirim.Email integrates seamlessly with popular web platforms like WordPress and Facebook, allowing users to focus on what’s really important: the message you want to send to and the connection you want to make with customers.

By StackCommerce Team.

Sourced from PC

In News

4 Things You Find In Every Successful Marketing Plan

December 10, 2019 No Comments

By Nurdin Budi Mustofa

Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been going for a while and you’re considering expansion, your business needs a solid marketing plan. If you don’t have a clear strategy that outlines how you’re going to keep your existing customers and attract new ones in the future, your marketing efforts won’t have a direction and they’re not likely to be very successful. If you think that your marketing plan needs an overhaul or you’re just about to write your very first one, these are the key things that you need to include.

Identify Your Target Market

You can’t run a marketing campaign if you don’t know who it’s aimed at, so understanding your target market is the first thing that you need to do. The best way to do that is to use master data management. What is master data management, you may be wondering? It’s a process that you can use to bring together all of the data that you hold about your customers from sales and marketing, accounts, and social media. By looking at the general trends in your customer data, you can get an idea of exactly who they are. This is essential if you’re going to create a marketing campaign that really resonates with them. If you don’t understand your customers, you can easily end up wasting resources on a marketing campaign that doesn’t connect with them at all.

Understand Your Marketing Goals

The next thing that you need to do is think about what your marketing goals are. If you’re just starting out, you should be aiming to get your first customers and promote your brand identity. If you’ve already been operating for a while, you might be focused on a new product launch or perhaps trying to break into a new market segment. Whatever your goals are, it’s important that you’re clear on what they are from the outset so you can focus on them and not waste resources on other areas.

Research Marketing Tactics

Different marketing tactics have their own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important that you do some research. For example, if you’re trying to increase sales to the older generation, advertising on social media might not be the best route. You will probably have more success with traditional marketing techniques. Think about what your goals are and who your marketing campaign is aimed at and then look at which techniques are best suited to those things.

Set A Budget

The biggest mistake you can make is going in without a budget. If you don’t have a cap on your spending, it’s so easy to keep funneling money into marketing campaigns indefinitely. But it’s important that you’re weighing up the cost of marketing with the return on investment that you’re seeing. If you spend more on the marketing campaign than you get back in sales, you’re losing a lot of money. That’s why it’s essential that you set a realistic budget and stick to it when you’re running marketing campaigns.

If you can include all of these things in your marketing plan, it should be a huge success.

By Nurdin Budi Mustofa

Sourced from Digital Hints

In News

How To Create A Marketing Plan For Social Networking

December 5, 2019 No Comments

By Mitrovman Mitrovski

Need to Build a Marketing Plan for Social Networking? That’s not an easy task. Many of us have difficulties in understanding what it is. Let alone making one from scratch.

Simply put, every action you take on social media should be part of a broader marketing strategy. This means that every post, response, like, or comment should be guided by a plan directly geared toward achieving business goals. That may sound complicated, but if you take the time to build a comprehensive social networking strategy, the rest will come naturally. Anyone can do this if they properly approach that matter.

What is a social media marketing plan?

It summarizes everything you plan and hopes to accomplish in your business by using social networks. The plan should include checking your orders, where you want them, and what tools you will use to achieve this. In general, the more accurate you are in creating a plan, the more effective you’ll be in implementing it. Try to be concise. Do not make a plan that’s so broad or demanding that it is virtually unattainable. The plan will guide your actions, but it will also be a measure to determine whether or not you are moving towards success.

You can follow this simple plan to create your strategy.

1. Create your social network goals

The first step in any strategy on social networks is to set the business goals. When you define goals, that allows you to react quickly. Especially if the campaign you are running doesn’t meet your expectations. Without goals, you don’t even have the means to measure success or proof of return on investment (ROI). The goals should be aligned with your broad marketing strategy. That way, the efforts you make on social networks go directly to the realization of your business ideas. If your social media strategy is proven to support your business goals, you are more likely to pay back and make new investments. Go beyond benchmarks such as likes or retweets. Focus on advanced metrics like leads, conversion rates, and web referrals. It would be a good idea to keep track of your goals by using the SMART backbone. This means Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound.

2. Check your social networks

Before creating a marketing plan for social networks, you should evaluate their current benefits and the way you use them. Therefore, using Content, Strategy & Branding literature is a fantastic read.

This means you need to find out who you are connected to, then what social networks your target audience is mostly using, and what your social media presence is like compared to your competition.

3. Create or improve your accounts

When you’re done checking your accounts, it’s time to refine your online presence. Choose the one that best fits your business goals. If you still don’t have an online profile that you should focus on the most, create one having a wider audience and goals in mind. If you have one, maybe it’s time to update and improve it. This will give you the best possible results at the end. Remember that every social network has a unique audience. Therefore, each of them should be treated differently.

Profile optimization helps you generate more web traffic to your online business. Cross-promotion of accounts on social networks can increase the reach of a post. Profiles should be completely populated, and images and text should be optimized for the particular network.

4. Create a content plan and an announcements calendar

Good content is certainly essential for success on social networks. Your social media marketing plan should also include a content marketing plan, consisting of content creation strategies and the announcements calendar. Your social network content plan should answer some of these questions:

What kind of content are you going to post online?
How often will you post content?
What is the target group for each content type?
Who will create the content?
How will you promote the content?

Your announcement calendar will include the dates and times when you intend to post on Facebook, Instagram, Tweeter, etc. Create a calendar and schedule announcements, so you don’t have to do it every day.

5. Test and analyze your marketing plan

To find out what adjustments you need to make in your marketing strategy better, you must constantly test it. Use every opportunity to test the actions you take on social networks. Analyze both successful and unsuccessful campaigns. That way, you can tailor your marketing strategy to your goals. Research is also a great way to measure success. Ask your followers for their opinion on your work. This kind of direct approach can sometimes be extremely effective.

Feature Image Credit: villagebriefing.com

By Mitrovman Mitrovski

Sourced from Chart Attack