Do you agree that social media can be a useful medium for small business success?
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Some small business owners and marketers view social media marketing as the lifeblood of small and medium business (SMB) marketing, believing that other forms of marketing—email, in particular—can’t connect them with their audience as well as Instagram or Facebook.
Other small businesses aren’t willing to invest the time needed to build an audience on social media, citing data that suggests email marketing is still the strongest tool.
Who’s right? Is one better than the other?
There’s no doubt that email marketing is more powerful than ever. That’s not to say, though, that there’s no merit in utilizing social media platforms, particularly when you integrate your digital marketing platforms.
Read on to discover some social media facts that’ll prove how effective this form of marketing really is.
Social media facts that prove its impact on SMBs
Social media marketing is proving to be one of the most impactful types of marketing tools available to small-to-medium sized businesses.
As an SMB, you have to take two things into consideration every time you create a marketing strategy: time and money.
Granted, every company has to cater their efforts to their available resources. Nevertheless, SMBs have to do this more strategically and stringently due to their limited resources. They don’t have a huge marketing budget or a staff of hundreds or thousands of employees.
Therefore, they have a limited amount of time and money to invest in their marketing efforts. Every part of their marketing strategy is deliberate—and it has to provide them a high ROI.
Many SMB owners and marketers were ecstatic, then, when social media marketing arrived on the scene. This was an affordable way to get in front of thousands, if not millions, of people.
How has social media impacted SMB marketing? Let’s look at some social media facts.
Social media is the equivalent of word-of-mouth marketing in the digital age
Word-of-mouth marketing has been one of the best ways for businesses to build their reputation and earn a profit. It’s easy to think that times have changed because we live in the digital age. However, social media platforms are, in essence, word-of-mouth platforms.
When a brand provides excellent customer service, a person is highly likely to share their experience with their friends and family. Where do they spend much of their time conversing with friends and family? On social media.
Customers are even more likely to share bad reviews with others online, both as a way to vent their frustration and as a way to forewarn others about a certain company or product.
How does this affect you?
Online reviews and testimonials are a great opportunity for you to gain exposure and build your customer base. Even bad reviews are an opportunity for growth. How so?
When you receive a bad review, you have an opportunity to make things right with the customer. You can directly respond to their complaint post, addressing their frustration and letting them know that you’re willing to discuss how to make things right with them. Not only can this diffuse the situation with the irate customer, but it can also put you in a good light with anyone else following the post.
Additionally, online reviews can boost your Google rankings.
Increased exposure in a shorter amount of time
Building an email list takes time. Getting a higher Google ranking with content marketing takes time. Every type of marketing requires time to see results. Fortunately, all of your efforts combined can help speed up the process, and, if done right, social media marketing can put your efforts into overdrive.
The reason for this is two-fold.
First, you have the potential to quickly reach thousands, if not millions of people, worldwide.
Second, depending on which platform you decide to invest your time in, you can end up with high-quality followers. The types of followers are ones that are:
One of the best social media sites for these types of results is YouTube. Video marketing statistics are incredible. Video is quickly becoming the preferred way to market to an audience.
For good reason too: People love videos. In fact, according to HubSpot, over 50% of consumers want to see more video content from the brands they love.
Video content is engaging and entertaining, plus the viewer gets more information in a shorter amount of time. It’s always important to remember that the way a consumer gauges whether they’re going to be loyal to a company or not is by the value that the company provides to them. Videos allow you to attract more attention because consumers can get more content in a shorter amount of time.
Your social media presence puts a face to the brand
Consumers don’t want to support a faceless brand. They base their buying decisions, in part, on the reviews and testimonials of others, but also on the personal connection they feel with a brand.
Every brand has a personality. Yours can be expressed through the content you make available to your target audience.
While written content can convey your personality adequately, you can take things to the next level with video marketing. Videos allow you to put a face to the brand. When consumers see who’s behind their favorite brands, their attachment grows.
Humanizing your brand goes way beyond a fancy logo and regular blog posts, or even regular social media posts. Adding video content into your marketing strategy will boost your results.
Videos can be:
Is social media the end of email marketing? Eye-opening email marketing stats
Social media is a great way to market your business. It’s affordable, it doesn’t have to be time-consuming, and you have multiple platforms to choose from.
Due to the extended reach you get from it, many business owners wonder: Is social media the end of email marketing?
The answer is simple: absolutely not.
Here are just a handful of email marketing stats that’ll make you rethink the idea that email is dead.
With so many people active on social media, why is email marketing still so popular?
The main reason is that it allows you the opportunity to develop a one-on-one relationship with your audience.
Think of your social media followers as a group of acquaintances, while your email subscribers are your friends. You may interact with acquaintances from time to time, but you have great conversations with your friends regularly.
Your subscribers subconsciously view things the same way. They may like a brand on Facebook or Instagram, but that doesn’t automatically mean they’re willing to invest their time with them. If a certain brand is really special to them, though, they’re willing to share their email address. It’s an investment in the relationship.
The companies that deliver content to their inbox are those whose opinion they value and that offer them a tremendous amount of value.
Most SMB owners and marketers view email marketing as the easiest and most effective way to market their business.
We’ve listed just a couple important email marketing stats, but it’s clear that email marketing is definitely alive and well. In fact, it’s an essential part of every company’s marketing strategy.
However, that doesn’t mean that social media marketing and email marketing should be viewed as competitors. Rather, they should be viewed as complements.
One does not and cannot replace the other. They’re different tools entirely, partly because you interact with your audience differently on them. Ultimately, you’ll get a higher ROI by integrating them than you would by using them independently.
Wrap up
Today, we’ve presented some social media facts that prove it’s an effective marketing channel. Some important facts about social media marketing and how it relates to SMB marketing:
Also, don’t forget: Social media and email marketing aren’t competitors. They can (and should) be utilized in conjunction—otherwise, you’re missing out on a great opportunity for a higher return for all of the time, money, and effort you invest in your marketing strategy.
Would you like to learn how to easily integrate social media marketing with your email campaigns? We’ve created an integration guide that’ll help make the process so much easier.
This content was originally published here.
