The promotional products community is a close-knit group that’s filled with familiar faces. If you’ve ever walked a tradeshow floor, you know what I mean. Many businesses have relationships that span decades, which makes it easy to pick up the phone or complete an order by email. So, how do you broaden your reach and grow your customer base?
Earlier this summer we blogged about the importance of developing an online presence. It’s an important step toward meeting your customers where they spend most of their time. Maybe you read that post and started to experiment with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (kudos to your intern program if you’re also on Snapchat). Now that you’ve kicked the tires, it’s important to develop your content and messaging strategy.
Whether your business has a presence on one or each of these platforms, your strategy and goals should always be consistent. The easiest way to manage this is by modeling your social media strategy after your company’s greater marketing objectives. Better yet, when developing your social media strategy, think of it as a tradeshow. It sounds silly, but it helps.
Tradeshows, like social networks (especially Commonsku) convene a large network of potential customers in a single location. Access to the audience is great, but attracting and engaging that audience is where relationships and business are built.
To help you use social media to build your business, we’re sharing tips to improve your audience experience:
Show some personality! Offer a behind-the-scenes look at your business. Share lighthearted and humorous content to develop a relatable presence. For casual content, remember to be yourself. If your brand is more sincere, stick with heartfelt content that gels with your target audience.
Listen and respond. Take note of the questions your customers ask. When possible, develop content that responds to their concerns. Use this as an opportunity to relay information, but also to demonstrate your know-how. Share work samples that are relevant to your customer’s needs. Such tweaks can create leads for new business.
Integrate and expand your reach. If you’re launching a marketing campaign, make sure to include a social media component. Even print, email and direct marketing campaigns have a home on social media. In addition to gaining impressions, it provides you an opportunity to deliver a consistent message across all of your channels.
Make a list. Check it twice. Start the quarter with a list of social media marketing objectives. As you start to publish new content, follow up weekly to see how it performs. Use your findings to improve your approach. At the end of the quarter, perform a deeper analysis of its efficacy. If something resonates with your audience, make plans to continue it in the future.