January is the month of the year where most businesses direct their focus to updated business plans, renewed vendors and setting yearly budgets. However, February is also a crucial month in business planning because it is often the time set aside to create marketing plans and set social media goals for the rest of the year. As the middle of February looms closer, and most businesses are yet to implement their marketing techniques, here are five tips for 2013 that will improve social media and marketing plans for enterprises of all sizes.
Think Beyond Facebook with G+, Pinterest, and Twitter
When we hear the words “social media” the first place we tend to think of is Facebook. Right now Facebook dominates the social media market and it is crucial to have a business page on the site for a successfully campaigned/connected company. However, more and more potential clients are using other social sites to find or be introduced to a business. For 2013, it is necessary to a successful marketing plan to think beyond Facebook and explore sites like Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and even Google Plus. These sites open the doors to a new variety of clients and each site offers many measurable benefits to businesses looking to extend their organization beyond Facebook marketing.
Get Visual With a Blog, Videos and Photos
The phrase, “Content is King,” has ruled social media marketing for years now, but trends currently lean towards good content with spectacular visual representation. Starting a business blog and posting quality content is only half the puzzle. In 2013, more businesses are encouraged to blog with high quality images and videos. Doing this helps businesses share their expertise as well as appear as the experts in their industries and fields. Another bonus of getting visual with content is that it is more relatable, catches the eye of consumers and creates sharable content to be displayed across the social media sites referenced in tip number one. Also remember to install share buttons on the blog to encourage others to spread the informative content, videos and images.
Think Email
Some business owners may feel that email blasts are a marketing tool of the past but studies have found that emailing the latest deals, industry updates and current blog posts generates interest, traffic and conversion for many companies. In fact, in a study conducted by Monetate, it was found that 4.25% of conversion rates are from emails where only .52% is from social media sites. Social media is generally where a client gets to know a business and through emails, that relationship can build into a conversion of sales and repeat business.
Utilize Tools Such as Analytics
As with any business plan, it is important in a social marketing plan to have measureable goals. As a business dives into social media, utilizes emailing and gets visual as experts in their field, it is vital to understand what is working and to measure conversion rates. This is often done through analytic tools or the “Insights” pages in social media. When utilized, these tools can help companies improve marketing and connect with new clients throughout the year.
Go Mobile
Research has found that consumers are using several different devices to access online information through websites, blogs and social media. Desktop computers, smartphones, tablets and gaming consoles are some of the top ranked technologies to access this information, with a rising number of clients suggesting they use mobile devices to search Facebook and look up business websites. With these increasing numbers, it is important for companies of all sizes to go mobile. This means having a website that can easily be viewed from a smartphone or tablet or even producing an app to help consumers navigate products or services from mobile devices.
Social Media in 2013
As February closes, and most businesses are yet to implement their marketing techniques, we hope these five tips for 2013 will help many businesses as they strive to meet their marketing goals through improved social media presence, emailing, going mobile, getting more visual and utilizing measuring tools.
About the Author: Marc Pearson works with the marketing team at PurePPC and is an enthusiastic reader and writer of many blogs. He is creative and imaginative in every facet of promotion and advertising. He truly enjoys business advertising, computer technology, and online business management.