Three Ways to Market Your Business After You Start Social Media

Welcome back to Behind the Strategies!

One of the biggest questions we get when it comes to marketing is about social media. Let's say you've been drumming up your social media presence to help out your business. That's great! But, now what?

While you should always stay on top of your social media generally, there are certain next steps you can take to keep your newfound attention on you. We're going to be breaking down the three most important marketing "next steps."

Keep in mind that this is just a jumping-off point and by no means a complete list. Let these ideas inspire the next steps that can help your business take off by doing more than making Facebook and Instagram posts.

1. Lead Magnets

Once you have your social posts doing numbers, or even going viral (!), it's important to stay on top of potential clients while you can. Lead magnets are a great way to speak directly to your target demographic of clients.

A lead magnet is a tool that allows a potential client to submit their contact information and in turn, you offer business information, tips, and bonuses via email for their subscription.

The first step is to create the lead magnet. You can create a lead sign-up form on Facebook Ads Manager, Active Campaign, or Constant Contact. There are plenty more options; those are just our favorites. Sharing a lead magnet link is a great way to collect new leads' information.

Next, you will need to set up a follow-up system for these new leads. Typically, we would suggest an email automation series. A lead magnet email automation series (that's a mouthful) is a set of informative and suggestive emails to follow up on these leads. Usually, seven to ten emails are a good goal to start with. They need to be eye-catching, interesting, and NOT spammy or clickbait-looking. That means no bold, red letters with a white background and suspicious-looking links. Make them official and match your business's brand. These emails will go to your client database which should be full of email addresses that are likely to use your services. By using a system like the ones we recommend, you can be sure you are following all compliance rules as well.

In your lead magnet series, you should be sure to complete a couple of tasks. In one email, be sure to formally introduce yourself and share your story on a personal level. In another email, you should identify and describe your products and services. You can also share some tips in a different email regarding your products or services. In all your emails, you should link your website and social buttons. Add in a tip sheet or other downloadable as a bonus for being on your subscriber list. The content you put in should always be interesting and informative.

As an example, a lead magnet for a travel agency might share packing lists or traveling tips during the pandemic. People interested in travel will open it in their inbox and that's a potential client!

Lead magnets do take some time to set up, but once you set them up and share them, it's a great tool to have in your back pocket to create interest with new people you meet.

2. Consistent campaigns

Once you've secured a solid email following by attracting enough people with your lead magnets, keep their attention with consistent emails. These are considered campaigns, as opposed to automation. (FYI: lead magnets are automation.) Campaigns can be scheduled on a once-a-month, every-week, or every-other-week basis. Consider making a set of newsletter content all at once and scheduling them far into the future.

When we take on a project such as creating newsletters for six months to a year in advance, we first outline the structure of the emails. The first section is an introduction that has a personal touch. Consider tapping into the season and talking about what you're looking forward to in life and business next. The second section is usually informative about a certain product or service. Share the details behind that product or service. The third section is usually tips or suggestions in relation to the main topic. Think of this section as fun facts that you didn't mention before. And finally, for the last section, we suggest making it fun. Add a recipe, playlist, or Amazon must-buy (again, that relates to the main topic) to close the email in a fun way.

We recommend outlining your content month-by-month, tackling the writing, and then building it in your email system afterward. Then you can schedule your templates for six months to a year in advance. And next year, re-write and recycle that same content.

Because we love charts so much, here is an example of a content outline we made using Microsoft Excel that pinpoints the next six months of email campaigns for this business owner.

Stack Strategies then used this chart to write six newsletters and made coordinating email graphics to go along with the emails' content.

Here are the graphics we made to go along with the content. An assortment of these graphics was made to go into each month's newsletter so the newsletter is branded to the business and is consistent every month.

By tackling this project over a few days with content, graphics, and the build, you'll be reaching people directly in their inboxes, which is much more personal and likely to gain attention than social media alone. And the bonus is you get it all done at once, so you don't have to worry about it again.

These emails should be similar in vein to the lead magnets, filled with brief information that will attract people. However, since these campaigns will be going to everyone, both past clients as well as potential new ones, consider going in even more depth with your content than the lead magnet automation series.

When they're well done, informative campaigns show your subscribers why they should keep you around -- and in mind for future business!

3. Running Social Ads

Running ads is similar to social media posting in that you build your advertisement, share it, and let it work its magic. However, the paid ad works a bit better and is more targeted. Ads will reach people that are likely to be interested in your business based on their browsing history.

Social media ads can boost your current posts or they can create new posts that promote your pages overall or promote your website link. The ads we like most are targeted to get clicks on a link or collect lead information as we mentioned earlier in this blog post.

Spending only a few dollars is necessary when it comes to ads. If you are targeting the correct demographics, you can be seeing results by spending as low as one dollar per day. Our most engaged-with ads are maximizing our goals while spending about $8 for 5 days.

It's great to run ads for products on your website. Once you get enough traffic to your site, you can be paid by Google or other paid virtual advertisement companies to feature graphics from your site for products that your client base will be interested in. So, once you get good enough at ads, you earn more clicks and then get paid for them! It's a win-win!

There is an entire science behind algorithms and ad running. Soon we will be touching more on these topics and sharing more of our marketing expertise on these specific topics.

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These marketing tips are just the beginning. We encourage you to get creative and think about your own unique ways to market your business to stir up traffic and interest. Social media is a great place to start, but then it's time to take it up a notch which includes an extra notch of effort.

Of course, if we can help with any parts of your marketing projects, reach out! Until next time, happy marketing!