Ready to Start A Social Media Marketing Campaign?

“If you build it, they will come.”  —  How many times have you heard this motivational quote taken from the movie Field of Dreams? If you are like me, you have not only heard it but you have said it and shared it with others as they have pursued their business goals and dreams. While this inspirational quote may be valuable to hold onto as we put in sweat equity on a daily basis to build business success, there are still planning and action steps that we must take to ensure that our actions produce the desired results. — The same is true when embark on starting a social media marketing campaign.

“If you build it, they will come.”  — Does this statement hold true for social media marketing? Our Aiden Marketing team has met dozens of business owners who told us that they thought that if they simply put up a Facebook page or set up a Twitter account, customers would come flooding through their doors or that their phones would start ringing off the hook. Well, when they didn’t see any results after simply setting up a profile on a social media platform, these business owners sometimes start to wonder if social media is all hype. They’ve heard stories of how other businesses generated a large volume of leads and customers through social media. Why haven’t they seen similar results in their own business? is the question that starts brewing in their mind. However, when we, at Aiden Marketing, ask them if they have a social media strategy in place, they often reply back with a silent look — sometimes feeling a bit embarrassed as they further admit that after creating their profiles, they did little or nothing to keep their profiles consistently active.

When it comes to social media marketing, businesses must have a strategy in place if they are to convert online prospects into business. This includes creating a concrete action plan to engage with their fans/followers, converting them into paying customers, and then measuring the results of the campaign’s performance. Before you start drafting your action plan,  there are three important, key questions that you need to ask yourself before starting a social media marketing campaign — doing so will help you gain clarity on the purpose of your social media campaign and help you to establish expectations.

Question #1: Who is your target market? This is one of the most important questions you will ask throughout the social media marketing campaign, and is the question you should ask yourself before starting any type of marketing campaign. Does your business know exactly who to target? Perhaps your business caters to 18-35 year old young men, or maybe your business offers products to women who are part of the baby boomer generation. Getting a clear idea of your target audience is the first key step to take before starting any kind of marketing campaign, whether it is an offline or online campaign.

Question #2: What is your ideal customer profile? This question digs a bit deeper from the first question, as you now need to narrow down the type of customer you are looking to attract to your business. If your target market is 18-35 year old young men, what specific type of customer within this group are you targeting? Are they men with a yearly income of $50,000 or more? Do they have an interest in sports? Do they live in a specific geographic region, such as Baltimore, MD, the Washington, DC metro, New York City, or Miami, FL? Getting clear on your ideal customer profile will help you create campaigns that are targeted towards your ideal customer.

Question #3: What is your core message and how is this tied into your product and/or service? Once you have identified your target market, as well as the ideal customer profile within this market, the next step is to clarify the message you are conveying to this target market. In order to create your message, you must first know the needs of your market. By spending time thinking about the answers to the first two questions, you will have a much clearer understanding of the needs of your target market. This step involves identifying the tangible and emotional benefits of how your product and/or service provide a solution to their needs o fyour target market.

Once you have gained clarity on these three questions, you are ready to start planning a social media marketing campaign that is targeted to your audience. If you need help in crafting a comprehensive plan for your social media campaign and/or need someone to help manage your social media presence and implement a successful social media campaign for your business, please visit us at www.aidenmarketing.com or give us a call at 410-929-2435. We live and breathe social media, so if your existing social media efforts are on life support, contact us and we’ll help your business maximize the benefits of social media marketing.

Aiden Marketing is a premier, full-service marketing agency built to stimulate business growth. We create, design and promote brands and their assets using creative innovation strategies to build brand equity and to foster positive growth results.  We offer emerging inbound marketing, social media marketing, and content marketing solutions that communicate messages effectively, spark engaging conversations with consumers, and generate sales growth for our clients in a multicultural society, with a focus on being the best in terms of value, customer service, employee talent and corporate leadership.  Visit us at www.aidenmarketing.com to take your business to the next level!