“When you help others feel important, you help yourself feel important too.” – David J. Schwartz
If you are someone who works for a service-based business or owns one, the constant question of reaching out and engaging with your target audience nags you incessantly. Unlike the product-based industry, servicing as a sector is not only easy to enter but is easier to scale basis the quality and quantity delivered efficiently. New players have been entering and conquering the market successfully over the last decade, owing to the increase of access to technology and knowledge.
A fair question that comes to mind then is, how would you be able to get your fair share of the pie? The answer lies in an effective marketing strategy that not only aids you to reach our target customer but also ensures its engagement thereby yielding potential leads for your business.
Use this 5-point step plan to showcase your services better through multiple channels and get the attention you need.
Step 1 - Know whom you are talking to
Knowing whom you need to engage becomes the first and foremost step in your agenda of creating a foolproof marketing strategy. 37% of marketers are known to waste their marketing spend as a result of poor data. Depending on the time of customer you are servicing, B2B/B2C/D2C, your audience size, and type differentiate.
An easier explanation is, AirPods or M&Ms are viral D2C products and can be advertised to the masses, but say an AWS server or an HPE storage solution are B2B services used by a niche set of people operating within certain geographies and pay scales.
Thus, identifying who your audience is, helps you choose a suitable online platform of their belonging. Say, a D2C brand might get more popularity on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, whereas a B2B brand will find more success on LinkedIn or Reddit.
Correct understanding of the audience is crucial not only in fixing the platform but also sets the tone of conversation required to interact and engage with the audience.
Step 2 – Where will you engage? Identifying the platform
As we saw earlier, selecting the right audience is key in identifying the platform on which you’ll engage with your ideal customer.
But a further boil down is required in terms of how your audience is distributed within that type of platform (social or otherwise).
For example, a brand targeting millennials to use an online, easy to use, free design service (namely Canva) might find itself in a tiff, selecting the platform to advertise, as Facebook, Instagram, youtube and twitch makes sense, owing to the fact of having highest digital millennial user base. In a condition such as this, decisions are made on more peculiar aspects such as who amongst these platforms represents the highest number of brand inclined thinking users.
A quick broad insight on which platform has what kind of audience can be found below – (but bifurcations within the platform of choice needs to be made individually and mandatorily by the brand)
Step 3 – How will you engage? The content aspect of marketing
Once you have identified the person and the platform of choice, what’s left is the content. Content plays a crucial role in determining the success of your marketing efforts as it acts as the push or pull factor.
Effective and meaningful content, relevant to your audience, will automatically drive traffic and generate quality leads for your business. Similarly, out-of-tone and irrelevant content will drive the audience away, affecting the business ultimately.
Choosing the correct content type is also important while determining your social media strategy. Each platform offers a variety of content assets it can support, majorly, written text, static photos, dynamic photos (GIFs, Cinemagraphs), and Videos that are widely supported across all platforms. You’ll also find some niche content types like 360-degree photos (native to Facebook), 15-sec videos (TikTok and YouTube Shorts), Stories (Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn).
Based on the type of business and the demographics of the audience engaged, the mix, frequency, and quality of content published changes.
Other than that, curating content that is unique to your business app can also help customers connect with you on a personal level, and help them build a longer-term relationship. Apps are crucial in content marketing as notifications help users understand which products and services are best for them, timed perfectly so that the customer can make the purchase at one tap.
Step 4 – Act Less. React More!
Social media is more about engaging with users rather than dumping one’s own content. Understanding the market trends and optimizing one’s strategy is important for small businesses.
People don't utilize social media to have a one-way conversation. They want to make connections with people and brands.
What began as a method for people to connect with their friends on the internet has evolved into a platform for marketers to participate in meaningful dialogues with their followers and consumers. And, as a result, social media involvement has a significant impact on small enterprises.
Engagement is a terrific approach to see if the content you're providing is resonating with your target audience.
Customers want you to engage with them as well, especially when offering help. According to a Twitter-commissioned study from 2016, It has been reported that 71% of consumers want brands to respond within an hour.
Every month, people and businesses exchange 8 billion Facebook messages, making social media the most popular alternative for customer service. Customers want you to respond not only swiftly but also appropriately.
Step 5 – Listen to your customers! The Feedback Loop
Customers and social media have a greater effect than ever on Social CRM and how businesses operate. Customers don't run your company, but they certainly influence how you interact with them. It's only smart business sense to use social monitoring tools like Google Alerts and TweetDeck to listen to clients' suggestions and indicators for preferred communication methods.
Customers want to communicate with your business on a social level, just as they do with friends and family. To interact with a company, product, or brand, Facebook users can tag photos, comment on posts and photos, and make recommendations. That's a good thing – it's better than sending unsubscribe or do-not-contact notifications to your firm.
Besides social media, apps are a great way to understand user behavior and garner feedback, with easy mechanisms for products or services. Customers can leave reviews or comments on services they’ve used, request a refund or exchange, and much more. For any small business, rectifying a bad experience urgently is extremely important, since word of mouth is a huge driver in business growth. This is why, having an app in place eases the process of feedback collection, helping you close the loop.
Want to know how you can elevate your business even more? Get in touch with us to build an app for your business, starting from $500 for a demo prototype. Get started today.