Making a product is one thing, bringing it to the audience and letting people know that you have made a worthy product is another thing. In fact, the process of innovating and getting recognition for your product among your potential customers is what known as marketing.
Let’s have a look at the economic perspective of marketing. This technique of product promotion is more like a pillar of the modern day business models, particularly for e-commerce. Millions of websites run only because businesses need the recognition for their products. So, they need the platforms where people can see what they have to offer and then buy these offerings.
In the presence of such online economic models, the case of social media becomes much stronger.
Let’s have a look at the reasons that make social media a complete marketing solution for businesses.
1. Social media is a people’s platform
Put digital marketing aside for a while and explore the traditional media where companies promote their products. For example, signboards and billboards on traffic signals, busy roundabouts, bus stations, tourist attractions and other such public places. The purpose of advertising their products in all those places is much evident. These are the venues where public and hence the target market can be found.
Same is the case with social media which has now become a digital home for billions of people. The platform has made the world a global village in its real terms.
Apart from all other social media, only Facebook alone has crossed the 2 billion monthly users mark. The good thing is that these users are not just from one particular region of the world. They belong to diverse cultures, ethnic groups, and religions. Hence, it is not a complete marketing solution for the mass marketers only but also for those who are on a look out for a particular niche.
Social media is also useful for businesses who don’t mainly target the not so tech or digital world savvy audience.
2. It helps in perception management
Marketing has left the domain of telling and selling since long ago. In the modern times, it is more about establishing users loyalty to the product or creating a personal relationship with the customers.
For this purpose, companies need to focus on product positioning and perception management. They want people to know how a particular brand relates to them. Hence they need a medium where users not only spend time, but also allows the creation of the engaging content. This is one reason why non-profit can use social media to their advantage.
On social media, brands get an opportunity to connect with their customers in a more personal manner. They communicate their message and talk about a product in a way that seems to be more than relatable.
For example, many brands sponsor the Youtubers or social media Vlogger who advertise the product in a manner as if it was part of the script. Companies also take help from the social media influencers to manage how they want their customers to perceive a particular product.
3. A source to offer customer support service
After sale service and paying attention to the customers’ complaints is an integral component of modern day marketing strategies. But, offering these services or providing 24/7 customer support is just another burden and low budget businesses can’t afford these costs.
Here, social platforms like Facebook play their role. The option of call and message on Facebook allows companies to eliminate the need for reaching out to the call centers. They can now listen to the complaints of their customers, respond to them and take their feedback.
In many cases, websites like Facebook also prove to be an alternate for an e-commerce portal or professional websites. The pages on this site do enough representation of a business.
4. Social media as an SEO strategy
Social media is an ultimate solution for SEO marketing. Websites and online companies that need to drag traffic towards their portals need to get the attention of search engines. For this purpose, they need mentions and links. And, one way to get those links is social media.
Brands reach out to celebrities for endorsing their products and talking about their service offerings through their Instagram and Facebook profiles. Consequently, they get links, the attention of the millions of followers that these celebrities have and also the attention of the search engine.
Followers of these businesses also click on the links and ultimately land on their websites. Very often they not only end up buying products or services but also become loyal customers, who next time visit the sites through a search engine. So a strategic use of social media also saves on the costs of integrated internet marketing.
5. Helps in future decision making
Apart from analytics, companies also need customer feedback for future decision making. They want to know what customers are saying about their products and how they perceive them.
Through social media, companies can quickly get an insight into customers’ thoughts and their experience. Many users don’t hesitate to reach out to business representatives on digital media or commenting on social media pages. Such a practice can be risky as more blunt comments can harm the business’s reputation. But in the long run, they help companies devise their strategies.
On social media, businesses can also conduct a competitive analysis. They can look at how their competitors are coming up with ideas to attract the customers, interact with their product users and handle their complaints.
In summary, social media is a complete marketing solution for your business in the following ways:
- It helps in getting insights from customers.
- It helps in analyzing competitors
- It allows managing perception of the product.
- It helps in reaching out the top influencers.
- It offers a platform for affiliate marketing.
- It also replaces SEO marketing up to certain extent.
- It helps in conducting overall marketing analyses.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://ideasplusbusiness.com/complete-marketing-solution/