What is Social Media Marketing?

Nowadays, it is possible to read a lot of things on the net. As soon as one takes a little interest in Marketing, you will come across barbaric terms like ”  Web Marketing  ” obviously, but also, ”  Inbound Marketing,” ”  Content Marketing, “Email Marketing “Social Media Marketing “

Well, at the risk of attracting the wrath of the various Marketeux communities, I’ll make your life easier:

In our time, good Marketing on the web goes through all these actions combined!

If I’m telling you this, it’s because my company is a Social Media agency, I do consult for individual companies to help them improve their presence on social networks, and I also help them with everything related to Social Media Marketing.

But each time, I go much further than just Social Media Marketing, I explain to them that it is necessary to mix many strategies to do effective Marketing!

This is why, to simplify your life, I offer below an example of what I consider to be a Marketing Plan adapted to today’s web with obviously a big focus on social networks.

1. Attract Fans / Subscribers

(Social Media Marketing) is one crucial There thing to understand: With all of the content (and ads) available on social media, a user is unlikely to buy something that they do not know, or that is not recommended to them by a friend.

Abandon ads to sell your products/services to people who are not yet your fans, and you could risk losing money.

The first step is, therefore, to attract qualified Fans / Subscribers/circles.

Note the “qualified.”

  • Above all, do not buy Fans from “shady” companies offering 10,000 Fans for $10.
  • Do not exchange Fans
  • Do not use these techniques that can be read on some Web Marketing forums explaining how to use Facebook ads to get fans quickly at the rate of $0.01 per Fan! (The concept is simple: Targeting developing countries, Fans who will never buy you anything and will not participate)
  • Forget about competitions with a generalist prize (well unless your target is vast). Indeed, offering the latest iPad is nice, but unfortunately, everyone can want it, and therefore, you will have unqualified “Fans” who don’t care about your products.

So what to do?

It’s simple. You have to focus on quality rather than quantity!

You must succeed in attracting Fans who can then become prospects, Super Fans, and even, let’s be crazy, customers!

2. Create relevant content

(Content Marketing / Inbound Marketing)

Having a lot of Fans is good; having Fans who will follow you is another story!

For that, you will have to publish quality content for your Fans regularly!

And that’s where Content Marketing comes in!

Every day, you need to add content, and most importantly, get your Fans to visit your website. (Be careful, that doesn’t mean bombarding them with links every 10 minutes!)

This content can be articles, images, videos, podcasts, etc. it depends significantly on your type of activity!

3. Transform your Fans into prospects by collecting their email addresses.

(Email Marketing / Inbound Marketing)

It is possible to collect email addresses without users being Fans, using targeted advertisements on Facebook, for example. Likewise, it is quite possible to get new Fans this way.

But, it is much easier to get the email address of someone who is already a Fan!

This is a significant move, not to be overlooked! From the moment you have a Fan’s email address, you can contact him in several ways (and no longer only via Facebook, Twitter or other)

So when you add content or sell something, your Fans will receive the message multiple times, allowing them not to miss it!

How to collect these addresses?

I’m not going to explain the technical side to you (this will be the subject of a future article), but rather how to motivate your fans to subscribe:

  • Publish an Ebook / Guide / White paper that you will offer in exchange for their registration
  • Do a Webinar / Conference online
  • Offer a discount on your products
  • Regularly remind you that you have a newsletter with a link to subscribe

4. Create a relationship of trust

You have your Fans, you have their email addresses, and you are creating quality content, is it finally time to sell?

No, not yet:

You still need to build a relationship of trust with your Fans

You can do so by: talking to yourself, Fans, helping them! Make things more personal. (And that’s what a good Community Manager does!)

The goal is to create a connection with your Fans.

You will also send them regular emails (with exciting content)

It may take a while for the connection to be made, you need to listen to your fans and want to help them!

5. Sell your products/services

Now is the time to run.you’ve been waiting for!

You have the trust of your (qualified) Fans, they read your emails, participate in your publications, you help them regularly by offering them free quality content, and everyone adores you and sings your praises!

It’s time to sell!

When you are going to sell your products or services, you will announce it by email, on your site, but also on Facebook, on Twitter, and your other social networks.

You will advertise by targeting only your Fans on Facebook (see better by focusing only your Fans who have also given you their email address using a Personal Audience .)

Be careful not to spam too much with your advertisements and publications; you would not want to scare away potential buyers!

6. After the sale

I know, the title of the article is “5 steps”, but I still wanted to add one last important step.

In fact, with social networks, your Fans who have become customers may very well ask you questions, need your help, or tell them about their dissatisfaction.

Your trust work must, therefore, continue after the sale, with active follow-up and support for your customers.

A happy customer could very well become a “Super Fan,” who will always be the first to speak about your products!

But beware, a disgruntled customer might as well make huge waves with his 2000 Facebook friends!

The satisfaction of your customers must be a top priority!