Social media marketing is the norm today. Business small and large now look to social media platforms as a way to gain more visibility and in turn, grow their businesses. There are many reasons why this form of online or digital marketing has such an impact over traditional media like print or TV ads. Here is a look at how social media helps you gain the right kind of traction for your business.

Improve brand recognition and loyalty

When you post good quality and relevant content through different social media channels, you allow existing, as well as prospective customers, know more about your brands, its products or services, and the many other things that you do. When content from your brand keeps popping up in customers’ social media feeds, they remember your brand more and also tend to have a conversation about it with their peers. Such activities also make your brand more accessible and approachable to the general audience.

Have meaningful and personal conversations

TV and print ads have a certain limitation – the communication is often one way (unless it includes a signup form, discount voucher, or the like) and there are limited means for the customer to get in touch with you should he/she needs something more. There is also very little opportunity ro means to gauge the impact such marketing efforts have on their target audience. Social media marketing, on the other hand, comes with means like messaging and chats which allow you to have real-time conversations with customers. Having a real person on the other end gives a voice and personal touch to your brand, which regular ads and marketing efforts fail to do. The channel also lets you measure the impact of such campaigns through analysis of metrics like reach, impressions, clicks, and so on.

Target the right audience

Social media marketing is packed with many features that allow you to configure the target audience. When running text, image, or video ads, you get to choose various parameters like the age, gender, demography, interests, etc. of the audience that you want to deliver it to. You can deliver ads right across the globe in the click of a button. For instance, social media marketing in China can help a global luxury brand based out of a European country capture the attention of the Chinese audience and in turn, convert it into sales.

Increase inbound traffic

Social media marketing is a great way to redirect customers and prospects to your website, no matter where you’re located. By either adding the link in your bio, published content or social media ads, you can get more people to visit your website every time they read about your brand. For instance, you can use Chinese social media marketing platforms like Weibo and WeChat to get an audience in China to visit your brand that has a presence elsewhere. Such activities help complement your search engine optimization efforts. The more the number of people visiting your product or service website, the better your chances of conversion and sales.

Improve search engine rankings

Social media profiles have a huge role to play in search engine rankings. Brands with a well-managed page and a healthy social media presence tend to be picked up more easily by search engines than those without it. Being listed across multiple social media channels tells search engines that your brand is real and credible. Being active on all those pages also helps a great deal when people search for keywords that are directly or indirectly related to what you sell or offer. In fact, social media listings are often the first to show up on search engine pages and when you do not post content from time to time or respond proactively with customers and leads, they may choose to go elsewhere.

Better conversion rates

More people are on social media than ever before, which makes marketing on this channel much more effective than the others. Potential customers who engage with you over such platforms are in most cases, genuinely interested in your product or service, and hence, more inclined to buy from you than someone you send a cold email to. This makes conversions through social media marketing better and more cost-efficient. Any business existent today needs to invest in social media marketing and strategies to gain an edge over the competitors and to grow themselves efficiently.