Social Media Marketing Strategy
Purpose
Social Media is constantly changing and should never have a static approach. However, there are certain elements of a social media strategy which are foundational and can be applied across a myriad of situations. Therefore, this plan was developed to give you a roadmap for developing social media strategies as your business needs develop and change.
This plan is divided into three (3) stages: Phase I-Planning, Phase II-Implementation and Phase III-Adjustments. There is no definite time frame for each stage. However, Stage II should be implemented for at least a month in order to gather baseline data for Stage III.
This plan will outline the necessary steps, as well as our recommendation of specific tools to aid you in reaching your business objectives.
Keep in mind, that while many view social media as nothing more than social, this plan was developed with the end goal of increasing bottom line revenue by identifying specific social goals and attainment of certain KPI's (Key Performance Indicators) in order to measure progress and for tweaking the strategy as necessary.
Phase I
Planning
I. Determine Your Unique Value Proposition-What Makes You Different?
A. Hint-This is not cost or customer service.
B. One sentence that describes your differentiator. For example, for the V2M2 Group, we are "Business People Who Do Marketing". "We make your dream our D.R.E.A.M (Data Rules Everything Around Me) and make it a reality through data based strategies and unprecedented creativity."
II. Determine Revenue Goals for your organization
A. What are your sales goals?
B. What are your current sales
C. How long is your current sales cycle? This will help you understand how many "leads" you need in your funnel to keep consistent business.
D. How many customers do you need per month to reach your goals? Break down annual desired revenue minus operating costs and then divide by 12 to get your monthly revenue goals.
E. How many of your "prospects" do you close for business? Think of this in terms of percentages. For example, we close 50% of all leads. This will help you forecast revenue based on number of qualified leads your acquire. This is your sales closing rate.
F. Conversion rates for various mediums: Website (2.35%-6%), Phone calls (30%-50%), Email (0.31% -4%)-Based on this data, it is preferable to employ all three tactics for conversions. Drive your prospects to your website, offer a way to call you and then get them into an email marketing funnel. For email marketing we recommend ActiveCampaign.
III. Determine Your Target Market
A. Direct Purchasers of your product/service
B. Strategic Partners to drive potential clients (i.e. newsletter subscribers to drive publishers to purchase ad space in the newsletter). Who are the people likely to subscribe to the newsletter? Who can promote the newsletter? Think outside of the box with this one (i.e. for a Literary newsletter-retailers, book clubs, mom groups etc., Facebook book groups)
IV. Determine Social Platforms to Use
A. Instagram (IG)-Brand awareness, owner culture etc. (Photos of book covers, owners of LitNuts, featured authors, publishers etc., a short book reading utilizing stories or Instagram Reels).
B. Facebook-Same as Instagram-Crosspost/Share content from FB pages of authors, literary groups, publishers, book retailers etc. )
C. LinkedIn (Keep in mind that the personal LinkedIn pages will get much more engagement at first. So concentrate on these)
1) LitNuts Company page
2) LitNuts Personal Accounts
3) Determine content/messaging that pertains to the interests of your target market
V. Tools Needed for Implementation and Our Recommendations
A. Google analytics-Connect to your website
B. Google Search Console-For determining "what and how" people are searching for and finding your site.
C. Heatmap Software (free to paid)-Implement onto website to see how people are interacting with your website. This provides actionable intelligence of what people are interested in. It also lets you know if they are getting to your Call to Action (CTA) on your website (i.e. Sign-up form, clickable phone number, your value proposition etc.-whatever it is that you want them to see to get them to take action).
D. Social Media Management Software-You need this to manage your social presence. This will provide analytics and allow you to lighten your workload by queuing your posts in advance. Our favorites are based on cost for small or startup businesses.
1) SocialPilot
2) SocialReport
3) EClincher-More expensive but great analytics, campaign tracking and more features.
E. Content Creation (we have used a lot and these are our favorites)
1) Canva
2) Viddyoze-Short video creation software
3) Reevio-Short promotional video creator
F. Miscellaneous
1) Hashtag searches- Search for the most popular hashtags to use for your social media posts as the pertain to your industry and/or target market. Our recommendations are Hashtagify and Top Hashtags.
2) Google Trends-Search trends for words related to your business and/or target market.
3 Linktree or lnk.bio-These allow you to have more than one url destination in your Instagram profile.
Phase II
Implementation
Now that you have the following information for implementation, you are ready to execute your strategy.
- Value Proposition
- Target Market
- Revenue Goal
- Number of leads needed to reach your goals
- Conversion rates (sales and others listed)
- Baseline numbers from Google analytics
- What keywords people are using to find you
I. Develop Campaign Schedule for Each Platform
A. Determine a time-frame for each campaign. We recommend two weeks . This allows you to get enough data for making informed decisions. A campaign example may be "Build recognition for mystery authors".
B. Develop strategy for each platform for each day. Each platform may have a different purpose. For example, Instagram (showcase your brand, behind the scenes, motivational quotes, Showcase your work or work of your clients). Facebook (same as Instagram but connect with other FB Groups that can support your mission). LinkedIn (content that would interest the business side of your clients or particular decision makers you want to connect with). See Monday example below.
1) Monday-MondayMotivation-quote from an author or someone you respect
*Perform a hashtag search for the most popular hashtags for that day as it relates to your brand or target market* *Be sure to keep an 80/20 ratio-80% of your target audience's interests, 20% your brand*
C. Replicate the above plan for each social media platform.
*LinkedIn has to be more business-related material. Think of material that would interest your target decision makers*
D. Review social analytics weekly
1) What content gets the highest engagement rate?
2) What days, times, and frequency of posts get the highest engagement?
E. Review Google analytics weekly
1) Which channel drives the most traffic to your website?
2) Click on the social link to see which social channels drives the most traffic to your website. Here is how.
Phase III
Make Adjustments to Strategy
I. Make Adjustments to Strategy
A. Social Adjustments
1) Content (Do videos, images or text work the best?)
2) Time of Day for posts
3) Frequency of posts
4) Which social channel performs the best?
B. Google Analytics
1) What channels are working?
2) Where should you direct most of your efforts?
Final Thoughts
Be Fluid
As you follow this outline, remember that social media is always changing. People's tastes are changing, the market is changing and the tools are changing.
Only by continuously monitoring the data will you be able to remain proactive in the marketplace, remain differentiated from your competitors and reach your goals.
