We live in a digital world. It’s essential that brands use social media to maximize their marketing, with its undeniable power to connect them with their target audience.
It’s also important to understand where social media should sit in your marketing funnel. Allow us to explain:
Your social media marketing funnel consists of five different stages:
- Awareness
- Interest
- Consideration
- Conversion
- Loyalty
These five stages are critical to the customer journey, from discovering your brand to becoming a loyal fan.
Social Media to Boost Brand Awareness
Although social media can contribute to all five stages, the awareness stage is typically where it thrives. This is due to its broad reach and high engagement.
Social media is powerful for brand exposure. With targeted advertising, you can grab the attention of your target audience (even those who have never heard of you or your brand before).
Social media content needs to be appropriate, on the right platform, and be created in a way that the platforms’ audience wants to see.
We asked our U.S. Social Media Lead, Jess Rouzan, for their thoughts on this.
This year, we saw Instagram shift from purely focusing on short form video as they realized they were isolating a dedicated audience that still came for static content – but Instagram reels continue to be a key driver for both reach and engagement.
No one can ignore the rampant success of TikTok which has driven the shift in social content to short form video. TikTok short-form video allows for you to reach both broad and niche audiences as its algorithm, at an even greater speed than YouTube, quickly learns and directs users towards their interests.
This is exactly what we mean by broad and niche – TikTok understands who your potential customer is and grows that audience, even when their interests are very specific.
Jess Rouzan, U.S. Social Media Lead
To touch on the other stages of the funnel, at the interest stage, social media sparks curiosity and engagement. When interest has peaked and customers enter the consideration stage – this is the time for social media to be really showcasing your products and services. At this stage, user-generated content and influencer partnerships are key.
Finally, once that conversion has happened, social media is crucial to customer loyalty. Maintain an active presence and keep reminding customers that you’re there – you can even use exclusive promotions at this point (everyone loves a discount!)
Social media is powerful and must be strategically incorporated into your overall marketing strategy. Brands who follow these tips will be able to tap into unlimited potential and convert their audience.
If you want to talk about how we can help you with your social media marketing campaigns, drop us a message at [email protected].
