Long gone are the days when the only advertising options that businesses had were via print, radio or TV. With the various social media platforms available nowadays, and bulk of consumers owning and heavily using their phones, you have more variety in marketing your startup to your target market and audience.
The buzzword in marketing these days is addressability. To put it simply, addressability pertains to how you can tailor-fit the messages you send through your marketing efforts to target the needs and interests of your consumers. If you want your brand to have recall, you have to be sending out striking messages that leave a good impression on your market.
When they remember your ad, they would remember your brand. You have to go beyond just talking about your products in your ads, and this can be a challenge. You can check out Signal’s guide to addressability to learn more about it.
Here are some strategies you can use to maximize addressable media for your business:
#1. Use data to get to know your target market
Each social media platform can generate statistics so that you know the demographics of the people following your various accounts. Target market data is very important, as it enables you to design ads based on the people you really want to reach and direct these ads to your intended audience. Identifying your target market also saves you a lot of money in advertising in the long run.
You may explore Facebook Audiences or Instagram Insights. As an example, how can Facebook Audiences help you zone in on your target market?
- You can identify people in particular locations.
- You can specify the demographic you want to see (e.g. age, gender, language, etc.).
- You can also do interest-based targeting, wherein you search for the group of people who are interested in subjects closely related to your brand or product.
You may check out websites on how you can navigate on Facebook Audiences and Instagram Insights. These walk you through the process of specifying your target market step-by-step.
The social analytics produced every day can give you information on the following:
- How you can resonate with your market and grow it even more
- How you should construct your narrative as a startup business
- What your competition’s marketing strategies are
Take advantage of the data available to understand your potential consumers. If you’re a small startup business, you probably don’t have the time or know-how to produce and analyze reports. Work with a social media agency to make weekly and monthly performance reports for each of your social media accounts.
The more you are familiar with your target market, the more insights you can get into what exactly they’re looking for, such as:
- What topics do they want to read about?
- What videos are they interested in watching?
- What articles or videos are they clicking on to read or watch?
- What brands are they buying?
When Forbes was trying to increase engagement on their Twitter account, they studied the data they had on their followers and on the market they wanted to reach. The results led to revised formatting for their videos, and interestingly, to employing a contributing writer whose expertise was in Korean pop. This particular genre generated an increase in the followers of Forbes’ Twitter account.
#2. Produce content that is relevant to your consumers
Once you have the data, use social media to your advantage by creating articles, photos, and videos that are meaningful to your market. This is called relevant content. Give your clients content on topics that they actually want to read about. Do not give them what you want them to read or watch. Modern marketing rules have changed.
How will relevant content work for you?
- You can use social media to boost your credibility in your industry and make yourself stand out from the competition. Social media thrives on content. People look for substantial content every day. Because of this, you have to continually provide varied social media platforms with important and meaningful information. You can choose to produce the content by yourself, or you may also employ the services of a content marketing agency to write the content that your consumers will appreciate reading or seeing and that they will share with their own friends and followers.
- If your content is superb and striking, social media will boost your growth via click-throughs which will turn into leads. Eventually, these leads can potentially become conversions to your brand.
If your marketing materials are not relevant to your market, they will skip your ads or pass over your blog link on Facebook. Moreover, if they’re not interested in your content, they won’t share your posts to their friends. Worse, they might unfollow your social media accounts even if they like your brand.
You can produce relevant content by studying your social analytics data. Knowing your market will give you insights on what they want to see on social media. Once you have your data, you can work with a social media marketing agency to craft effective campaigns.
#3. Capitalize on the sharing nature of social media sites
You can make your startup grow faster by maximizing the sharing nature of social media. The varied social platforms were created precisely to make it easy and free for people to share information. People can share on social media by doing the following:
- Posting your video or photo directly from your page on their own timelines
- Posting the link to your website, Facebook page, or Instagram on their own newsfeeds
Because you’re a startup, have your friends and small circle of clients spread the good news about your brand and products.
This style of marketing is organic, and it can work wonders. More importantly, you don’t have to spend for this. When your friends and fans share about your brand on varied sites, your number of followers will naturally grow.
Conclusion:
Social media can truly help your startup if your marketing strategies address the needs and interests of your consumers. Use the data you have to craft and continuously refine your marketing efforts. Give your market meaningful content to digest. When your content is relevant, your consumers will naturally share this with their own friends.
Finally, mobilize your friends and fans to talk about your brand on social media. Even carrying out these three pointers discussed can already boost your startup and help you grow fast.
