Kajal Kothari, Co-Founder, Freshbox Media is a Mumbai-based entrepreneur who holds a directorial position at FreshBox Media, a full-service digital marketing agency in Thane. Having hands-on experience in marketing management, strategy planning, project scoping, and brand building, she remains true to her passion for advertising. After graduating from Mumbai Educational Trust of Colleges, she worked as a Brand Manager for one of the most reputed pharmaceutical companies in India. Being an avid marketer at heart, she always dreamed of opening her own venture. This dream has now seen the light of day with FreshBox Media turning six years as of 2021!
With the increasing internet penetration, it is almost imperative to not utilize the right digital marketing tools and strategies for taking your business to new heights. In the information age, being an influential and renowned brand on social media platforms would help to reach the potential target audience, generate conversions, and boost sales. Although there are seamless opportunities that digital platforms offer, some focused and advanced tactics can help to increase revenue and profitability over time. Merely typing out status every day or posting random pictures or videos would not help to garner the best opportunities as a truly effective social media strategy must include diversified and riveting content.
Here are some of the latest social media trends to consider in your 2021 marketing strategy.
Add value through your social media presence
Highlighting the importance of branding, Jeff Bezos said, “Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room.” So, before starting to make pitches and asking for sales, add value through your content to build a trusting relationship. You can create valuable content by knowing your target audience and keeping their interest into consideration so that they relate and engage with the content. Make sure to serve original content addressing the biggest pain points by sharing tips and tricks, which would help to create brand loyalty and attract more people gradually. Create tutorials on how to use your product, host a Q/A to answer their burning questions, or conduct live sessions to share information.
Two-way communication is the key
Unlike one-way communication where a brand generally dominates the narrative and does not really acknowledge or interact with followers, two-way communication helps to establish a direct connection with consumers. 80% of your posts should focus on adding value and building brand and the rest of the posts can be self-serving, endorsing products or services. Radiate warmth while engaging in conversation with the audience so that you do not appear as a cold organization, disconnected from their potential buyers. Listen and understand about concerns of your audience on a human level as the idea is to educate, inform and entertain rather than just sharing news or ideas.
Focus on content diversification
Posting content that offers a good mix and looks interesting would help to increase engagement with the audiences. Repetitive and monotonous posts can be easily overlooked or forgotten and one-size-fits-all does not yield any results. By diversifying content, you can not only provide a wide variety to the customers but also mitigate risks by distributing your marketing activities across different platforms. Also, recycling content is a part of content diversification, which enables brands to use an existing piece of content and reuse it in other formats to keep the content evergreen for your customers.
Design purpose-driven campaigns
When the brand narrative becomes a cause that the audiences can relate with or support, it sets a different tonality to your marketing strategy, which can help to capture potential audiences and turn them into passionate brand ambassadors. Therefore, purpose-driven marketing help brands to help connect with audiences more fully, encouraging them to choose your brand over another because of their commitment and belief towards something meaningful. However, make sure to be consistent with your brand message otherwise addressing different issues can lead to confusion among customers.
Invest in influencer marketing
Brands leveraging social media to promote their offerings, their reach is limited therefore influencer marketing can help to expand brand visibility and reach wider audiences. In a recent study, it was found that influencer marketing outperforms brand-created content significantly and that consumers are more likely to depend on influencer recommendations for their next purchase than rely on direct brand messages. As influencer marketing is becoming mainstream, brands are discovering new ways to drive meaningful engagement by collaborating with specific niche-based content creators.
Leverage User-generated content
Many brands have started leveraging user-generated content as social proof of the quality of their services or products in the form of video testimonials or reviews. There are two main advantages of incorporating UGC in your posts, cost-cutting in the marketing budget of branded content and making audiences feel valued by bringing them to the forefront. As brands are trying to live up to the expectations of their customers, they are adding more people to social groups to engage in close interactions, get customer feedback, carry out discussions, share personalized content, etc.
Enhance customer service experience
There has been an increasing trend of using social media to communicate with the company directly. While brands intend to embrace social media as a mere marketing and selling tool, many social savvy brands have realized that social media is first and foremost social. From sharing valuable content, engaging with live sessions, and addressing grievances of the customer, everything forms a part of the customer journey. Therefore, prioritize improving your customer service experience by responding to the audience’s questions or comments within 24-hours as robust social media customer service can create a lot of difference and create happier customers.
Implement brand culture as a social media marketing tool
Draw the attention of your customers by showing off and telling your company’s story in a compelling manner. Whether your company is in a nascent stage or has a long history, it must have a story that you can use to your advantage in connecting with your audience. Use photos or videos to describe your brand and highlight your core values. You can also choose to share the lifestyle of your company and post about the experience of employees to show how much you value your workforce. If your company engages in fun activities or outdoor activities then make sure to promote it on social media handles.
While increasing brand awareness across social media is a common goal for many people, executing the strategies is the difficult part. However, implement these actionable steps to set a foot in the right direction to establish your brand on social media and ultimately increase revenue by selling your products or services.