Pamela SapioPaid advertising is just one small component of a successful digital marketing strategy.
Typically, paid ads are effective at capturing folks toward the bottom of the sales funnel, after they have had several interactions with your brand and are ready to make a purchase.
However, it is what you do before that point—beginning all the way at the top of the funnel in the awareness and interest stages—that makes the difference between grabbing the easy sale and cultivating a lifelong customer.
Table of Contents
Where does social media fit in?
Social media helps you understand your audience and build a community.
Paying attention to your competitors is key.
Wanting to make a profit is just not enough.
Avoid using promotional content 100% of the time.
Build your community, and the paid ad conversions will follow.
Where does social media fit in?
In this video, Solutions 8 Social Media Manager Ari Paulín and Client Creative Manager Priyanka Lakha discuss the power of social media in paid ads and why you absolutely need a consistent social media strategy if you truly want to grow and scale your business.
However, many businesses today are still reluctant to devote their time and resources to social media, thinking it is either too much money, too much work, or both. Instead, they funnel all of their marketing budget into paid ads—which Priyanka says is a big mistake.
In a nutshell, it is all about how far you want to take your business.
Yes, building and maintaining a social media presence takes time and dedication. But that effort pays off in the long run. Through the power of social media, you are creating a community behind your product and forming a long-lasting connection with your customers (read: brand loyalty).
Think of it like this, says Ari: If someone just randomly knocks on your door and says ‘Hey, buy this product from me!’ would you do it? Of course not. You have no idea who they are, no trust has been built that would make you feel comfortable buying from this person, and you are more likely to simply close the door in their face than purchase what they are selling.
Social media helps you understand your audience and build a community.
The social part of social media is what is important, Ari explains.
It allows you to form relationships, build a community, and create content that speaks directly to your target audience—but too often, businesses neglect this crucial step. As a result, they have no idea who their audience is or how to craft their messaging because they did not take the time to cultivate those relationships.
Still, a lot of brands get it right.
The beauty industry is a great example of how you can use social media to build a community. Like Priyanka says, with so many different beauty influencers out there and so many diverse skin types, ages, and ethnicities, it can be hard to find your niche—but social media can help.
Pay attention to who is following you and how they interact with your brand.
Also look at what other brands and creators are doing for inspiration. And finally, think about the message and the “voice” that you want to put forward. What differentiates your business? What makes you stand out? Who do your products appeal to the most? How can you capitalize on each point to increase awareness and engagement?
The same goes for the fashion industry, Priyanka adds. “You see so many different brands imitating the same design, but you don’t understand where you want to put your foot towards.” Her advice? Try to model what it is that you are creating and what you want people to feel when they are wearing your clothes or using your skin care products.
Paying attention to your competitors is key.
As a business owner, you may think “spying” on your competitors is a big no-no, but in reality it is just another tool to use that will help you understand how you want to position your brand.
Obviously you do not need to copy every little thing they do, but there are likely a lot of brands out there in your same industry that are doing really well, so why not draw inspiration from them?
Adapting what successful businesses are doing to your specific niche and to your audience is a great way of growing and learning. You can test those strategies on your audience and see what may or may not work. For example, if a higher-end cosmetic brand is selling a lipstick for $50 but your target audience is slightly more budget conscious, how can you position your product to better reach those buyers?
By fine-tuning your messaging to engage with that particular audience, says Priyanka, you are building a smaller community for those people—and at the same time upping your own brand value.
Wanting to make a profit is just not enough.
Your paid advertising campaigns need the support of your other marketing channels to build a community of lifetime customers and drive consistent revenue.
By taking a more holistic approach and focusing on top-of-funnel strategies such as social media, you are essentially “warming up” your audience and growing your community. When you are continually engaging, creating content, and sharing new trends, you are staying top of mind so that when your customers are ready to purchase, they come to you.
It is also important to stay connected after the purchase to ensure your customers are happy and let them know you value their feedback. This type of conscientious community building will then increase the likelihood of those customers telling others about your brand.
Avoid using promotional content 100% of the time.
Why? Because this type of thinking primarily attracts one-time purchasers who come for the discount code and never return. You never hear from them again, and they become just another name on your email list until they choose to unsubscribe.
Of course you need promotional content as well as occasional discounts and special offers to entice purchasers, but it is important to remember that you are not selling all the time.
A significant amount of time and energy should be focused on creating connections with your potential buyers and learning how to care for them and meet their needs. Because if you do not focus on relationship building, you can bet your competitors will—and there goes a whole lot of potential new customers.
Build your community, and the paid ad conversions will follow.
The bottom line is that you are building a long-term relationship, one that requires constant attention and engagement.
Going back to the example of a cosmetics company, let us say that you have a favorite face cream, one that you use every day for months and months. You may not be purchasing that face cream every week, but because you cherish it so much, you continue to follow and interact with the brand, consuming their content on a regular basis and (more than likely) recommending that brand to friends and family because you have such a strong relationship with them.
When you look at big names such as Sephora and Ulta, says Priyanka, you will notice that they rarely have some sort of discount going on, but because they have built such a strong following of dedicated consumers, those consumers are always going to be loyal when they need a new product. It has become a lifestyle, meaning their customers will consistently purchase from them whether or not there is a discount code.
And interestingly enough, a lot of those larger brands today are not spending oodles of money on the most extravagant ads. They are taking advantage of user-generated content (UGC) and other low-budget tactics to be as relatable as possible and build that sense of community.
All of this is to say that when the time does come to focus on your bottom-of-funnel marketing strategies (i.e., your paid ad campaigns), the time you spent building those relationships on social media will more than pay off.
