In today’s digital day and age, businesses are all jumping on the bandwagon to market their products and services online.
The digital space is one that presents a plethora of opportunities for corporations and individuals alike, and with the sheer hype that is surrounding digital marketing, you too might want to kickstart your digital marketing journey for your brand.
Coming up with an effective social media marketing strategy is no easy feat, and it’s important to ensure that your resources and efforts don’t go down the drain.
Make sure you read this article till the end, because VIA Media has put together 8 common mistakes businesses make when they engage in social media marketing, and how to avoid them!
Mistake #1: A Lack of Social Media Presence
This first mistake goes without saying. Internet users spend 2 hours and 22 minutes on average on social media.
By ignoring this valuable platform to engage with potential customers, you also lose valuable leads for your business.
Creating multiple social media accounts for your business, be it on Instagram or Facebook, allows for a greater reach and a greater connection with your audience.
With many companies engaging in both Instagram and Facebook Ads, this helps the business to garner increased traction and better engage with their target audience.
Compared to traditional marketing costs, this strategy also incurs lesser costs. Do note that setting up an account is not enough—you also need to regularly update and maintain the account!
Mistake #2: Poor User Design
When a user is redirected to your website from a social media ad, how many clicks does it take for an individual to checkout and purchase your product/service?
Is your website translation-friendly? What about the layout? Is it easy for a user to navigate between differing pages and product listings? Oftentimes we put a great emphasis on the product or service and forget about the user experience and design in the process of purchasing said product or service.
The reality is that the process of browsing, selecting and purchasing is also key in the entire experience of the customer in relation to the brand. Hence, a good user experience is crucial in the process of garnering conversions.
Mistake #3: Poor Handling of Negative Feedback
There are two aspects to note when we handle negative feedback—negative comments as well as complaints via social media messages. As with every corporation, it is normal to receive criticisms and complaints. One mistake that some companies make is deleting or filtering out negative comments.
This can lead to the reputation of a lack of transparency and accountability on the company’s end and can project a dismissive attitude towards the critiques of customers. Instead, redirect the customer to your customer service email or helpline instead, and remember to be courteous and polite in the entire process of interaction.
Remember to reply in a specified time frame—we recommend setting a guideline (EG. T+2 days, where T is the date when you first receive the comment/feedback) as this will help you to remain on track with responding efficiently and effectively.
See these negative feedbacks as an opportunity to convert someone into a follower by handling their negative experiences in a positive manner.
Mistake #4: Unclear Target Audience
Wondering why your strategy doesn’t seem to lead to results? You might be missing your target audience entirely. It is vital for a brand to be able to segment their target audience to be able to ensure that you provide the respective value targeted to the audience segment.
Remember to track your traffic and evaluate if the traffic you are getting is aligned with your intended target audience. Platforms such as Google or Facebook Analytics can be used to review such data. Upon review, you can re-evaluate the placement and where and how your online adverts are displayed.
Mistake #5 Setting Poor Goals
In the process of all social media marketing, businesses fail because they end up setting poor goals. What this means is that their goals might not be realistic, or measurable, resulting in unclear and vague details. It is important that businesses hence set for themselves SMART goals.
- Specific: Goals need to have a clear aim
- Measurable: Goals need to be tracked and measurable, EG. Number of Clicks
- Achievable: Goals need to meet the objectives of the strategy
- Realistic: Goals need to be feasible given existing budgets, resources and time frame
- Time Frame: Goals need to have a clear deadline
If you can set for yourself SMART goals, it should provide you with a clear pathway towards achieving them as well
Mistake #6 Spamming
Are you putting out links to purchase items every other day? Bombarding your clients with links to content and sales can be very overwhelming for your customers.
This can act as a deterrence and can be very off-putting for customers. Questions to ask yourself to evaluate if you’re spamming your customers include: Is it useful? Is it necessary? How frequent are my propositions?
Don’t make interested customers unfollow because they were put off by your spam—they’re already interested in what you have to offer!
Mistake #7 Lack of Personalization
In a sea of mass advertisements and connections aimed at targeting the masses, what might be lacking from your strategy might be a personal touch.
Many companies tend to miss out on this and forget that a personal touch to the mode of communication makes an impact in the customer’s experience with the brand and company.
When sending messages or reaching out to customers via social media platforms, it might help to use the customer’s first name instead of a generic copy-and-paste greeting. The same rule applies for the signing off. This can build loyalty in the long run and build up your customer base.
Mistake #8 Trying to Accomplish Everything Alone
Now, marketing is a multi-faceted strategy that involves multiple skills, perspectives and tasks. You won’t need an army of marketers to ensure that your marketing strategy is successful and effective, but we strongly recommend onboarding 1-3 individuals.
With specialists in the area of digital marketing, you won’t have to do everything alone, and everyone can take on a role and focus on it, ensuring maximisation of resources. Your team is your long-term investment, and it helps to develop and hone it early in the game.
Here at VIA Media, we offer results-driven social media marketing services. With expertise in content creation and distribution, our team of specialists will oversee the brand identity you will be forging through your social media channels.
Our team will handle the following channels on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and many more. Check out our other services below as well!
