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Why You Need To Shift To Relationship Marketing In 2022 To Grow Your Sales


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Why You Need To Shift To Relationship Marketing In 2022 To Grow Your Sales


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Why You Need To Shift To Relationship Marketing In 2022 To Grow Your Sales
After sweeping social media privacy changes were enacted in 2021, businesses scrambled to effectively reach new customers while keeping their advertising and marketing costs down. While these shifts were beneficial to the end consumer, they created new customer acquisition challenges for online businesses.

Reese Spykerman, ecommerce marketing consultant at Design by Reese, offers her guidance and advice around specific ways to pivot your marketing in 2022. With over 15 years of expertise in the marketing space and serving hundreds of clients of her own, Reese's advice and guidance are appreciated by many.

Reese Spykerman

Design by Reese
Data collection changes that affected the user's privacy negatively impacted businesses who’d previously used personal tracking data to hyper target relevant ads to consumers. With personalized tracking data gone, the effectiveness of digital ads waned while acquisition costs spiked, leading to increased advertising budgets.

Email campaigns were impacted, too, with privacy changes enacted by Apple in late 2021 that skewed open rate metrics, affecting a business’ ability to easily track and segment which email recipients were most engaged. Add to this a pandemic-fueled influx of new online and e-commerce businesses entering the market in 2020 and 2021, creating even more noise and competition.          

Consumers are tired of being talked to and sold to, and are tuning out, leading to a shift in how and where they spend their money. Increasingly, people are craving more meaningful relationships with whom they choose to invest their money.                

MORE FROM FORBESWhat To Do When Your Life Doesn't Support Your 9-5 And You Need To Create An IncomeBy Melissa Houston
But there is good news. Consumer fatigue and their desire for more authentic relationships can give you a competitive edge. Instead of investing money on ads that are no longer working, you can focus your 2022 marketing efforts on relationship-building initiatives, which have an inherent trust built right into them because people are more likely to trust another person than an ad.               

1.        Leverage B2B relationships
Building relationships with other business owners can naturally lead to doing business together. When a business owner needs your service, you will be the first to come to mind as you have an established connection.    

2.        Customer Referral programs
Your existing customers are some of your best salespeople. Referral programs that reward customers for referring their friends and family to you creates a triple-win situation: your customer wins because they can earn credits, discounts or other incentives to use in your store, the new customer wins because they’ve found a business they can easily trust, and you win because you’ve acquired a new customer in a much warmer way than any ad could achieve and your original customer is likely to invest more with you over time, too.          

MORE FROM FORBESOperation Managers: How They Increase The Profitability In Your BusinessBy Melissa Houston 3.        Affiliate marketing
Leveraging relationships that endorse your product and sell it for a percentage of sales is another great way to increase your reach and client base.  You are getting visibility from another’s audience, and the customers you attract are coming in with less friction and doubt. Essentially you capitalize on borrowed trust with an affiliate endorsing you and your business.

4.        Rewards programs
Remember the days of getting stamps on a card at the coffee shop that earned you a free drink after 10 purchases? Online rewards programs use this same psychology, rewarding customers for their purchases. Reese points to the example of fashion brand Roolee, with its loyalty program that rewards customers for purchases, social media interactions, and leaving reviews. She suggests you can even use loyalty and rewards programs as a way to grow your email list.

The bottom line is that as markets and technology evolve, businesses need to change with them to survive. Customer acquisition can be very costly, but creativity with relationship-based marketing efforts will help you stay ahead in the game and potentially even increase the lifetime value of your customers. Gone are the days of relying on ads alone to acquire new customers, and re-aligning your marketing efforts to maximize trust and increase loyalty will give your business a financial edge.

MORE FROM FORBESWhy Every Small Business Needs Internal ControlsBy Melissa Houston
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Top 2022 Marketing Trend Predictions from an 11-Year Pro
This time of year small business owners are doing one of two things: trying to keep up with holiday orders or checking out to focus on family time through the holidays. Don’t get me wrong, there isn’t anything wrong with either of those options - but I recommend a different approach, planning your 2022 marketing (if you haven’t already).

A new year is a great time to reset both personally and professionally - to reflect on what’s working and what can be optimized for the future. In that spirit, I spent time reviewing  some of the biggest marketing takeaways for 2021 to springboard into 2022 with these Top 2022 Marketing Trends.

Short form video - it’s here to stay! I really really mean it. While long-form content has a place and purpose, short-form video content saw a significant jump in 2021 with the prominence of things like Instagram Reels and TikTok. I don’t see short-form video content slowing down for 2022….in fact, I predict it will become even more prevalent to help brands, influencers and the everyday social media user share their content.
Email & text message marketing will be keys for leads. Yes, omnichannel marketing is still a strong way to run your small business marketing, but SMS (text) messaging is on the rise and contrary to some haters, email marketing isn’t going anywhere… A 2020 report projected global spending at $83 billion by 2024 (for context, it was at just $57 billion in 2015). We’re seeing the rise of SMS marketing tools like Community and entrepreneurs and influencers leveraging text messaging to compliment their email lists to provide exclusive value and offers to communicate direct with their community. Big name brand leaders including GaryVee, to influencers and even small businesses are starting to embrace the text trend with incredible results (over 90% engagement rates in many cases!) The personal connection that channels like email and text messaging create are a big bonus for brands trying to survive past vanity social media followers. P.S. Friendly reminder you don’t own your social media...you DO own your list and should nurture it.
Voice-only (audio) content will become more prominent. 2021 saw the flock of users back to audio with platforms like Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces and of course more podcasts coming to life to build authority and establish individuals as thought leaders on specific topics. I anticipate in 2022 we’ll continue to see users continue to adopt audio-only methods of connection in anticipation of the continued burnout from Zooming all over the world. 
Scalable content creation strategies. We're already seeing brands do more with less, leveraging one video, one blog post or one podcast interview to create 10, 13, 44 or more pieces of content across social media and other platforms. This kind of method will help businesses of all sizes show up more effortlessly, making the most of their content and creating personalized content that aligns with their ideal target customer and how they want to interact. With content that scales we can turn one blog post into 5 social media posts, 5 text messages, 3 videos and 3+ email marketing campaigns. Repetition is a powerful tool to help your business stay top of mind and creative content producers will leverage this even more in 2022.
Rise of alternate paid advertising methods. With 2021 brought the introduction of iOS14 and the departure of a truly personalized ads experience (in some cases). Rising costs on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and even Google for ads space are making these “traditional” digital marketing methods less and less competitive for small to midsize businesses. Meaning alternative paid advertising methods have started to rise. Enter Pinterest, and audio-forward platforms like AudioGo, TikTok and other diverse digital advertising methods to help small businesses stay top of mind.
Nurture flows and automation will go mainstream. We’re seeing automation begin to be adopted by small businesses with all the chatter on funnels and lead magnets, but I anticipate 2022 will be a year where nurture flows and automation go even more mainstream. Tools like Zapier, Dubsado* and Automate.io make it quite easy and cost effective for small businesses to access automation tools, and with the rising costs of labor, supplies and shipping, I anticipate more and more small businesses will turn to automation to keep their businesses running as smoothly (and efficiently) as possible in 2022.
The evolution of the personal brand. Gone are the days where having a solid business brand is enough. We’re seeing the rise of personal branding for entrepreneurs with the prominence of social media and that personal look at the human can have a big business impact. I don’t anticipate the importance of personal branding to stop, instead I expect this to rise to the next level in 2022. With entrepreneurs leveraging their personal brands to connect with their audience even more whether it is a new NFT project, an audio-interview or more
Note: Items noted with an * contain an affiliate link and we may receive a small commission for any purchases made through those links.

DID YOUR 2022 MARKETING PREDICTION MAKE THE LIST? LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW TO JOIN THE CONVERSATION.
A version of this article originally appeared on the RielDeal Marketing Blog

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Affiliate Marketing Is Still Strong in 2021
Affiliate marketing has been around for quite a while, and businesses are starting to appreciate its benefits more and more. 

This type of marketing helps companies market a product using a low budget, investing little time and effort, and getting a high return on investment, while also increasing brand awareness.

Spending on affiliate marketing has been growing by about 10% every year in the last decade, and it is projected to reach $8.2 billion in 2022. 

Different Types of Affiliate Marketing Channels
First and foremost – what is affiliate marketing? In short, affiliate marketing is a strategy that can come to life in many different ways. Let’s go over some of the most common channels you can use to make money as a third-party advertiser:

Influencer Marketing
Influencers are individuals who have the power to impact the buying habits of a significant number of people, and that makes them ideal candidates for successful campaigns. They already have a large follower base, and all they need to do is direct the consumers to the seller’s products using their blog or one or more social media platforms.

Blogging
Since successful bloggers have the ability to rank organically on search engines, they can also excel when it comes to increasing the sellers’ conversions. The blogger will try out the product or service, write a review that promotes it, and send the traffic to the seller’s website. Whenever the campaign results in sales,  the blogger is rewarded for the effort.

Email Lists
Email marketing is another viable source of income. Many advertisers rely on email lists that they use for the sake of promoting the sellers’ products, while others rely on email newsletters that contain hyperlinks to different products that enable them to earn commission after the consumers click on it and buy the item or service.

Examples of Industries that Benefit from Affiliate Marketing
Although this advertising strategy can be embraced by almost all types of businesses, there are some industries that stand out when it comes to its benefits:

Online Casinos
Promoting casinos is tricky in most countries, but affiliate marketing has proven to be the most effective strategy, and while casinos benefit greatly from this practice, active advertisers also get a solid percentage of stable income each month in return. 

This form of marketing has been so valuable that many companies found some great solutions to track and monitor the success of their marketing campaigns. For example, GiG Comply compliance software is one of the tools that can help you, as a casino provider, manage and monitor the marketing efforts of your affiliates in a simple way. With services like this, affiliate to casino cooperation works more smoothly, and benefits are seen much more clearly for both sides.

E-Commerce Brands
A total of 81% of brands include affiliate marketing in their advertising strategies. Ecommerce companies rely on this form of advertising because it helps them increase their reach faster and with more consistency. It also enables them to distribute their message to a much wider audience online than they normally would. Another attractive component of the system is the fact that brands only pay their partners after the sale has been made. 

Coupon Sites
Coupon sites typically promote voucher codes and other special offers on their websites, as well as in targeted newsletters that they send out to consumers. Although such websites have been successful advertisers on their own, recently they started expanding their strategies to include influencer collaborations and in-app targeting campaigns.

The Benefits of Being an Affiliate Marketer
Now that you know what niches support affiliate strategies, you can learn more about why being an affiliate marketer pays off:

Passive Income
It gives you a chance to make money while you sleep, instead of having to be at work in order to get paid. If you invest some time and effort in a campaign, you will see repeated returns as consumers continue to buy the product or service. You will enjoy the amazing perk of receiving money for your work long after you’ve completed it.

It is Cost-Effective
Most ways to make money online involve startup fees and a certain amount of cash flow that will keep the business going in the initial stages. On the other hand, affiliate marketing can be set up quickly and be operated at a very low cost. Starting it is pretty straightforward – there are no program fees, and no need to create and manage products.

The Rewards Are Performance-Based
While traditional jobs can even get you to work extra hours and still get the same amount of money at the end of the month, here the earnings are based on your performance and effort. You will be rewarded for the work you put in. If you perfect your reviewing skills and take time to create engaging campaigns, it will result in improvements in your revenue.

Affiliate marketing is quickly working its way to becoming one of the main aspects of many advertising strategies, mostly because of the high return that comes with it. 

As the market continues to develop, the benefits of this form of advertising are becoming more apparent to businesses of all sizes, and we can expect to see a rise in companies and marketers involved in it.
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15 Complementary Efforts To Boost Social Media Advertising


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 15 Complementary Efforts To Boost Social Media Advertising 



1        Most companies these days are using social media to connect with consumers and market their products and services. Advertising on the biggest social media platforms has become table stakes for brands, as it has been shown to be a highly effective way of reaching prospective customers and tempting them into the marketing funnel, where they can be further nurtured toward conversion. When utilizing multiple marketing channels, coordinating strategies across channels to ensure both cohesive messaging and a healthy return on investment is key. To make the most of a social media advertising campaign, complementary efforts can boost the reach and overall effectiveness of ads, and the experts of Forbes Agency Council share 15 of these supportive tactics below. Forbes Agency Council members share ways marketers and advertisers can leverage AI in 2022. Photos courtesy of the individual members. 1. Take An Omnichannel Approach And Diversify Ad Platforms An effective marketing strategy takes an omnichannel approach, which means you can’t just throw ad spend into social media advertising and expect stellar results. By diversifying the ad platforms used, you will ultimately increase the overall reach of your social campaign and drive better conversion rates. So, take that social campaign messaging and expand it to print, blog posts, Google ads and/or outdoor signage. - Thomas Morganelli, Centipede Digital 2. Run Targeted Video Ads Before Ads Linked To The Sales Page Before you go straight for the ads linked to the sales page, try creating video content that speaks to the problems of your ideal client. Run targeted video ads to grow your audience and drive traffic from organic social media and email. Then, make a lookalike audience out of this warm traffic to run complementary sales ads that show you have a comprehensive solution. This warms up your audience faster. - Kami Watson Huyse, Zoetica 3. Personalize The Tone And Messaging For Each Channel’s Audience Personalizing the tone and messaging for the specific audience on each channel is important. Using branded hashtags (especially industry-specific hashtags) also helps boost a campaign’s reach and gets your message in front of your target audience. Engaging with your audience and other industry thought leaders can also enhance the effectiveness of your campaign and strengthen a brand’s public image. - Scott Miraglia, Elevation Marketing 4. Take The Time To Create Custom Graphics Creating custom graphics can help your ads stand out from those of your competitors. Social media can become overwhelming, so instead of using typical stock images, take the time to create eye-catching graphics. Viewers will quickly learn more about your services, which provides a more memorable experience. - Hannah Trivette, NUVEW Web Solutions Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify? 5. Boost Engagement And Conversion Rates With Chatbots Chatbots are a fantastic way to build integrations that can drastically boost your engagement and conversion rates directly into your social media platforms. The best way to throw gasoline on the fire with this approach is through social ad spend. Even better, rather than spend traditionally for an ad placed on Facebook or Instagram, you can put boosting dollars behind this effort and reach a solid audience in a unique way. - Christopher Tompkins, The Go! Agency 6. Run An Analysis Campaign To Ensure Consistent Branding And Messaging One of the best ways to get the most out of your social media ads is to run an analysis campaign that looks at all of the campaigns out there to make sure that the branding and the messaging is consistent across all platforms. One of the main reasons that this is so valuable is that if you are working on establishing branding, there will always be an issue when it is not consistent. - Jon James, Ignited Results 7. Create Awesome On-Site Content If the goal of a social media campaign is to get people back to your company website, ensure that you have great on-site content for them to read once they get there. It’s important that the on-site content aligns with what they read on your social media platforms so that it feels cohesive and so that there is a clear call to action. - Kelsey Raymond, Influence & Co. 8. Use Data To Drive Personalized Remarketing Data-driven, personalized remarketing is a time-tested approach to maximizing results. Similar to how you would approach a one-on-one interaction, it’s essential to understand where your prospects sit in the customer journey and cater to them accordingly. To accelerate conversions, companies can offer click-worthy incentives based on their product or service markups. - Cam Wilkie, func.media 9. Make It Easy For Customers To Enjoy One of the best parts about social media is the interaction that you get with your customers. When you launch a new campaign, see what your customers are saying about it and make sure to interact with them, especially if they have questions. Also, creating a landing page that is easy to navigate will go a long way toward converting clicks into sales. - Jason Hall, FiveChannels Marketing 10. Build Personalized Landing Pages Customization is the key to reaching customers and driving conversions. Building personalized landing pages with stellar content is an effective way to enhance a social media campaign’s message and encourage visitors to convert. Depending on your industry and budget, an integrated marketing approach could also complement reach. - Marc Hardgrove, The HOTH 11. Employ Other Methods Besides Pushes To Lead Forms Incorporating helpful content campaigns to drip-feed assistance to the customer in making their purchase decision, rather than just blasting them everywhere they go, builds trust in your brand. Incorporate polls, games, real-world interactions and, most of all, peer reassurance via reviews or real-world stories of people using your product or service. - Loren Baker, Foundation Digital 12. Let The Promotion Calendar Drive The Content Calendar The promotion calendar drives the content calendar. It should be micro-focused on day parts, soft-revenue spots, problem markets/fortress markets and traffic patterns. Your content calendar flows from the details. Running around to finish a last-minute TikTok video is not marketing, it’s tasking. Get a strategy, then get social. - Matt Wilson, Eastport Holdings 13. Engage With Customers Who Offer Praise Or Positive Exposure  Do not undervalue the importance of positive reinforcement. Engaging with customers who offer praise or positive exposure for your brand requires little more than a response or acknowledgment of their time, but it will go a long way in terms of boosting reach and establishing a positive brand perception. - Donna Robinson, Collective Measures 14. Create A Competition That Lets Followers Be Seen Social media runs on vanity, and followers produce free advertising. Let your followers be seen by creating a competition or another way for your audience to share a story or photo. Even B2B companies want their name shared in a post. Offer a chance to be a “spotlight business” for community service or other noteworthy achievement. In turn, the winners will share the post and promote your business. - Peter Boyd, PaperStreet Web Design 15. Separate Your Campaigns Between New Audiences And Remarketing Audiences We’ve all had the experience of scrolling through our social media feed and seeing an ad featuring that shirt or pair of shoes we were just looking at on another website an hour ago. Being programmatic with your advertising and speaking to the direct interests of your audience is a surefire way to entice customers to convert at higher levels. - Bernard May, National Positions


Social Media Marketing


5 Ways to Use Videos in Your Social Media Marketing Strategy For Your Business 


This is the twenty-first-century era, and videos have gained a strong spot for creating content. Creating animated and explanatory videos, video search, online video editor, creating content for your promotion, marketing, or advertisements is no more about just audios or long walls of texts. Most of the population is encouraging and, at the same time, cherishing the crisp, informative, and interesting structures of video content. This is where the importance of using video content in your social media marketing strategy comes into the picture. Why are Video Content Enhancing Social Media Strategies? Videos offer story-like content to their audience that also carries a lot of information that is delivered in a short amount of time. People do not have to hyper-focus on particular walls of sentences or listen to the audio for long. Today, social media video content can easily cope with the short attention span of attention that the modern crowd can dedicate to advertising content. Many surveys state that including videos in social media strategies can attract quality traffic, hype-up audience engagement, and lead to purchase after viewing a brand’s advertisement. Besides, well-versed video content can also invite advantages like lead generation, brand awareness, improving SEO, and online engagement. These amazing benefits shall only knock on your door if you can use the videos in the right way in your marketing strategies. Here are some of the tactics readily available for you if you are interested. There are specific and simple aspects that you must keep in mind when you are using videos in your social media marketing. ALSO READ: HOW TO SETUP THE PERFECT SPACE AT HOME FOR YOUR DIY SOCIAL MEDIA VIDEOS Use Editing Tools to Add an Edge to Your Videos Creating and publishing high-quality videos is a must when building your name on social media. Social media platforms are reaching the peak in popularity among different generations of users, high amounts of using time, and brand recognition. This is where the importance of publishing polished video content comes into the picture. Video editing, nowadays, can do much more than just removing unwanted parts and flaws from your content. So, one of the easiest and best ways to add a string edge to your videos is to use simple editing tools. You do not need to invest in expensive editing nowadays. A simple and free online video editor will do the wonder for you. Many amazing online applications will allow you to edit your videos in the best way possible and add a professional touch to them. It is important that you d some research on the video editing tool features that will suit your needs and publish professional videos. Set Specific Video Marketing Goals Before you go for any social media undertaking, setting proper goals is something you must do! You need to be clear about what you want your video to achieve, who the video will target, how it will support the brand promotion, and more. These questions are for you to ask yourself as a contemporary marketer. If you are only starting, it is recommended that you keep your goals short and simple so that you do not become much overwhelmed. This will also help you be realistic with your approaches. One of the simplest and crisp examples of setting a video marketing goal is to create brand awareness. This will help add an edge to your marketing funnel and provide you with a better view of how you will transform your goals into plans. Social Media Video Features Ad Formats As various social platforms are constantly adding new features to their interface, it can be challenging to identify what type of videos can be published. It might also be difficult for you to know when you might require some extra punch of editing. So, it would help if you walked through the interfaces of the social media platforms you will use for your video marketing. Some platforms make landscape videos look at their best, while some demand portrait videos. Some platforms are meant for short video uploads, while some can promote your videos for a long duration. You can also use videos that your audience can live stream on some platforms. Knowing about such aspects will help you use your video content at your best and increase user interest. Pick a Specific Niche For Your Marketing Strategy It would help if you kept in mind that social media is a vast field, and it is very easy to lose your way there as a new marketer. Many people make the mistake of blending up the genres of promotional videos they will use for their marketing strategy. This might allow you to bring light t more information and subjects. However, chances of success are very less if you are a budding marketer in the world of social media. Selecting specific niches will help you get noticed among your audience and rank you high in Google search. This is one of the most significant tactics that social media marketers use while promoting their brands or enhancing their presence online. Choosing a particular genre will also make keyword selection and content creation a lot simpler on your end. It will also cut out any chances of vague information portrayal on your business profile and target the right audiences. Some of the most trending and common niches used for social media marketing platforms are behind-the-scenes, academic, entertainment, interviews, and testimonials. The niche that you will choose completely depends on you and your business needs. So, make sure you save some extra time chalk that one out for best marketing results. ALSO READ: SEO TIPS FOR NEW MARKETERS Using Classic Videos Lastly, improving your social media marketing strategy with classic videos is a marvelous way to take off your goals. But that is not the end of the story. It would be best if you started planning for a slow but steady promotion plan after publishing a few contents. You can use both free and monetary marketing methods to continue the hype and follow up with your achievements. ConclusionSo, these are some of the ways in which you can use videos in the marketing strategy of social media to expand your business. Start following them from today and see the difference these make eventually. ALSO READ: HOW TO CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY FOR YOUR BUSINESS




Top 15 Reasons to Invest in Social Media Marketing 


November 30, 2021 Today, social media platforms are now a crucial part of every marketing strategy. More marketers now see the potential for growth using the platforms. That said, 38 percent of small businesses still do not use social media to promote their brands. The number shows that some companies are still unaware of the benefits of social media. This article outlines the top benefits of investing in social media marketing. After reading, you will discover how using social media platforms can grow your business. 1.Raises Brand Awareness Social media marketing increases brand visibility. By using social media, you increase brand recognition since you engage with a broad audience of consumers. Create social media accounts for your business. Tell business partners, employees, and sponsors to share your page. By doing these steps, you are boosting brand visibility. By having people interact with your page, you will increase brand awareness. You can start building your reputation as a business using your accounts. Every time someone shares your page, more and more people are learning about your brand. The new audience can be potential customers. This is why the more people who know about your brand, the better. With social media marketing, you only need a few hours per week to create social media content. In return, you are boosting brand awareness. 2.Boosts Sales Research shows that social media produces double the leads than other marketing methods. Additionally, the lead-to-close rate is 100 percent higher on social media.  The numbers prove that social media can help improve business sales. With more visibility, your brand gets more opportunities to improve conversion rates. More profits provide your business with a positive cash flow. With this, you can handle business expenses with no stress. 3.Increases Web Traffic Without social media marketing, new customers may not stumble upon your site. The people who know your brand are likely looking up the exact keywords you already rank for. Without social media, you may not reach anyone outside your loyal customer circle. Remember that every piece of online content you post is an opportunity to get a new customer. Social media platforms are a melting pot of different customers. They have different backgrounds and behaviors. They have different ways of thinking and different needs. This is why advertising your content on as many platforms as possible is helpful. Doing this allows you to reach individuals that may need your product. By using social media, you are opening your business to a broader variety of consumers. 4.Improves Search Engine Rankings Sometimes, being active on social media may not be enough to drive business growth. You also need to put effort into  creating content. Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential to secure higher page rankings. SEO can also help drive traffic to your business website. Social media does not affect SEO ranking directly. But, social media can influence SEO in some ways, including: Enhances content sharing Improves visibility of content Boosts brand recognition Enhances brand reputation When more people share your content, it shows that your content is helpful to your target market. Research shows that search engines use vital signals to rank the relevance of your content. These signals include shares, likes, and comments to your content. This means that social media can still affect your brand's SEO marketing efforts. 5.Shares the Story of Your Brand Social media gives you a platform to share your brand’s mission and stories. Effective storytelling can have a significant impact on the image of your business. These stories can be simple or complex, depending on what you believe will move your audience. Tell stories about customers that your product has helped. Share positive feedback from customers to encourage potential buyers. You can use social media to disseminate the message that your product can help customers. 6.Supports Customer Research Social media marketing can help you conduct audience research. Audience (News - Alert) research involves gathering information from a group of customers to gain insights. The process involves looking for the keywords that your target audience will use. But, it is also focused on your specific product or service. You can gather customer feedback through social media. Scroll through your posts on Facebook (News - Alert) and Twitter and see what your customers are saying. 7.Improves Conversion Rates Increased visibility presents your brand with more opportunities for conversion. Every content you share on social media may lead viewers to your website. Using social media gives your business a positive impression through a humanization factor. When you interact with customers on social media, you personify your brand. Customers prefer doing business with other people rather than companies.  The better impression you make online, the more likely they are to be customers. They may think of your brand when the need for your product or services arises. Being active online also makes customers trust the credibility of your business. People use social media to stay connected to other people. Since people are already talking online, why not join the conversations? Doing this can only improve the conversion rates on your existing traffic. 8.Helps Fine-tune Customer Service Developers designed social media as a networking and communication platform. If you use these platforms to connect with customers, they can help humanize your company. Customers will appreciate personalized comments on your posts rather than an automated message. Doing this acknowledges customers and will make them feel seen. This practice demonstrates that you are attentive to your customer's needs. It also shows that you aim to provide the best customer experience. Social media provides you with the opportunity to show your values in a public space. Show that you listen to customers by responding to comments online. Social media allows you to address business matters using interpersonal dialogue. Customers will look at you in a positive way if you show that their needs are essential to you. 9.Makes Marketing Analysis Easier When launching a marketing campaign, you want to track the results to know if they succeed. It is essential to know if a marketing strategy is driving results that can help your business. One benefit of a digital marketing strategy is that it allows you to measure results. While traditional marketing can still be effective, it may be tough to study the results. There is no sure-fire way to track the origin of leads without asking all your customers. With such digital marketing methods as social media marketing, you can prevent this issue. Social media marketing allows you to track the results of your campaign. The same is true for other digital marketing methods, like SEO marketing. For example, you may track your brand's SEO performance with Google (News - Alert) Analytics. You can check various metrics with each marketing campaign. Metrics include impressions, comments,  clicks, shares, conversions, and more. This is why it is easy to measure results when you are marketing on social media platforms. The metrics make it easy for you to know if your campaign is effective. Tracking your results can also help you make campaign improvements. You can identify what is working for your business and what is not. Marketing analysis provides vital insight into your campaign. These can help you see how you can improve your marketing efforts. It is better to know how your campaign is performing while it is still running rather than once it is done. Doing this allows you to save time by adjusting your campaigns rather than starting over. You can save more by improving your strategy as you go instead of trying again and again. By monitoring your performance, you can run better marketing campaigns for your business. 10.Creates Brand Loyalty If you are running a business, one of your goals should be to develop a loyal customer base. When customer satisfaction is there, brand loyalty usually follows. This means that if you want to develop brand loyalty, improving your customer service is a must. Social media is not only limited to the promotion of your brand's products. You can use these platforms to communicate with your customers. Social media marketing promotes the development of bonds between brands and their audiences. 11.Establishes Brand Authority Customer satisfaction and brand loyalty play a role in establishing brand authority. That said, the most crucial factor needed for this element is communication. When consumers go on social media and see your brand, they will view your brand as more credible. That is especially true if you reply to customers and post original content. Talking to customers shows that your brand cares about customer satisfaction. It also tells them that you are willing to answer any questions they might have.  Satisfied customers share great products or services. They may usually turn to social media to show their appreciation. Having customers mention your brand on social media can serve as an advertisement. It can prove brand authority and value to new visitors. That can also mean that actual customers are doing the advertising work for you. 12.Saves Time and Money Social media marketing is a cost-efficient way to advertise your products or services. Creating social media accounts is free for almost all platforms. Paid (News - Alert) promotions are also low-cost compared to other marketing avenues. Social media marketing provides a great return on investment even if you only have a low budget. It also allows you to save for other marketing and business expenses. If you plan to use paid advertising on social media networks, remember to start small. As your comfort level goes up, you can boost your budget and adjust your strategy.  With social media marketing, you can boost conversion rates for only a small amount of time and money. 13.Connects You With Customers Marketing on social media allows you to connect to your customers.  It is also easy to look for your target audience on social media. Algorithms on the platforms group the same people with the same interests together. This feature can make it easy for you to find a lot of new potential customers. Facebook allows users to join communities and groups. Chances are that your target market can be in some of the groups. You only need to find the groups and get involved. Doing this can help you help your audience and promote your product in the process. You can also follow individuals who are active in your industry. If you are promoting video games, you may want to follow popular gamers on social media. If you are promoting clothes, you may follow famous models. If these users like what they see in your company, they may follow you back. 14.Provides Marketplace Insights Social media marketing also gives marketplace insight. Talking to your customers gives you an insight into their thoughts and needs. By looking at the social media accounts of your customers, you will see their interests. You may also discover opinions that you might not know if you do not use social media. Social media as a research tool can help you get data that will help you understand your industry. Then, once you gain a large following, you can use more tools to analyze the consumer demographics.  Another advantage of using social media is the ability to group your content based on the topic. With this feature, you can discover which types of content get the most attention. These tools allow you to measure conversions based on social media posts. The tools help you find the perfect combination for generating revenue. 15.Makes Your Brand a Thought Leader Social media marketing lets you showcase your expertise publicly. Sharing insightful content online can show that you are a leader and an expert in your field. Remember that there is no definite way to become a thought leader. You need to rely on online networking tools to support your credibility. If you wish to put yourself out there as an expert, use social media platforms and build a presence. Try to be communicative and connect with your audience. Consistent uploading of high-quality content promotes your authority. Aligning your social media campaign with other marketing efforts can highlight your skill. Remember that going the extra mile when marketing on social media can pay off. It will make your followers look up to you. Connecting with your audience also creates a relationship that they will value. The connection allows you to become a notable influencer in your industry. These are the reasons why investing in social media marketing is a must. If you want a cost-efficient way to promote your brand, marketing on social media is the solution. Social media marketing comes with several benefits for a business. Consistent uploads and high-quality content can make your brand popular in no time. 

Malik Umeed Awan