So you’ve got a business. And your business has a product. Your product is great. But nobody knows it yet. That’s a problem. Let’s do something about it.
You’ve probably heard of big-name companies using sites like Facebook to launch ‘social media marketing campaigns’, but you might never have actually tried to pitch your company/product on this platform. Well, to get you started, let’s cover some general tips, strategies, and things to keep in mind when launching your online marketing presence.
Beardowear is a great example of a small company successfully marketing its products using social media, so I’ll be referencing them throughout the post.
Social media is all about posting content to your followers/subscribers. A successful social marketing program will generate not only a large number of followers, but also a large amount of follower activity and engagement. The way you achieve this is by posting regular content that isn’t spammy or convoluted.
If every one of your posts are little more than ‘buy our product’, there’s no real reason for anyone subscribe to your feed of spam. At the other end of the spectrum, if your posts are too technical and obfuscated, you’re going to end up boring or confusing your customers which will hurt your social presence as well. You need to find the middle ground. Your regular updates don’t necessarily have to contain ‘useful’ information, but it should always be both relevant to your product, and to your audience.
In terms of product presentation; play to the strengths of your product when making your social media posts. For example, consider The Beardo. The most obvious factor contributing to the popularity of the product itself is the aesthetic appeal of its namesake. Nearly every post the company makes on their Facebook page is accompanied by an image of someone wearing the clever and humorous headgear. The physical imagery of the project is the most recognizable selling point, and they feature it prominently in their posts. In fact it’s so important to the product that the company even has an Instagram account for its fans to follow.
One of the most important keys to building a strong community of subscribers and customers is to engage with your audience directly. And social media services make this incredibly easy! Create polls, engage directly in conversation with your community, and present relevant topics and opinions for discussion. By forming a relationship, this direct interaction is a great way for a business to build trust and loyalty with its customers.
Listen to what your followers have to say about you and your product, and consider the community’s response to your updates. This can give you valuable insight into who is using your product, where, and for what, what they like about it, what they don’t like about it, and whether or not they’re sharing your content with others.
Hearing your followers’ comments on your product is also a fantastic way for you to improve it over time. Not only that, taking into consideration the response from the community as a whole can help businesses to design new products that are of interest to their market, or to come up with modifications for existing products that better suit the needs of the audience. Adding new products like this to your inventory is very ambitious, but for rapidly expanding businesses it can be a great way to improve customer loyalty, and expand market reach. Beardowear’s target audience is comprised mainly of skiers and snowboarders (and other wintersport enthusiasts). People love to drink and party on ski trips; keeping this audience in mind, Beardowear introduced the Beermo Bottle Moustache, a largely useless but nonetheless entertaining accessory which has shown very positive feedback from their community.