Improving a fruitless business or starting a new one demands strategies that go beyond pamphlets and flyers.
Marketing is a key aspect of any successful field of work, and nowadays, the possibilities for developing an effectual advertising tactic are endless.
Also, a vast number of them imply digitalization.
Whichever niche you belong to, your audience spends its time online, and that’s exactly where you should reach them. In order to make your business a client-oriented one, you’ll need to know precisely what your target audience is; luckily, social media offers plenty of opportunities for pushing your message towards its goal.
Now, when you decide to make this step and advertise your business via social networks, the first thing you should do is analyse their demographic, and compare and match the obtained statistics with your own agenda.
It’s important to know which audience is more likely to be interested in your services and products, and focus on them.
That way, not only that your sales will increase, but you’ll gain an army of devoted followers that will, in time, function as advocates for you brand, promoting it even further.
When it comes to social network ranking, Facebook is still high on top, with around 70% of the adult population and 60% of the entire population logging in every day.
With both genders equally present, and a more or less similar number of users from every social group, this platform is going strong, and therefore, provides many chances for advertising.
As expected, age differences are more significant, and those between 18 and 30 years of age are in the lead.
With an audience so wide, Facebook still looks like the best option for developing a marketing strategy; there are, of course, several ways of doing so.
Also, this network is smarter than you might think – it holds partnerships with leading data brokers, which allows it to basically know it all.
By purchasing Facebook Advertising subcategories, you can explore the purchasing behaviour among the network’s users. Facebook Custom Audiences is another option you should choose, since it allows you to create a Facebook list of your existing contacts, and then find their lookalikes outside your base.
Ultimately, Facebook’s layered targeting options are the best on the web, with numerous combinations of data included.
Now, Twitter falls a little behind its main rival, but it’s growing rapidly. Statistics show that around 30% of internet users spend their time on this network, with its target audience under 50, and mainly college-educated. Consequently, the market here is narrower than on Facebook, but that doesn’t mean that Twitter doesn’t have its advertising advantages.
Digital marketing is all about quality content, and in the Twitter community, the content is more likely to become more popular, thanks to its retweeting-based concept.
Over here, you can target your audience through interest, keyword or follower criteria, gradually narrowing down the sales funnel. Marketing, as well as remarketing possibilities are great with the help of the Tailored Audience option, which permits you to target those who were already engaged with your content.
You can always promote your brand to a wider clientele interested in your niche, and then put your focus to high-value users, using the audience targeting categories this network provides.
Among other social networks, Pinterest is a unique phenomenon. There are, of course, other image-oriented platforms, but not one gets the attention that Pinterest has.
Same as Twitter, Pinterest attracts approximately 30% of the entire internet population, but there’s a catch – the users of this network are predominantly young women.
Consequently, Pinterest is brilliant for advertising fashion, food, arts and crafts, interior design and family-oriented content.
To be perfectly clear, if you are in any other type of business, Pinterest is not such a welcoming place.
For those who are not, this network is a fishing pond – recent statistics showcase that 70% of users log into Pinterest on a daily basis to search for inspiration on what to purchase (you can compare that with Facebook’s 17%)! Therefore, a brand/marketing strategy developed through this platform will almost certainly lure fresh buyers.
All you need is an appealing visual expression and an interesting capture to lead buyers to your website.
Another thing you should take into consideration is the fact that Pinterest occupies time; you’ll probably need a whole team of employees dedicated solely to optimizing your marketing strategy by creating images and pinning them.
Currently, these social network platforms dominate the field. Each of them has something different to offer and, therefore, appeal to a different kind of audience.
Being a venue that connects professionals, LinkedIn is the most exclusive among them. Its users cover less than 30% of the internet community, but this network guarantees an army of millions of entrepreneurs and executives you can target in order to make business-to-business proposals.
Similar to Facebook and Twitter, the network offers many options for optimizing your search, and improving your marketing campaign. Since you already know what kind of demographic LinkedIn represents, everything you need to do in order to reach your wanted clientele is to target them through categories like location, job title and skills. The first one is valuable if your work is not suitable for worldwide distribution, while the other two serve as a method of finding the exact business profile you need.
That way, you can push your ad to financial directors or accounting managers or, if your target is based on skills, you can focus on global delivery or solution architecture. Combine all the options for perfect results.
With all the possibilities the Internet provides in the field of advertising, your chances for dominating the market are endless. Do you research, weigh your options, and stay active. Social media are fast and require attention, so don’t neglect them. With a smart strategy and continuous effort, there are absolutely no boundaries.
The author is highly qualified and writes blog posts weekly.
