Write “social media marketing” on a search engine and get more than 1 billion results.
Among these there are certainly the advice with the best tactics and strategies to achieve striking results.
There are, however, some basic elements that apply to the creation of content, to search engines, to social networks and to the user experience.
Lately I participate in some debates in companies, tedious debates on product and brand, advertising and marketing, investments and results, which are the consequence of great difficulties in understanding the areas necessary to develop the business in a moment of difficulty and crisis.
If there is no clarity in the company about what you want to do and where you want to go, the result will always be two steps forward and three steps backwards. And as time goes by in search of something that is the Holy Grail of marketing, opportunities and opportunities are lost that will be exploited by the competition.
1) You must be the best answer for your customers
- What does your brand do and what does it want to be known about?
- What do your customers really care about? (In a B2C customers are consumers, not retailers …)
- Do you deserve to be known for these things?
Observe the competition and see what it promises and what it provides. Become an authority in your industry, incorporate your winning features into your marketing. Become the first choice among your customers for all the elements that matter most.
2) Search and find contacts and people that influence other people
Selling is always a social act, social networks were not needed to understand it. But it must be understood that social networks have a language and a purpose and search engines have a different language.
The social networks are used to create and involve people on the contents of your brand, not for continuous “Buy!” You need to create actions and links with people on the topics you want to be known about. And if the Facebook algorithm foresees that paid actions amplify the scope of your content, finally put your wallet and pay. Use analysis and control tools, don’t work at random. Build an editorial project.
Pay, measure, check, and restart your cycle.
3) Don’t talk to you
Stop posting the usual topics that only talk about you. It is not a question of pronouns (me, you, us, them …).
Use side topics, descriptive phrases, and well-written titles. Remember that you are writing for people and that you need to optimize their experience with your content. And remember that if you write for people and search engines, your content must be natural, fluid, smooth, and understandable.
Use tools to control what your competition does …
4) Write stories they sell
How and why do your products help solve problems?
Talk to your sales staff and ask them what customers are asking. You will discover stories that are a mine of ideas for presenting your product, a source that can significantly improve your sales process.
5) Optimize for research and sharing
There is a lot of emphasis on the tools to put in the product pages, large images, video and audio.
But we often forget that people look for products and want to find them. If all the shirts are generically called “shirt”, or if the titles are incomprehensible and the descriptions even worse, I challenge anyone to get results.
Mastering the title of the product to capture people’s attention is an art. Most of the so-called “optimization” is simply making it easy for people to do what you want them to do. Finding and sharing content is certainly at the top of the to-do list. Sharing comes after I find what I’m looking for.
6) Links are energy
Don’t underestimate the power of media relations and PR to get into industry publications that can earn you links. Whether through in-depth articles or guest place, you contribute to the creation of quality content.
7) Adapted to search engines
Search engines are companies that have established specific language codes to bring order to the network. They are economic activities and are not mutual aid associations.
For this you have to work with an SEO professional: if you don’t do it, the web becomes an inextricable jungle and the management of your content is a great obstacle, not a positive asset.
8) Optimizing is a continuous process
Optimization is a continuous process of creation, promotion, analysis and verification and continuous questioning for better results.
It is a continuous work, perhaps not fascinating, but not doing it means leaving opportunities for growth and development on the table.
Of course, you also have to put money to do everything, money, time and skills.
And if your organization is going through a difficult period, it is not by cutting these investments that it will improve the situation.
