Facebook’s favorability has fallen 28 points from 61% to 48% in the five months to March 2018, according to a poll by Axios. Twitter also experienced a fall.
In this environment, being smart about your use of social media advertising is all the more important.
After your last ad campaign, are you still not seeing the conversions that you were hoping to? Don’t throw good money after bad. Try using these 10 ways to boost conversions through social media marketing.
1. Do Your Social Media Advertising Homework
Don’t assume you will get maximum reach with any social media advertising. Facebook advertising has been the go-to platform for many, but you can no longer assume it’s right for you. There are alternatives.
Check out Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn. Even SlideShare could be right for you. Research the reach and price differentials of alternative platforms. Check out the advantages and disadvantages for you of each option.
2. Share and Share Again
If you’re creating content and sharing it that’s good but why not share it again? If the content is quality material, you can get more value from it by sharing another link to it. The key is not to do it in the same way as you did the first time.
If the first time you shared the article you used a quote from it, next time use a summary on what it is about. On a further occasion use a question to stimulate interest.
3. Make Some Noise
Are you using audio as part of your social media marketing? The technology is not out of your reach. It just takes recording and editing software as well as a microphone.
The problematic bit is developing the content and style. What’s your message? What style communicates with your audience?
Options include interviews, presentations, and panel discussions. Make it engaging and accessible. Decide where to have your audio content hosted.
4. Use Infographics
Don’t you just love infographics? They communicate content in such a concise and impactful package. They’re easy to read and share too.
It’s important to get the design right. It takes visual flair and some technique to make an infographic work but when it does, it can be powerful. Remember to incorporate your company branding, logo, and URL.
Create links to other content on your site. Ask anybody who shares your infographic to create a link back to your site. You will get more traffic.
5. Customize for Each Social Media Platform
Not all platforms as the same. Your posts need to reflect this. Work to their strengths and make adjustments to allow for their characteristics.
Twitter’s character limits are an obvious constraint. But did you know that there are 150% higher retweets for posts with an image? Working to Twitter’s strengths means including pictures or infographics if you want retweets.
6. Do Keyword Analysis
You might be aware that having keywords in your articles is useful. Are you using the right keywords? It’s not what you think are the keywords that matter; it’s what people are using to search that’s important.
Base your keyword selection on research. Use Google AdWords to find keywords and get ideas that will connect you to your target audience. Incorporate these keywords into your articles or blog.
7. Monitor Performance
Use some tools like Google Analytics to check whether your social media advertising benefits you or is just wasted effort. Track shares and content to see what you should stop, keep or change.
Don’t just analyze what worked but also seek to understand when and where it worked. Understand where, when and how you are being visited. Support your successes and stop throwing good money after bad.
8. See Yourself as Others See You
Try experiencing your service from the customer’s point of view. Try looking at your content from your customer’s or user’s perspective. This will give you insights that may inform your thinking in future.
Try reading some content and then following one of your links. Does it deliver what you expected? If it feels more like a clumsy and unhelpful link inserted by a tired content creator, rework it.
9. Hit them with a Powerful Headline
Getting attention is difficult with many marketers struggling for the same pool on social media. All that content and messaging competing to grab a few moments of your time. What really makes the difference is the headline.
Golfers probably spend much more time practicing with the driver than they do with the putter. This is crazy because they are almost guaranteed to use the putter every hole. Everybody reads your headline so it’s worth getting just right.
Think creatively, be impactful and stick a number in there. It’ll grab attention and motivate the reader to continue reading or clicking through. Don’t waste your time on creating brilliant content if you don’t spend time headlining it effectively.
10. Blog On
Blogging provides many options for communicating with your audience. Don’t limit yourself to your regular longer posts. They’re fine for your blog page, but there are other options to consider.
Try Instagram as a vehicle for microblogs. Make it short, visual and engaging. Twitter also provides you with a microblog challenge where an immediate impact is everything.
Focus on how to increase conversion rate so blogs have a purpose. It’s not enough to create content only your mom reads. Give the reader a reason to connect with you and convert to a user, buyer, visitor or whatever your purpose is.
Always New Things to Try
Advertising using social media has developed into a complex art form but it’s not a dark art. Get the fundamentals right. Understand your audience, consistently target them and learn from your analysis of performance.
Continuous learning, as in life, pays dividends. Without it, social media advertising can be a money pit where you spend money for little return. Learn and see your return on investment increase.
For more social media advertising tips, read this blog of how to generate traffic from Facebook.