Year: 2021

In a world of technological advancement and innovation, social media has presented us with various opportunities and means to communicate and share content easily, effectively, quickly, and in real-time. As a brand marketer, social media is one thing you cannot overlook no matter how big or small your business is. If you are looking forward to excelling as a marketer on social media, then this is the ultimate guide to social media marketing.

Many social media networks have evolved over the years and provided platforms for marketers to reach out and connect with billions of social media users across the globe. Therefore, your ability to excel as a marketer on social media will push your brand and expand your market.

Top Social Media Networks

Some of the top social media networks in the world boast millions of active users which gives marketers a platform to speak to a wide range of users right on their mobile phones or computers. Some of the most common and most used social media platforms include Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, etc.

As a brand marketer on social media, you have to consider your brand and product as well as the type of people you intend to communicate with before choosing to market on a specific social media platform to ensure that your effort will most likely generate positive results.

• Facebook

Facebook which is considered as one of the pioneers of social networking has one of the biggest number of users reaching up to 2.7 billion active users. One thing about Facebook is that it has a cosmopolitan community which gives marketers the opportunity to connect with a wide range of people from entrepreneurs to the average consumer.

• Instagram

Instagram is one of the best places to build a brand and promote your products. It offers various features that are just great for marketing. Instagram Stories and IGTV are great means of promoting your business through visual content.

• LinkedIn

LinkedIn has become one of the most effective platforms where budding entrepreneurs and business professionals can communicate and connect with potential clients as well as carry out business-to-business marketing. If your priority as a marketer is to communicate with entrepreneurs, then the right choice for you will be LinkedIn as compared to platforms like TikTok.

• TikTok

TikTok is mostly seen by most marketers as just an entertainment website with fewer opportunities. However, if used correctly, you will find out that TikTok is not just a platform for teenagers to entertain themselves. Various brands advertise on this platform if their target audience is below 30-years-old. Yet, TikTok might not work for every business so it is up to you to ascertain whether your target audience can be found on this platform.

Social Media Marketing Tools

Though the existence of many social media platforms presents marketers with many avenues to promote their businesses, it’s not quite easy to do so. Having to interact with the community is not always an easy task. As a social media marketer, you have to constantly create and share great content that will make your audience want to buy your product as well as gain new followers.

To streamline this process and make social media marketing easier, a ton of marketing tools are being developed to increase productivity and effectiveness. Each social media platform comes with its unique features, rules, and requirements and as such, each tool is designed to perform one single or a group of related tasks from content creation, automation, analysis, etc. on that specific platform.

Content Creation Tools

It is much easier to communicate using visuals as compared to other formats through which information can be shared. Using photos and videos enables you to create a mark and stay in the minds of people. It is also very necessary to be up to date with current trends to be able to keep up with the never-ending competition in business.

This is where content creation tools come in. Most content creation tools like Canva come with very intuitive menus that enable even less experienced marketers to create attractive visual content to grasp the attention of users on the social network.

Scheduling Tools

As a social media marketer, you are likely to have several social media accounts on various social networks each demanding your presence and attention at all times.

Scheduling tools like Buffer enable users to schedule posts in advance, taking away the hassle of having to switch from one platform to another to post or share content with the community.

Automation Tools

Social media automation simply deals with the automation of the day-to-day activities of your brand on social media. As simple as it might sound, it is one critical aspect of social media marketing you don’t want to mess with. When done correctly, social media automation can give you more time to perform other equally important tasks like strategizing and developing ad campaigns.

For instance, an automation tool like AgoraPulse can help you make posts, share content and interact with your followers on the network even in your absence though it’s highly advisable to step in from time to time.

Analytics Tools

The only reason why you would put effort and resources into social media marketing or any other business in the first place is to see results. These results can enable you to make informed decisions to help build your business. Social media analytics tools help in keeping track and measuring the results of your efforts to better understand what works with which customer or platform.

There are a ton of analytic tools that you can use to measure the effects of your efforts on social media like Google Analytics and Ubermetrics.

Social Media Proxies

Over the years, many social media platforms have made huge investments into making their platform user-friendly for the average user, striving to make them want to utilize their network day in and day out. This is good in a way, but to a social media marketer some of these measures might turn out to make the work a lot more difficult than it is supposed to be. Instagram and Facebook for instance spend millions of dollars to develop algorithms to detect and ban accounts they deem suspicious or going against community rules.

Usually, an IP address will be flagged and banned when it is detected to be used by multiple accounts on the network. How? Once you log into the platform, your IP address is recognized and therefore it becomes suspicious if multiple accounts continue to log in with the same IP address.

Luckily, social media proxies can help you deal with most of these issues. Proxies offer users anonymity and help them go around most IP limitations. Residential and mobile proxies are the best in this regard, as datacenter proxies are easier to spot and ban because they are mostly registered to an organization. Social media proxies can also be used in combination with an automation tool or social media bot to make your work easier and much more effective.

Conclusion

Social media is a great place to build and expand your brand to attract more followers and generate leads. However, it takes the right tools to make social media marketing successful. As a marketer, you have to consider your products or brand as well as the type of people you intend to communicate with before selecting or deciding to market on a specific social media platform.

If you have more than one account as a marketer, I recommend that you get your hands on an automation tool to streamline your day-to-day activities, as well as the right type of social media proxies to prevent your accounts from getting banned. Always remember that no matter how big or small your business or brand is, social media marketing is something you cannot look down on and this is the ultimate guide to social media marketing that will help you achieve that dream.

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A unique selling point (USP) sets you apart from your competitors and gives people a reason to do business with you. It’s a winning differentiator that makes you the stand-out option.

In this post, we’re going to uncover why a defined USP is key to success, how to create one, and how you can use social proof to make your USP even more compelling and impactful.

What’s a USP?

A unique selling point, sometimes called a unique selling proposition, is a short statement that tells the world why your company is different and better than your competitors. The most effective USPs are memorable, concise, and showcase the unique value that your customers can only get if they buy from you.

Some of the world’s most well-known brands have built their success on the back of a strong USP.

FedEx – “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.”

The FedEx USP showcases two benefits in a short and snappy slogan. You know your package will be delivered, and it will get there fast. When FedEx started using the USP in the early 70s, it had a fleet of 20 aircraft. Today, FedEx has the 4th largest fleet globally, generating over $79 billion in revenue in 2020.

Domino’s – “You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less, or it’s free.”

Domino’s famous USP was developed on a key understanding of the value it offers. Domino’s is not just a company that makes pizzas. It’s a pizza delivery company.

Its customers want reliability and speed. The USP highlights both of these benefits in a memorable and explicit guarantee. When Domino’s introduced the USP in 1979, it had 287 stores globally. When Domino’s changed the USP in 1989, the number of stores had increased to over 5,000.

Why Do You Need a USP

Creating a USP is one of the most important steps in growing your business. It underpins all your marketing and sales initiatives and is key to positioning your brand in the market.

Differentiators

A clear USP shows how your brand is different and why your potential customers should choose you when making a purchase. Without a USP, choosing between different products and services becomes arbitrary, and the lowest-priced product usually gets the sale.

Customer Loyalty

When you deliver on the value you promise in your USP, you increase the chances of a customer buying from you again. Each time you deliver on the USP, the positive experience strengthens customer retention, encourages brand advocacy, and inspires positive word of mouth.

Alignment

A strong USP is a foundation for your marketing and sales initiatives. It shows that you believe in your product or service. This makes it easier for your sales team to highlight your value and provides a framework for your marketing team to ensure consistent messaging across your digital campaigns and channels. 

Define Your USP

We’ve covered why a USP is so important. But how do you create one?

Market research is a vital first step. You can only create a winning differentiator when you know the value you provide and what your competitors offer.

We can break down market research into two categories:

1.   Internal

What Value Do You Provide?

Step into your customers’ shoes and think about how your product or service helps them overcome the challenges they face.

The value you provide comes from the benefits that your customers get by purchasing from you. Create a list of the top five benefits you provide and why your solutions are important to your customers.

What Makes You Different?

What can you offer that your customers can’t get elsewhere?

Make a list of the things that make you different from your competitors. Your product may be more reliable, cheaper, or have more features. If you make your products from sustainable materials, you can highlight your environmental credentials as a key differentiator.

It’s not just the features of your product or service. A differentiator can be anything from customer service and price point to innovation and branding.

2.   External

What Are Your Competitors Not Offering?

You can’t highlight how your business is different if you don’t know what’s already out there. Make a list of your competitors, their USPs, and how they position themselves in the market.

Is there a gap you can target that your competitors are failing to meet?

Take a deep dive into your competitors and how they are perceived by your potential customers. You may find that a competitor positions their product or service as the most reliable but fails to fulfill that promise. If you can better meet those needs, you can position your company as a more attractive option.

What Are Your Customers’ Pain Points?

People don’t buy products and services. They buy solutions to problems.

You need a deep understanding of your customers and the problems they want to solve. Pain points are the symptoms of those problems, and they can be a good starting point for your USP.

How does your product solve a problem and improve the lives of your customers?

By highlighting a pain point in your USP, you can show how you understand your customers’ needs and how your product or service offers a solution.

For a more detailed guide on creating a USP, check out our post 8 Steps Between You and an INCREDIBLE Unique Selling Proposition.

Social Proof

Once you have your USP, it’s vital to deliver on the promise you make. If you claim to be the fastest, make sure you are faster than your competitors.

You can make your USP more compelling and impactful by backing up your claims with social proof, including:

• Encouraging customers to leave reviews on your website.
• Asking your followers to leave reviews on your social media pages.
• Creating case studies showing how your company has helped clients.
• Consider using video testimonials on your site and social channels.

Using social proof to support your USP can be a powerful driver for conversions – 84% of people trust user reviews as much as a personal recommendation, and testimonials can increase average revenue per site visitor by up to 62%.

The Power of Your USP

A clear USP helps you position your brand and influence how your customers view your products and services. In an age where somebody can pick up their smartphone and find ten companies like yours, a winning differentiator is vital for cutting through the noise and getting noticed.

If you need some help defining your USP, differentiating your brand, or getting found by your ideal customers, it might be helpful to have an expert by your side.

In today’s digital world, social media marketing is one of the strongest strategies to build and improve your company’s credibility or organization. Social Media platforms are a huge medium that can be used to connect with the targeted audience, increase brand awareness, improve sales, and gain high conversion rates.

What is social media marketing?

The key to success on social media platforms is to provide the audience with something that makes sense and still succeeds in keeping them engaged until your message is delivered. Some of the most interactive social media platforms which are gaining significant attention from the users are:

• Twitter
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Facebook
• Quora
• Google+

Plot with a plan.

Before starting with the procedure of creating a website for your business or organization, come up with a strong and effective plan, that matches your goals. Planning the plot is very essential when dealing with different social media platforms as a small gesture can affect your business reputation in the market.

Here are some unique ideas you should definitely consider:

• Know your expectation and goals on the social media platform
• Decide your targeted audience
• Research about the best platform which will gain more organic traffic.
• Ensure that the content is unique and interactive.
• Deliver meaningful and strong message to the audience through the content.

Build your Brand Reputation.

There are great challenges while creating a brand awareness that needs excellent research and experience to excel. Here are some steps to consider:

• Create an impressive portfolio.
• Add a comment or review section for the audience.
• Use catchy and exciting advertisements to share the latest updates on the website
• Use Infographics to make the content more accessible
• Use Guest Posting to increase the scope of the target audience
• Add user-friendly content that delivers the right information in the correct method.

Create Unique and strong content:

The content of the website is the essential segment while improving the social media presence to build brand reputation. Consider the below steps while creating content:

• Focus on the latest topics that are in trend.
• Make sure the content is fresh and unique.
• SEO optimized content to have a higher ranking on search engines.
• Advertise the content on different Social Media platforms.
• Use simple, interactive, and catchy content on the web pages.
• Use infographics, videos, images, and GIFs to make the content engaging.
• Add to-the-point and relevant information in the content.

Analyze the result.

Analyzing the result is very necessary for social media marketing, which helps to know the digital world’s website performance. This data helps in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the website, which can be used to improve the website’s presence on social media platforms.

Conclusion:

It is a complicated and challenging task that needs great effort and time to grow in the digital world. We have shared with you some of the important social media marketing aspects that are should be considered. It is important to have the right resources and strategies to create brand awareness on social media platforms successfully.