As a business, if you’re looking to increase sales by engaging prospective customers via social media, you should be spending a lot of time analysing both your own strengths and weakness and those of your competitors.
Then, once you’ve done this, you can plan the best way to attack!
However, it’s not always possible to win the war with one big attack, and most small to medium size businesses have to fight lots of smaller battles along the way.
Small victories
Think of these as a series of interactions with prospective customers, usually delivered one at a time and designed to slowly engage and build lasting relationships with them.
They are often lightweight pieces of content designed to engage prospective customers by offering them a temporary escape from their daily routines. They should make them laugh or ponder or perhaps play a game. Ultimately, they should feel appreciated and part of something bigger.
Winning the war
Once enough small victories have been won, and your regular content has a decent following, it’s then time to implement a strategy to win the war. In marketing terms, these are the big campaigns that are designed to increase traffic to cult-size proportions, and ultimately convert this traffic into increased sales; generating a substantial return on investment (ROI).
The importance of native content
To achieve the most from your internet and social-media marketing it is wise to incorporate data analytics, psychology and social science but, most importantly, you need a native understanding of the platform through which you want to engage prospective customers.
Don’t just take old content created for one platform and throw it aimlessly at another one. An idea that worked on Facebook may not be as effective on Twitter. Take the time to understand the individuality of each platform, and adopt a long-term approach to developing your community.
An effective way of winning the small battles is to create frequent, high-quality and interesting micro-content. This allows you to engage your prospective customers and become influential in their decision making.
Once you’ve won a series of small battles, and have built a big following from which you can expect to get a significant ROI from a bigger campaign – you can then think about winning the war!
As the TMA warrior is now fully awakened, we’ll be happy to go into battle on your behalf.
To discuss how we can build your social-media communities by providing you with frequent, high-quality and interesting micro-content, please call us on 0141 221 2090, or drop in and discuss your requirements over a cup of coffee.
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Chris and his team will send you a weekly email offering high-value insight and advice about a variety of marketing and business development topics related to the tourism industry. We address specific destinations, tours and activities, and the hotel industry. We also provide important travel industry news and updates.
