Beginner’s Guide to Social Media Marketing Campaigns

Competition has become tighter and tougher in the world of social media marketing. More and more businesses have joined the field upon learning the significant benefits it can yield. Nowadays, simply posting engaging content won’t cut it anymore; brands have to be more creative with their content to get people’s attention, trust, sales, and loyalty. SO, here is the beginner’s guide to Social Media Marketing Campaigns.

If you’re new to this form of marketing, this doesn’t mean it’s too late for your business to get in on it – you can always have a chance to make it big on social media.

How? All you have to do is up to your game through social media marketing campaigns.

What are social media marketing campaigns?

In general, marketing campaigns are long-term promotions of products and services using various forms of media. In the old age of advertising – newspapers, posters, billboards, radio… it was harder to gauge the success of a marketing campaign.

Now? You can make use of metrics and data provided by different social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram to measure the success of each campaign.

Running a social media campaign allows brands to showcase a series of interconnected content (images, videos, infographics, or blogs) to their target market. These campaigns can go on for a couple of weeks or months – just make sure they run for at least a week on, say, Facebook, to give their algorithm a chance to find the right audience.

Hence, the content you publish must be planned carefully so that you can get your audience to interact and share your posts. Other businesses also invest in social media management tools to make it easier for them to manage their different social media channels.

Once a social media campaign has concluded, measure its success by analyzing the data provided by various online tools and social media platforms. These numbers will tell you if your goals were attained and give you a clearer picture of how to plan your marketing campaigns moving forward.

How to plan a social media marketing campaign?

Marketing campaigns may sound intimidating, especially when it comes to social media marketing. If you’re thinking that this form of marketing is only profitable for big-name companies with large pockets, you’re sadly mistaken. Even small businesses can reap significant benefits with social media campaigns as long as they’re done right.

So, how do you make a profitable social media marketing campaign for your business? Here’s a step-by-step guide that can help you:

1. Determine the objectives of your campaign

Social media marketing campaigns should arise from a clear understanding of what you want to achieve. Here are some of the questions you can ask yourself and your team:

• Do you want more people to know you?
• Do you want to get more leads and customers?
• Do you want more sales?

Once you’ve chosen your main objective, make it more specific. For instance, if you want to focus on increasing sales, state the amount you have in mind and the period in which you plan to achieve it. Having specific goals will eliminate distractions that may occur during the campaign because this keeps everyone motivated to achieve them.

2. Understand your target audience

Just like how you should be specific with your goals, you should also have pinpoint clarity when it comes to picking your audience.

Are you trying to sell your products and services to young mothers? Or do you wish to engage with young adults who just finished college?

Picking a specific audience for your campaign will give you a better idea of the type of buyer persona you’ll need to create. These are like profiles of your target market. You give them a name, age, gender, financial capabilities, and other reasons that would compel them to make a purchase or engage with your brand.

3. Pick the right social media platforms

There are a lot of social media platforms on the Internet. It will take a lot of your time and energy to try and maintain all of them. So, only choose the ones that will help you achieve your goals.

To choose the right platforms, go back to your buyer personas. Social media platforms have different demographics. Some platforms cater more to younger users while others favor older audiences. Knowing the right platform to focus your efforts on will eventually lead to more leads and following.

4. Use a social media calendar

When you run a marketing campaign, there are a lot of activities involved. You may need to create specific content for your different social media accounts.

This is where a social media calendar comes in handy.

A social media calendar is like your monthly planner for your social media accounts. It’s where you can outline all your planned content for the rest of your campaign. Having a calendar allows you to see everything in just one glance and lets you schedule posts ahead of time.

5. Start creating visual content

Once you have plotted the different types of content on your calendar, it’s time to create visuals for them. Websites like Canva provide free stock images and ready-made image and video templates suitable for different social media platforms.

Posts with visuals play a crucial role in getting any form of engagement. Various social media platforms like Twitter have said that tweets with a video get 10x more engagement.

6. Schedule your posts

In the world of social media marketing, timing is everything! So, avoid missing any opportunity just because you posted your content late or forgot to post them at all. Fortunately, there are some tools that can do this automatically.

An example of those tools is Buffer and Hootsuite. These tools can help you schedule your posts beforehand. All you have to do is create an account, insert your captions and visuals on your preferred platform, and choose a time and schedule that fits your audience’s preferences.

7. Engage with your audience

You may be just using social media to sell your products and services, but don’t forget that the primary goal of these platforms is to engage with your audience.

Keep your eyes open to any notifications (comments, personal messages, shares, etc). People love it when brands interact with them in a timely manner, it makes them feel more valued as a customer and results in increased trust.

8. Track the campaign’ s performance

Every marketing campaign should be monitored and measured to determine what’s working and what’s not. Online analytical tools like Google Analytics allow you to check your campaign’s performance and provide you with all the numbers you need. So, even when the campaign is still running, you can make necessary adjustments to improve it.

If a post is not performing well, you can scrap the rest of the content similar to that and replace it with what’s been working. Analytical tools also show you when is the best time to schedule your posts and, more importantly, tell you what you should or should not do for your future social media campaigns.

Conclusion

There are still a lot of things needed to have a foolproof social media marketing campaign. However, keep in mind that you need a solid plan for all your ideas to work.

Always remember to keep in mind the following steps:

• Determine the objectives of your campaign
• Understand your target audience
• Pick the right social media platforms
• Use a social media calendar
• Start creating visual content
• Schedule your posts
• Engage with your audience
• Track the campaign’ s performance

Once you understand the basics, you’ll put yourself in a much better position to run a successful social media marketing campaign. 

Suggested:

9 Social Media Platforms You Should Use In 2022.