If you’re thinking about starting your own business or you’ve already dipped your toes into the world of self-employment, with everything else needed to get started, social media is probably the last thing on your mind. It shouldn’t be. When used correctly, social media is an extremely powerful source of revenue for many small businesses. Helping them improve brand awareness, engage with the community and encourage previous customers to make new sales – the three important topics we’re focusing on in this blog.
Improving brand awareness with Social Media
Social media is instrumental in increasing your brands’ discovery; it’s an easy way for users located in your area to find you – whether you’re in hospitality, the creative arts, engineering, education, law or retail. There will be a way to boost your brand or company awareness using Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and Twitter. But why do I need to increase my brand’s awareness via social media, you say? Today, 83% of the UK’s population is actively using social media, and despite the continuing controversy surrounding data at the beginning of the year, social media continues to grow. Now, that’s a lot of potential customers you could be engaging with!
Engagement with the local community
If you’re a small business that uses other services/suppliers, you’re located in a supportive network of businesses, or your company belongs to a group of enthusiastic individuals, then engaging with your local community should be on the top of your list.
For example, we love that DRIVE is based in the heart of Folkestone’s Creative Quarter – an up and coming area that has a big focus on creativity. The Creative Quarter attracts lots of new businesses and visitors from all over Kent who are repeatedly posting about Folkestone on their social media channels. That presents itself as a perfect way to engage with a local community and in doing so gets our brand name and services out there! If you’re a shop, this can encourage customers in the current area to visit, if you’re a restaurant it gives you a chance of making it on their top places to eat each week, and so on. Just think of it as networking but on a more informal digital scale.
Generating sales and returning customers
Social media is a fantastic way to encourage returning customers to use your product or service again. Let us present an ideal restaurant customer journey;
- A user see’s your social media advert for your new restaurant on their timeline.
- They click on your website and are excited by your menu so proceed to book.
- Their meal comes and they upload a photo to their Instagram and subsequently follow you on social media.
- Three weeks later you upload a photograph of another delicious dish.
- The user sees this and they are reminded of their last meal and dining experience and make a booking later that evening.
Of course, there are many directions this user journey can go, and it’s not limited to restaurants, but this gives you a tiny insight into one of the many opportunities you have by advertising – simply using social media. If you think about it, you’ve likely been through this process yourself completely unaware, as a customer to another business.
We’re going to let you into a little secret. If the majority of your business is conducted online, meaning your enquiries come via a contact form or e-commerce shop, then it’s imperative to have a functioning website to run a successful social media campaign. We strongly encourage sorting this out as a first step.
So how do I know what to post to get all of these benefits?
That’s where DRIVE comes in. Our marketing experts in content and social media will bring your channels to dizzying new heights so you can sit back and relax while we do all the work.
If you’d like to find out more about our packages please click here.