Okay, so you’ve finally gotten on the social media bandwagon. You’ve been putting it off and putting it off, but now you’ve finally made the move. You’ve decided social media is where its at and you’ve not only launched your business on Facebook but you’ve paid someone to design a snazzy new custom branded Facebook Landing Page.
Your new Landing Page is the place newcomers to your Facebook Page will ‘land’ when they visit. It’s cool, it’s branded for your business and it even has links to your business website. You’re confident that as soon as people see it they will ‘like’ it!
Now you’re waiting for that big pay off – more customers to discover you and the fantastic services and products you provide! After all, isn’t social media, in particular Facebook, where it’s at these days?
Before you get too excited about social media – and you should be excited – remember the old and wise saying: don’t put all your eggs in one basket!
While it is important for you to expand your business reach and reputation through the use of social media, and there is no place better for that than Facebook, at least at this time: don’t for a moment think that Facebook alone will do it all. It won’t – at least not for most of us.
With more than half of the population in Canada (and growing daily) on Facebook, the opportunities it provides for you to grow your brand and business are huge.
That said a significant portion of our population – close to 50% – are NOT on Facebook. And of the ones that are, many are periodic users checking in only weekly or even monthly.
So too, the demographics of those who use Facebook less frequently may be more like your target audience – at least right now. And even if they’re not, it rarely makes sense to use only one marketing medium to reach your target audience.
For small business owners with a limited budget: attractive, concise and well-written promotional emails are another way to help market your business. They can share helpful information, special deals and news with clients and those who have ‘signed up’ for your mailing list. And, they are a great way to keep in touch.
In fact, in recent social media findings (US) published by Foresee, an international online customer satisfaction firm, 64% of the 12,000 visitors to top e-retail websites surveyed indicated they prefer to hear about sales and promotions through ‘Promotional emails’! Only 8% indicated ‘Social media websites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) as their preferred choice.
That said, it is important we don’t read too much into these statistics. We are still in the early days of social media and it is growing daily. To wait to get into social media will only put one at the back of the pack of all of those companies who are on board, and will get on board, in the coming months and over the next few years.
If you’re still not involved in social media, particularly Facebook, don’t wait. Get up to speed sooner rather than later and continue to grow and develop (either you or a key member of your staff) your social media involvement. This will give you the jump on many of your competitors now and down the road. And today, it will help introduce you to new people who, with the right approach coupled with great customer service and a good product, can help you expand your brand significantly using social media.
On the email front, permission based email marketing services are great resources for sending well designed and informative newsletters to clients and subscribers. They can also provide measurement tools that allow you to see if your emails are being opened and if the live links you are including have been clicked.
Of course there are a multitude of other ways to market your business too. All require an investment of time and to greater and lesser degrees an investment of capital.
For most small businesses, having a well designed and regularly updated website is a no-brainer. Although not everyone is on Facebook, today most of us search online first when looking for information about a business.
In summary, use Facebook to expand the reach of your business now. And, at the same time, take advantage of other forms of marketing available to you within your time and budget constraints.
