Remington BeggDid you know businesses just like yours are leveraging social media to drive more traffic to their website? That's right! By implementing a successful social media marketing strategy, business owners are able to drive traffic to their website, generate more leads, and build a community of relationships.
The great thing about social media marketing is that it can be implemented at any moment of the buyer’s journey, but especially at the beginning. Whether you’re attracting strangers to become visitors, converting visitors into leads, closing leads into customers, or delighting customers into company promoters, social media marketing can play its role at any given moment.
For the sake of time, we’re going to talk about how social media can be implemented into the ‘Attract’ stage of the buyer’s journey. This part of the journey is found at the top of the inbound marketing funnel.
How exactly can your business leverage social media to attract more website visitors?
According to a report from Conventro and AOL, social media marketing has the greatest impact on the buyer’s journey at the beginning and in the middle of the buying process. For inbound terminology, that means the best time to implement SMM into your marketing strategy is during the Attract and Convert stage. So how do you do that?
1. Choose the right social media channel
The first step in attracting more visitors to your website using social media is to choose the right social media channel. After all, what’s the point of your efforts if no one is there to listen?
There is a lot to consider when it comes to choosing the right social media channel for your business. If you are new to social scene or you're not sure how to get started, it would be smart to consult with an agency such as Impulse to help build your buyer’s persona. A buyer's persona is a respresentation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers.
A buyer’s persona is a representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers.
When creating your buyer persona, consider including customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. Who is your target audience and where are they hanging out on social? This is a really important step, that some people skip, which is a big reason why so many businesses fail at social media.
Most importantly, when choosing the best channels for your business, make sure that they’re aligned with your business goals. Create measurable objectives by using S.M.A.R.T. goals.
What's a SMART goal?
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Timely
2. Share remarkable content
When you share remarkable content, people are more inclined to engage with it. If you want more people to visit your website you need to give them a reason to. That’s why sharing remarkable content is so important. A social media account that does nothing but spew sales and specials all day will turn off your most loyal followers.
To avoid coming off as a “let me shove my sales pitch down your throat” kind of business, try to think of your social interaction as humanly as possible. In other words, be human on social media.
Share content that is easy to digest and relevant to your target audience. Go through your website and gather your most relatable blogs and share them on your social media channels. Blogging is one of the top ways to attract visitors to your website, and social media is the easiest way to promote those blogs. Don’t be afraid to share your blog more than once in a given month. Especially depending on what channel you are using.
For example, it’s totally acceptable to share a blog on twitter several times in one week. Whereas 2-3 times per month makes more sense for Facebook.
3. Offer something valuable to your followers
When you offer something valuable to your followers, they’re more inclined to take the bait. Aside from blogging, there are a million other ways to entice your followers to visit your website. Valuable offers such as ebooks, webinars, links to videos, and even infographics are a surefire way to get people interested in your website.
Brainstorm with your team to create offers that are of high value to your target customer. Post the link to your landing page with the freebie onto your social channel of choice. Again, don’t be afraid to post about that offer more than once. It’s called social media promotion for a reason. Promote, promote, promote!
Quick tip: If it’s in the budget, consider paid promotion as well. Facebook ads can be a cost-effective way to get more signups to your webinar and more traffic to your website.
Social media is appropriate at every stage of the funnel
Using the inbound methodology, Social Media Marketing can be used at every stage of the funnel. You can use it to attract visitors to your website, convert new visitors into leads, offer freebies that entice your visitors to subscribe, and more. The opportunity is always there.
