How can social media marketing help my business?
2020 was a challenging year that changed “business as usual”, and turned even small businesses to e-commerce and digital advertising.
The pandemic reshaped our habits and priorities forcing businesses to face what they may be avoiding so far: the need to be present and interact with consumers exactly where they are daily. The Internet, especially social media.
Businesses that had previously invested in digital marketing and e-commerce had the opportunity to excel, further increasing the return on their investment.
Even those who rushed into the game managed to stay in touch with their customers, strengthen their relationship with them, create new sources of revenue, and even increase their revenue.
[ READ HOW BUSINESSES ADVERTISED DURING THE QUARANTINE ]
How to get started with social media marketing?
Like with any new beginning, starting with social media marketing may seem like climbing to the top of a mountain.
To get started, all you need to do is to define your market positioning, your target audience, your competitors, and your goals, along with a clear plan of short-term and long-term actions aimed at achieving your goals.
What can we achieve with social media?
With a well-designed and well-implemented social media marketing strategy, your business can benefit from more increased brand awareness, increased website traffic, improved user experience, better customer service, a mutual relationship of sympathy and trust with existing and potential customers, new leads, and increased sales.
Social media marketing should ideally be part of an integrated digital marketing strategy and it can multiply the positive impact of your business’s marketing mix.
The case study of a hotel
Ilio Mare Resort & Hotel is one of the most important projects of Social Media Shop, during which we fully undertook the implementation of social media marketing for this company.
Through the presentation of its case study, we will attempt to present the benefits that a business can reap from social media.
The project
Under new management and after a major renovation, the Resort aimed to showcase a brand new experience to existing and new customers, as well as to encourage them to visit it again or for the first time.
The new offering of our client was a modern resort that combines authentic Greek with cosmopolitan, with new spaces and new services but always the same magical sunset and crystal clear beach. A collection of products and services that compose the epitome of summer vacation, the summer as it should be: the #iliomaretruesummer.
After defining our concept, our position in the market, and after setting the goals we wanted to achieve with our new social media presence, we started storytelling with unique content, fully harmonized with the new style of the business, and always in a smart tone.
We supported our efforts with specially designed offers and promotions, well-targeted based on the location and the interests of the users.
A successful social media contest
Along with the above, we organized a photo & video contest on social media with the aim to further highlight the experience of a holiday at Ilio Mare, as well as to increase traffic and engagement on our social media pages and on the company’s website.
The visitors of Ilio Mare were invited to share the best moments of their vacation at the resort, creating wonderful User-Generated Content (UGC) that fully achieves the goal of showcasing the #iliomaretruesummer experience in the most authentic way.
The secret of success lied in the well-targeted audience. Contests on social media can only work if they are accurately targeted at the real customers of a business and carefully implemented.
The success of the competition was such that the competition itself became a custom for the hotel and its guests and continued for many consecutive years.
The hashtag #iliomaretruesummer that was created for the contest made such a big social buzz that the visitors of the hotel continued to post content with it even after the contest finished.
Our client’s social media pages significantly increased their followers during the photo & video contest, while at the same time increased their traffic, engagement, and organic impact.
This is very important for the long-term success of any social media account that wants to “beat” the algorithm of social platforms and achieve more free views from real users in the long run.
Of course, the production of amazing authentic content, such as the following video, was also a huge success:
Ε-commerce & digital marketing in 2020
With the end of quarantine and the new order of things, most companies redefined their business models and invested more in social media and digital marketing. E-commerce and social networks play now a key role, even for very small businesses.
The challenges of such an investment may seem overwhelming for someone who now takes their first steps. But with a well-designed strategic plan and careful execution, the return on investment can be great.
Start by clearly defining your offer, your Unique Selling Proposition, your target audience, your competitors, and your goal, then move on to the best storytelling and the implementation of promotions that will help you get where you want to be.