You’ve been using social media to grow your business — but instead of seeing results, you’re seeing wasted ad spend.
Now you’re left questioning whether social media advertising is a lost cause.
We’re here to tell you that although you may not agree right now, social media advertising is not failing — but you may be doing it wrong.
Keep reading to learn common problems many businesses face with social media advertising and how you can overcome these issues and begin seeing substantial business growth.
What Is a Social Media Marketing Plan?
At the most basic level, a social marketing plan is a plan that outlines what a business wants to achieve on social media to support their marketing strategy. It’s a way for a business to use their social media platforms to:
- Build their brand
- Reach specific audiences
- Gain profits
- Improve website traffic
- And more
A thoroughly planned social media marketing plan can be an asset to your business’ success, but that’s where most businesses get it wrong — they don’t take the time to create a holistic approach for their unique business.
What Is a Common Issue With Social Media Marketing Plans?
Many businesses’ social media marketing plans go wrong because there is no actual “strategy” behind their marketing plan — think about those ads you see at the bottom of your social media screaming …
“Buy me! Buy me!”
… but you never click on them because they don’t connect with you.
That is one of the most common issues with social media marketing plans that aren’t really planned. As a result, they are not fully comprehensive and don’t reach the business’ ideal buyer.
Inspire and Engage
At Pretty-Impressive, each client is unique. Which is why we create strategies tailored to the needs of each company. Reach out and we’ll help you get your brand exactly where it needs to be — ahead of the rest.
Why Is Social Media Marketing Failing?
Not all social media marketing is failing, but business owners who aren’t thinking about their target audiences are wasting marketing dollars on marketing campaigns that aren’t reaching the right people.
When done correctly, social media marketing can bring immense success for business owners; but many businesses aren’t aware of what they’re doing wrong.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common problems business owners face with social media marketing.
5 Problems With Social Media Advertising
1. No Comprehensive Social Media Marketing Strategy
Social media should be easy, right? You post or spend precious ad spend on your product or service and customers will come.
Unfortunately, too many business owners have this mentality and likely don’t realize it.
No marketing strategy = no results.
Although many think of social media as a community that is easily connected with, you still have to optimize your social media accounts based on your target audience.
Creating a clear marketing plan starts with:
- Identifying what’s working for your business on social media and what’s not. A common way to do this is by conducting a social media audit — look at each of your social media accounts that you’re marketing your business on — are they getting traction? Are they reaching your ideal customer? Do you even know who your ideal audience is?
- Specifying “who” and “how.” Once you’ve completed your audit, take a step back and reconsider who your target audience is and how you will reach them in the most effective manner.
- Setting objectives for your social marketing plan. Without a clear idea of what you want to accomplish with your marketing campaign, it’s likely going to fail. Instead, set objectives for your marketing campaign and ask yourself:
- Who are you serving?
- What will your audience pay for your service or product?
- Where do they hang out?
- How do they build connections?
2. No Customer Engagement
Yes, posting on your social media accounts is important, but if you aren’t connecting and interacting with your customers, social media is almost useless.
Customers who are hanging out on social media are looking to build connections — they don’t want to feel forgotten or unrecognized.
Building authentic connections by interacting with your audience will make your business appear more:
- Knowledgeable about what your customers want or need
- Relatable; and
- Likeable
Doing this may involve:
- Creating interactive posts
- Reacting to feedback from customers or potential customers
- Making content about your products or services easily accessible
- And more
Customers want to feel as though they are interacting with a human, not a business. This is one of the easiest ways to reach your ideal audience and gain meaningful relationships that increase revenue.
3. Not Measuring Progress
Setting goals and creating a social media marketing plan without measuring the progress (or lack of progress) is almost useless — especially when your goal is to bring in revenue.
Instead, businesses can benefit greatly by utilizing tools like Google Analytics and setting Key Performance Indicators.
KPI’s can help you see if you’re reaching the objectives you’ve set. KPI’s may include:
- Reach KPIs — these performance indicators help you interpret how your brand influences your audience
- Engagement Rate KPIs — these give you an idea how your audience interprets your social media presence
Conversion Metrics — these tell you the impact of social media on your leads and revenue
4. Using Too Many Social Media Platforms
This common issue comes back to understanding your ideal customers.
Where are they hanging out? Are you using too many social media platforms? Are the majority of your customers on Facebook?
Or are they getting most of the information from places like YouTube?
Although it may feel like the more, the merrier, that is usually not the case.
Utilizing too many social media platforms not only cuts into your time, ad spend, and resources, but it makes it almost impossible to engage with the right people.
Narrow down what social media platforms you utilize by thinking about:
- The age of your audience
- The purpose of the social media platforms you’re using; and
- What platform might be best for your business
Here are some examples:
- Facebook has over 2.85 billion users, generally between the ages of 25 and 34, who use the platform to build relationships. Facebook is ideal for businesses looking to build brand awareness and brand loyalty through Facebook ads.
- On the other hand, LinkedIn has roughly 740 million users, most of whom are between the ages of 25 and 34, looking to network. LinkedIn is ideal for a business that is looking to not only develop their business, but increase brand awareness.
Understanding which social media platforms are ideal for your business can be a challenge.
Take the guesswork out of social media marketing by letting the experts at Pretty-Impressive help you create a social media marketing campaign that puts money back in your business and your wallet.
5. Inconsistency
Oftentimes, social media marketing plans fail because business owners have a “set it and forget it” mindset.
The truth is: consistency is key.
Once you’ve caught the attention of your potential customers and clients, you want to keep them tuned into your business — you want to build a relationship with them and nurture that relationship.
Posting regularly is a must for a successful social media marketing campaign.
Inspire and Engage
At Pretty-Impressive, each client is unique. Which is why we create strategies tailored to the needs of each company. Reach out and we’ll help you get your brand exactly where it needs to be — ahead of the rest.
Is There a Solution to the Problems With Social Media Advertising?
Yes. Some of the best ways to have a successful social media marketing plan include:
- Having a clear understanding of your brand,
- Knowing who your audience is, and
- Creating a multipronged strategy that will not only capture their attention in a value-based way, but leave them purchasing your products or services
Simply put, a successful social marketing plan gets your ideal clients to stop scrolling and click on your ad because you’ve created content that caught their attention, and they are interested in learning more. Now you can really market your products and services to them.
Not all social media marketing is failing, but business owners who aren’t thinking about their target audiences are wasting marketing dollars on marketing campaigns that aren’t reaching the right people.
When done correctly, social media marketing can bring immense success for business owners; but many businesses aren’t aware of what they’re doing wrong.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common problems business owners face with social media marketing.
Struggling With Your Social Media Marketing Plan? Pretty-Impressive Can Help
Are you struggling to reach your business goals and wasting money on social media marketing that just isn’t getting results?
Pretty-Impressive understands the struggle you’re facing, and we’re here to help.
With years of online marketing experience, our team has been helping businesses build multichannel marketing campaigns to attract and retain their ideal customers for years.
Schedule a free audit today to learn how we put our proven marketing strategies to work for your business.
