You've got a website, a Facebook Page, Google Business Profile, and maybe Twitter or Instagram or some other type of social media set up for your business. That's a LOT of places to keep track of. What's the best way to make it all work together?
The first thing to remember - a website is the only place you control 100%. Social media is controlled by private companies and a bunch of algorithms, which means people only see what they want them to see. It makes sense that your website should be the "base" of your operations.
Facebook defines organic reach as "how many people you can reach for free on Facebook by posting to your Page". Google calls it organic search results. Other social platforms have similar names for the free service they provide.
Unfortunately, organic reach declines more each year, as more content is added to the internet, more algorithms are defined and there is more money to be made by decreasing free options. This means even if somebody has clicked Like on your business Facebook Page, or they've searched for something on Google that you offer, it doesn't mean people can find you.
The algorithms means a lot of content is filtered out. What social media companies really want is for you to PAY them to help spread your content. It's an indisputable fact that if you pay, it increases your reach.
So, what's the most effective way to communicate with current and potential clients and customers?
Step 1 - Set up a Basic Content Strategy
Before you jump into paying social companies, it pays to define a content strategy.
A content strategy is a defined plan for how you will communicate with your customers.
The first step of your content strategy is easy and free:
- Add content/products to website.
- Using specific page URLs from the website, post links to social media to help drive traffic back to the website.
This helps generate traffic to your website, which Google likes for search results. However, the success of this method depends on the size and quality of your social media audience, how much content you have to share, and the quality of your website's SEO.
Step 2 - Add a Blog
What Google likes even more is regular, "fresh" new content. So the next step may be to add a blog to your website. This means your content strategy would start to look like this:
- Add content/products to website.
- Create a blog post, announcing the new initiative.
- Using specific page URLs from the blog or website, post links to social media to drive traffic back to the website.
This adds the benefit of continual new content on your website, which Google likes a bit more.
Step 3 - Add a Newsletter/Email Marketing
What happens if you're still not getting enough traffic? The problem so far is, you need a lot of social media followers, AND you need to allow for those pesky algorithms, to get really good traffic into your website. That can take a lot of time and effort.
Many businesses already have a list of customer email addresses, so sometimes a really good solution is to start using Email Direct Marketing (EDM). EDM is still one of the most effective marketing strategies out there.
Of course, it's possible to send emails directly from your email account. But using proper EDM software adds a bunch of features which make your efforts measurable - you can not only see who's received each newsletter but also who's opened it (and when), who's clicked on links... and who hasn't. This helps you refine future efforts.
Once EDM is added in, your content strategy starts to look like this:
- Add content/products to website.
- Create a blog post, announcing the new initiative.
- Create a regular newsletter, using the same content already in the blog, to send to your email list.
- Using specific page URLs from the blog or website, post links to social media to drive traffic back to the website.
This gives you multiple ways of driving traffic to your content. Congratulations - you are now Content Marketing.
Step 4 - Paid Advertising
Of course, there are also paid advertising options such as Google AdWords or Facebook Ads.
The good news is, if you have a content strategy, it's fairly simple to add advertising into the mix so you can really get a bang for your buck. This means even if you stop advertising, you still have all of the previous options. Now your content strategy looks like this:
- Add content/products to website.
- Create a blog post, announcing the new initiative.
- Create a regular newsletter, using the same content already in the blog, to send to your email list.
- Using specific page URLs from the blog or website, post links to social media to drive traffic back to the website.
- Create an ad, aimed at a specific target market, either boosting a particular link on social media or using Google Adwords, to increase your reach and drive more traffic to your website.
There's obviously a lot more than can be done, and over time you'll get a feel for what does and doesn't work for your business, but these are a good place to start.
Need help with marketing?