If you’re running or planning to launch a business of any kind, you’ve probably spent at least some time thinking about how social media can help you achieve your marketing goals.
But why use social media for business marketing? Well, social media marketing offers small businesses a low-cost way of connecting with existing and potential customers at scale.
Here are 21 reasons social media can help any business reach its marketing goals.
1. It’s cheap
One of the biggest benefits of social media marketing is the low cost of getting started with it. You don’t have to pay anything to use a major social network.
You will need to spend time (and perhaps money) creating content for your social profiles, but that’s still a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising.
Pro tip: If you use our Website Builder, you’ll get access to our content creation tool, GoDaddy Studio, as part of the deal. It’s perfect for creating social media imagery.
2. Helps reach new audiences
No matter what you’re selling and who you’re trying to sell it to, they’ll be a social network where your audience hangs out.
It’ll take you a bit of work to connect with them, but social media is perfect for helping you connect with potential customers who might otherwise not have heard about your business.
3. Provides access to low-cost advertising
You don’t have to use social media advertising if you don’t want to, but it can help you reach those new audiences we were just talking about.
It’s possible to run a successful social media ad campaign for as little as £50, maybe even less. Compared to traditional advertising, that’s a real bargain.
You can learn more about getting started social media advertising in this guide.
4. Drives traffic to your website
You don’t have to drive traffic to your website with every single post you make, but if you’re attracting attention, it makes sense to post the odd link back to your site. Plus, you can include links to your site in your social profiles.
By generating traffic through social media as well as through other sources (such as search engines) you’ll ensure that you aren’t relying on just one platform for site visitors.
Pro tip: Our Website Builder allows you to connect to your social profiles, meaning you can post from a centralized dashboard. This makes it even easier to update your website and your social profiles.
5. Showcases your products with photos
If you’re selling strong visual products, social media gives you the chance to show them off in all their glory.
Photos let people see what your products are all about, and striking visuals always go down well on social media. You can learn more about product photography in this guide.
6. Showcases your products with video
Video is another great way to showcase visually striking products on social media, but you can also use it to demonstrate the value of more complex products.
For example, if you’re selling a gadget you can show that gadget in action. You can also use video to bring your brand to life, with things like a “behind the scenes” look at your company.
7. Lets you sell products
Some social media platforms (including Facebook) now make it possible to sell products directly from their site.
Although you’ll probably want your own online shop as well, selling directly on social media could help you pick up extra sales. You can learn more about selling products online in this guide.
8. Generates leads
Many social media platforms now offer the ability to generate leads for your business without a potential customer even having to click through to your website.
This low-friction method of generating leads can be more effective than encouraging people to click through to your website first because there are fewer steps to complete.
This guide explains more about Facebook lead generations.
9. Connects you directly with potential customers
Sometimes people will have questions they want to ask before they do business with you. If they can find you on social media, they can ask you directly, you can answer and the chances of you making a sale go up.
Sometimes people will just want to make sure that a business they’re considering buying from is legit and active social media accounts can help with that too.
10. Connects you directly with existing customers
Existing customers might have questions they want to ask too. Plus, if you encourage existing customers to connect with you on social media, you’ll have more chance to make repeat sales.
11. Connects you with industry experts
Social media can be a great place to learn new things. If you’re able to engage with industry experts, you’ll get the benefit of their wisdom, and you could make important connections that will help grow your business.
12. Tells your brand story
Your brand’s story will help set you apart from similar businesses and will give your potential and existing customers something to engage with emotionally.
Social media is a great place to tell your brand's story and this guide explains more about how to do it.
13. Builds your brand image on a wider scale
Social media gives local brands the chance to go global, so while you’re focusing on telling your brand story, you can use social media to make sure your voice is heard everywhere you want it to be heard.
14. Establishes you as an expert in your field
As well as engaging with industry experts, social media gives you the chance to establish yourself as an expert.
This is particularly useful if you’re working in a sector where thought leaderships is valued.
15. Lets you distribute content
Some content you’ll create especially for social media, but social media also gives you the chance to distribute content from other channels (such as blog posts). You can also share other people’s content to help build your reputation as knowledgeable figure in your industry.
16. Lets you get involved with relevant conversations
People might already be talking about your brand on social and they’re almost certainly talking about something related to what your business does.
If you use social media for marketing purposes, you’ll be able to get involved with these conversations. It’s another way to engage with potential customers.
17. Helps build customer loyalty
Customer loyalty is built through familiarity and social media is a great place to build that familiarity. By telling your brand story, engaging with people and posting the occasional special offer you can use social media marketing to create customer loyalty.
18. Lets you connect with influencers
If there’s a social media platform, you’ll find influencers on it. The influencers you want to connect with are the ones who already have the attention of the audience you’re trying to reach.
If you’re able to connect with a relevant influencer, then the chances of you connecting with that audience will increase greatly.
You can learn more about influencer marketing in this guide.
19. Helps customer research
Social media offers a wealth of information and you can use that information to conduct customer research. What products do they talk about? Which media outlets do they follow? Which brands do they engage with and why?
It’s all there on social media. You can learn more about using social media for customer research in this guide.
20. Helps competitor research
You can also use social media to keep tabs on what your competitors are doing. Have they launched a new product? Are they having a sale? Have they launched a new ad campaign?
All this and more can be found through social media research. This guide explains more about competitor research.
21. Allows you to gather social proof
If you’re on social media and you’re doing things well, someone’s going to say something nice about you.
You can use those nice things as social proof. If potential customers can see that your existing customers are happy with what you do, then they’re more likely to become actual customers.
Keep an eye out for social proof as you browse business websites.
You can learn more about using social proof in this guide.
Summing up
Why should businesses use social media for marketing? Because connecting with people on social media is a great way to build your business’s audience.
Build your profiles by sharing great content and engaging with relevant people and you’ll be on your way to reaping the benefits of social media marketing.
