Digital marketing has changed throughout the years, and social media marketing is one of its key strategies today. Its popularity has also increased because people want to use social media even more. On top of that, new social media apps are constantly being released. As a marketing manager, you must use that and find ways to improve your social media ROI if you want to stay competitive.
With that said, social media marketers often struggle with one key point – measuring the social media ROI. This is a challenging category to track, and only a third of marketers can do it properly. Today we want to talk about different ways to track social media ROI and how to increase it.
1. Setting up achievable goals
When people started using social media for the first time a few decades ago, it was to chat with friends and family and have some fun. Those were the goals, but no one looks at it like that anymore since we use the internet for business, marketing, and entertainment. Once you transition to the business side of social media, you need to define those goals clearly. Furthermore, it would be best if you ensured those goals were achievable.
Some of the most important goals for 2022 are:
- growing your audience;
- increasing conversions;
- building a community around your business;
- take good care of your brand’s reputation;
All of these goals seem fine, but you also need to add some numbers to them. For example, don’t just say, “I want to grow my audience.” You need to be more specific and say, “I want to grow my audience by 15%.” Now you have a clear goal set in mind, and this is what will drive your ROI. More audience means potentially more conversions, and more conversions mean higher ROI. Furthermore, if you know your numbers, you will quickly notice if you start losing your audience. If you take a snapshot of your ROI before you start growing your audience, you will have a reference point to measure your success.
2. Work on targeting the right people
Social media platforms host millions of accounts. People from all around the world use the same apps to communicate and shop online. Even though that sounds like you potentially have millions of customers, not everyone will be interested in what you are offering. The majority of people are not even going to be from your local area. One of the most common mistakes marketers make is to target the wrong audience. If you are targeting the right audience, you will have a higher chance of a conversion.
To accurately target your designated audience, you need to:
- understand your product and its features;
- know what problems your product is solving;
- define the group of people that have those problems;
- include location as a factor;
3. Advertise everywhere
You probably have your favorite social media app for business, and that is fine. However, playing favorites is not how you run a business. You have to understand that people use various social media platforms. For example, some maybe only use Instagram, and some use only Facebook. You want to target both markets.
Still, many businesses don’t have the capacity to advertise on all social media platforms. This is primarily due to the amount of work and organization needed. However, advertising on multiple social media platforms is s powerful tool for your brand’s growth that is important for every business. All you need is versatile software that will allow you to keep track of scheduling, comments, and general communication with your clients.
If you want to track where your profit comes from, you can always survey customers and ask. Or, you can create specific offers. For example, anyone who makes a purchase must put a checkmark next to the social media platform they used to enroll for a special prize. This way, you are engaging people into buying more and getting valuable data to track where your profit comes from.
4. Create content with the targeted audience in mind
Content creation is one of the more challenging parts of the process but also the most fun. The goal is to use specific keywords that target the right group of people. If you already have a lot of content on your website, try to rework it to make it more enticing to your targeted audience. Content optimization on social media will significantly affect your ROI.
5. Improve your business profile
If you are running a business, people will not only visit your website. They will more often follow you on social media. Your business page must reflect everything people can find on the website. Therefore, you should ensure that you sync all of the data. Furthermore, make sure to keep contact information up to date. This is especially challenging if you are managing multiple accounts.
When we talk about connecting your business profile with the company website, you need to provide links to all your social media accounts. People should not have to search for your social media profile; just give them a link to connect. Also, leave icons to share content on their social media accounts. Single button sharing is an excellent way to spread brand awareness through social media.
6. Do reporting and analytics to support future campaigns
Anything you do leaves a record. The best way to improve your ROI is to use that data and improve future campaigns. Remember that every marketing campaign also costs resources. The investments only go up, and your revenue needs to increase so that ROI stays positive. After you finish a marketing campaign, you need to measure the success of your goals and outline the positives and negatives. Make notes that will be useful for the next campaign, so you prevent repeating any mistakes you made the first time.
Improve your social media ROI with these 6 simple steps
If there is one last thought we want to leave you with, it’s that managing social media for business requires patience, determination, and consistency. As long as you have all three, you will be able to improve your social media ROI. The digital marketing game is constantly changing, and your business needs to keep up. With that in mind, always research and incorporate the latest social media trends into your marketing plan.