Social Media

Social media is a vital mar­keting tool for small busi­nesses because entry fees are low, and the potential reach is high. Many art­icles focus on how social media helps small busi­nesses grow by increasing brand awareness.

That’s all very well, but how can social media drive sales?

Well, social ads are an obvious answer — but thank­fully, not the only answer.

Popular Social Media Sales Strategies

In fact, a recent review of key social media mar­keting stats noted seven popular ways that com­panies use social media to drive sales:

• 48% of firms said being responsive encourages cus­tomers to buy
• 46% find that offering pro­mo­tions helps to drive sales
• 42% drive sales by providing edu­ca­tional content (aka “content marketing”)
• 35% use exclusive content to encourage purchases
• 28% reported using inter­esting visuals increased sales
• 27% said it helped to provide “behind the scenes” content
• 26% find being funny can improve sales

All of these tactics also improve cus­tomer engagement with your brand and long-term loyalty.… Read the rest 

Marketing moves fast, but mar­keting myths die hard. It’s common to copy “tra­di­tional mar­keting wisdom” without real­ising that risks copying tra­di­tional mar­keting mistakes.

The web gives digital mar­keters masses of imme­diate audience feedback to learn from — far more than tra­di­tional mar­keters have ever had.

So whatever you’ve learned may well be out­dated already. Times change, com­pet­itors learn and update their strategies, and mar­keting evolves. What worked a few years ago may not work now. Or perhaps it never worked, but was based on false, yet popular, assump­tions. Yet many people still spread these myths as if they’re in the know.

Many useful lessons in mar­keting have been twisted by mis­quotes and false assump­tions over the years, too. Here are seven of the top mar­keting myths that I still see today and why you should think twice before falling for them.… Read the rest