Take Advantage of a Social Media Marketing Funnel
Ever heard of the power of a Social Media Marketing Funnel? Turning your target audience into loyal advocates of your brand can be a challenging task for any emerging brand name; it is an ongoing process at best. Although it might seem questionable whether or not there is a distinct formula to achieve this, there is one such method taking the advertising world by storm. Top brands and marketers around the globe have become familiar with this simple yet effective 3-step approach for successful social media advertising.
The Funnel Approach is the harmonious integration of all the various advertising elements that can be applied to any business or brand respectively. Our social media team at Yoshiro Digital will be sharing exactly how it works below.
The 3 Stages
Why utilising every stage is vital
According to HubSpot, 90% of marketers report that social media marketing has increased their business exposure. But this can only take place by following a strategic plan and the funnel approach is one that can be a hit success if handled correctly. This means taking full advantage of every step.
Creating numerous campaigns, all with the intention of selling your product or brand, without first trying to connect with your target audience is not the ideal way to go. Social media advertising is indeed immensely successful but it can be a challenge for sales to be facilitated immediately.
Regardless of what you’re trying to sell, your most important objective is the building of strong relationships with your potential customers. The Funnel approach facilitates this perfectly. Its importance lies within the idea that the potential customer must first become aware of the brand in order to begin considering a purchase without being peddled with the product.
Benefits of using the Funnel Approach
Branding and Awareness Stage
Each step of the social media funnel approach provides different benefits. The Branding / Awareness stage is related to fun, entertaining content to an audience unaware of your brand’s existence. It should grab one’s attention almost immediately in order to stand apart from the mundaneness of other posts. This stage is beneficial for the following reasons:
- Almost instant growth in traffic as well as your social reach. Your potential customers are all interacting with your posts for the first time. By creating a good first impression, you are essentially creating room for them to consider you in the second stage of the campaign.
- By using various types of content, you can find out what works best when it comes to your target market and what doesn’t work. You can then increase what works and reduce what doesn’t.
Consideration Stage
The Consideration stage is where your potential customers are now either aware of your brand or at the point where they recognize it as an option upon researching or ‘considering’ their purchase. Re-targeting can be one of the main components of this stage. Tracking down the people who firstly interacted with your awareness campaign and targeting them – thus, reinforcing your message.
- Given that your first impression was successful with your target audience, this stage will reinforce the idea of your product/brand and thus have you positioned on their list of options.
- By re-targeting the correct audience, you can lead your brand to higher conversions at lower costs.
- Facebook is a platform that makes this stage a charm as it provides three key features. The first is intensive targeting. The second being the Facebook pixel which you can set up on your website. Finally, lookalike custom audiences – all three proven to work wonders when utilized properly.
Conversion Stage
Finally, the last, equally important stage, is the conversion stage. This is the turning point in the social media marketing funnel. Here is where the quality of your targeting, your ads and your ability to track results, all come into play and your target audience is finally ready to purchase.
- Considering your previous stages were successfully implemented, this part of the Funnel should be effortless (but still meaningful!). There are important components that will determine whether or not your target market will interact in a greater way with your brand/product. It is important to understand that at this stage This could result in a purchase or a subscription/sign up.
How it works
The Funnel approach aims to facilitate conversions through a process which gradually places your product/brand into the mind of the consumer. All done without constantly pressuring them to “buy”. Success lies in the way you attract customers who resonate with your message and who find reasons “Why” they should choose you. As your campaign progresses, you will be able to use various KPI’s to ascertain how your brand is being portrayed. Monitoring each and every aspect will only ensure that you don’t miss any red flags when achieving your goals.
Expecting a total stranger to purchase from you without any first contact point is definitely a challenge. Which is why this strategic plan encourages the creation of content that firstly facilitates interaction. Not all content has to be about trying to sell your brand. By first providing your target audience with content that is entertaining and enticing, you are slowly luring them in your funnel. Not only are you driving in more traffic, but you are also finding ways to correctly grab their attention in the future. Notice something they really like? Use it again! It makes sense for them to interact with your content if it caters to their needs, wants and desires.
The great thing about this approach, is that every step ensures you have correct and valid information (through successful targeting and tracking). All designed to guide them towards considering you in the future. If applied correctly, the Funnel Approach can make massive improvements to the size of your group of loyal customers.