In 2019, social media networks have become a force to be reckoned with when it comes to communicating, building relationships and promoting your brand.
What turned social media into one of the most popular digital marketing channels are their simplicity and popularity.
For SMEs, finding cost-effective ways to show their products has always been a winning strategy to enhance brand visibility and increase sales without spending a fortune.
So, to take advantage of this powerful marketing strategy, SMEs must invest in the right tools and platforms to maximize their conversions, minimize costs and achieve their KPIs.
If you search the market, though, you’ll find numerous social media platforms with large communities and influencers.
To find the best ones to spend your time and money, though, you should first see which ones can drive purchases better.
According to consumer trends in 2018, Facebook was the best platform to influence a purchase decision, followed by YouTube and Instagram.
Also, according to Marketing charts, 37% of consumers found inspiration for their next purchase in social media posts and advertisements, surpassing even email promotions and retailer websites.
What this shows us is that modern consumers rely heavily on social media and other people’s opinions to make a purchase.
And the more these influencers are involved with the industry of the product, the better they will influence their loyal audience to make a purchase.
Now, Let’s See 3 Social Media and Influencer Marketing Tactics for Successful SMEs
The Good
Rewarding your followers with exceptional giveaways is a great way to attract some major attention to your brand and products.
After all, who doesn’t like free stuff?
While you can host giveaways on every social media platform, the most famous platform to make a successful giveaway is Instagram.
Here’s a great example from Siege Studios, a professional commission miniature painting studio.
What makes Siege Studio’s giveaway great is its simplicity and straightforwardness.
Participants can see the price, how many items they are going to win and the steps to enter all highlighted in red.
Successful giveaways should be as clear and consistent as possible to minimize follower frustration due to time-consuming and complex steps that will force them to give up entering.
And to keep your giveaway on top of your followers’ feeds, you should post follow-up posts and updates to ensure that your giveaway will be visible even days after it started.
The Bad
While planning a successful giveaway might sound like an easy task, there are certain things that can make it backfire.
First of all, you shouldn’t plan a giveaway that you won’t be able to fulfill, otherwise, you risk attracting the wrong attention from dissatisfied followers.
One example of a giveaway gone wrong is Sunny Co’s free swimsuit giveaway in 2017.
While the brand wanted to increase their followers with an irresistible giveaway, making false promises hurt their image as a trustworthy brand.
… And the Ugly
When I say ugly, I mean the tedious multi-step process of entering a giveaway that you could participate with a simple follow and friend tag.
These giveaways are called loop giveaways and they usually have people follow up to 70 accounts to participate.
And while loop giveaways were nowhere near white hat practices, they have become a thing in 2019 since numerous celebrities have turned them into a sort of grey hat way to win more followers.
Here’s a loop giveaway from Veggiekins.
While loop giveaways aren’t necessarily a bad way to increase your brand visibility, SMEs should have clear and easy to participate in giveaways to earn their followers’ trust and show them that the price can be earned with a simple click.
2. Increase Social Reach with Email Marketing
Another popular marketing channel that works miracles is email marketing.
As one of the best cost-effective marketing channels to reach your customers, build relationships and incentivize them to take your CTAs, email marketing can be a powerful ally to your social media and influencer marketing endeavors.
If you think email marketing is difficult to do, think again!
The only two things you need to get started is a great email marketing platform and your creativity.
To find the best platform it only takes a couple of minutes to search the market and find numerous alternatives to Mailchimp like Moosend to equip you with the right weapons to emerge victorious in the marketing arena.
So, now that you’ve found your sword and shield, it’s time to use them to increase your social media reach.
If you’re wondering how it’s done, take a look at Starbuck’s email campaign below. If you want to automate the work flow to send bulk personalized emails to your subscribers, you can use a marketing automation tool available in the market.
Starbucks has a separate “Stay Connected With Us” section with various social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube their subscribers can click on and follow/subscribe to their favorite brand.
Email campaigns that include social media buttons will give their social media accounts a boost by informing their new and old subscribers that they also have a Facebook or Twitter presence. Since email still reigns supreme with the number of email users set to reach 4.4 billion by 2023, your social media marketing efforts have a powerful ally to get more traffic.
3. Find Creative and Passionate Influencers
Since the market has a plethora of products similar to yours, it falls upon the right marketing practices to distinguish yourself from the competition.
What you need to distinguish yourself from the rest is your creativity and innovation, two things that people seem to appreciate a lot when it comes to advertising.
To do so, you need to find creative influencers to present your product to the world through a series of posts and stories that will grab your audience’s attention at first snap!
While some may say that Snapchat is dead, they haven’t heard the last of it, yet.
Despite being a teen-oriented platform, Snapchat has slowly turned into an app that older audiences use to find inspiration, exchange moments and keep up with their favorite influencers.
As a story-driven platform, Snapchat is perfect for business since its influencers can deliver a series of powerful brand stories that will resemble short videos to excite and convert their audience.
Here’s an example from Mountain Dew’s Kickstart beverage.
To promote their new flavors, Mountain Dew teamed up with influencers Jerry Purpdrank, David Lopez and Dominic Sandoval (a.k.a. D-Trix) to make a cross-platform marketing campaign that increased customer engagement and boosted their Snapchat and Twitter accounts.
For Mountain Dew, choosing highly energetic people like former dancing contest winner D-Trix was perfect to showcase the drink by giving it a fun twist.
So, choosing the right influencers will give your products a new character that will make even the most difficult customers check your brand.
Leverage the Power of Micro-Influencers
Despite micro-influencers’ smaller audiences and reach, getting them aboard your influencer marketing ship can be one of your greatest assets.
Since micro-influencers have stronger bonds with their audience, their influence on them can have greater and longer-lasting results.
These influencers will not only help you establish a qualitative exchange with their audience but also costs SMEs less than hiring celebrities and famous influencers.
A great example comes from Popchips, which collaborated with Instagrammer Cristal Aisha to promote their snacks.
Takeaway
Social media and influencers are everywhere these days.
Taking advantage of the right tactics will help you promote your SME, increase your loyal customers and deliver them excellent customer experience.
So, next time you plan your social media and influencer marketing strategy don’t forget to choose the right digital channel and the right people to help you expand your SME and give it a place among the big brand pantheon.
And to make your social media presence less tedious, you should consider using marketing technology in the form of a social media marketing tool to speed up and automate the process.
Now, it’s your turn. Which tactic did you like most?
Let us know in the comments below.
Marilia is a Creative Writer working for email marketing software Moosend. Her passion for writing has made her find new ways to combine the art of Creative Writing with SEO Copywriting. When she’s not writing articles, you’ll find her spending time on her Drabbles.
