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3 Key Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting a Social Media Marketing Campaign

Guest post by: Kris De Leon

Article Overview: If you build it, they will come. Does this statement hold true for social media marketing? I have met several business owners who told me they thought that if they put up a Facebook page or set up a Twitter account, customers would come flooding through their doors or that their phones would ring off the hook. When they didn’t see any results, they sometimes wonder if social media is all hype. They’ve heard stories of how other businesses generated a large volume of leads and customers through social media. Why haven’t they seen similar results in their own business? When I ask them if they have a social media strategy in place, they often reply back with a silent look, sometimes feeling a bit embarrassed. They even mentioned that after creating their profiles, they did little or nothing to keep their profiles consistently active.

3 Key Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting a Social Media Marketing Campaign

If you build it, they will come. Does this statement hold true for social media marketing? I have met several business owners who told me they thought that if they put up a Facebook page or set up a Twitter account, customers would come flooding through their doors or that their phones would ring off the hook. When they didn’t see any results, they sometimes wonder if social media is all hype. They’ve heard stories of how other businesses generated a large volume of leads and customers through social media. Why haven’t they seen similar results in their own business? When I ask them if they have a social media strategy in place, they often reply back with a silent look, sometimes feeling a bit embarrassed. They even mentioned that after creating their profiles, they did little or nothing to keep their profiles consistently active.

When it comes to social media marketing, businesses must have a strategy in place if they are to convert online prospects into business. This includes creating a concrete action to plan to engage with their fans/followers, converting them into paying customers, and then measuring the results of the campaign’s performance. However, it is important to ask three key questions before starting a social media marketing campaign, in order to gain clarity on the purpose of their campaign and establish expectations.

Question #1: Who is your target market? This is one of the most important questions you will ask throughout the campaign, and is a question you should ask yourself before starting any type of marketing campaign. Does your business know exactly who to target? Perhaps your business may cater to 18-35 year old males. Or maybe your business offers products to females who are part of the baby boomer generation. Getting a clear idea of your target audience is the first key step to take before starting any kind of marketing campaign, whether it is an offline or online campaign.

Question #2: What is your ideal customer profile? This question digs a bit deeper from the first question, since you are narrowing down the type of customer you are looking to attract into your business. If your target market is 18-35 year old male, what specific type of customer within this group are you targeting? Are they males with a yearly income of $50,000 or more? Do they have an interest in sports? Do they live in a specific geographic region, such as New York? Getting clear on your ideal customer profile will help you create campaigns that are geared towards these types of people.

Question #3: What is your core message and how is this tied into your product and/or service? Once you have identified your target market, as well as the ideal customer profile within this market, the next step is to clarify the message you are conveying to this target market. In order to create your message, you must first know the needs of your market. By spending time thinking about the answers to the first two questions, you will have a much clearer understanding of your market needs. This step involves addressing how your product and/or service provide a solution to their needs.

Once you have gained clarity on these three questions, you are ready to start a social media marketing campaign that is targeted to your audience.

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Article Tags: creating a marketing strategy, facebook marketing, generate customers online, launching a social media campaign, linked in marketing, online business, online lead generation, social media marketing, social media marketing campaign, Twitter marketing, viral marketing
Referred by: http://www.AndyAcci.com



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Re: SES Toronto Next Week - In that case, how about the following? Track: Get Me Up to Speed * State of Search Marketing in Canada Track: Practical & Actionable * Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Online Mentions Track: Advanced * User Search Behavior * Social Media Success * Web 2.0 & Search Engines * Giving Credit Where It’s Due: Which Campaign Sold What?
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":gvtxsu7g]Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff[/quote:gvtxsu7g] Hi Jeff, Thanks for the suggestion. Why don't you start a new post (with a poll) to see if there's enough interest in your idea for a social media section?
Re: Should Evan add a "Social Media Marketing" category to the f - Hi, Online Marketing would be a great title, and having sub categories would make it even better, there would plenty of categories to choose from, Social Media, SEO, Article Marketing and yes even Affiliate Marketing to name just a few, great looking site btw Jeff, take care, Carol
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