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Last month we discussed the importance of communicating with your current consumers. Now, it’s all about reaching out to your future ones.
If you don’t grow, you’re not moving forward.
With that said, it is just as important to reach your prospects as it is staying in touch with your current consumers.
Since things are dramatically changing, what works for people now? What does it take to get noticeably new followers, increased engagement rates, and more sales online from your social media prospecting?
For this blog, we will be discussing
To start, let’s…
We all have triggers, but none are the same. However, we all can relate to the basics. Those could be fear, trust, guilt, competition, leadership, value, gratification, “FOMO,” humor, sadness, time, sense of belonging, and so on. Though, how do you know what ones work best for your targeted consumers?
It may help to understand the psychology aspect of it first.
Marketing involves a lot more psychology than we may think. Professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California, Antonio Damasio, states in his book Descartes Error, that “emotion is a necessary ingredient to almost all decisions.”
More so than not, consumers base their purchasing choices on the emotions they feel towards the brand, rather than the brand’s attributes, features, and facts. In other words, the feeling an audience receives from an advertisement or post resonates more with them than the actual content.
“Emotion is a necessary ingredient to almost all decisions.”–Antonio Damasio
The most important thing to remember here, is that you need to create an emotional connection with your brand and your desired audience in order to increase your engagement rate.
One way to do that is stay true to your brand’s personality, and it’s story. If you do not have a distinct personality, create one, and stick to it. If people feel like an actual human is talking to them, they are going to feel more emotionally connected to a brand.
“Research reveals that consumers perceive the same type of personality characteristics in brands as they do in other people.” – How Emotions Influence What We Buy article
Going back to using triggers, they obviously make us feel a certain way. By truly understanding this connection, it will help guide you in the right direction when deciding on how to draw more consumers in. Know what it is you want them to do, and figure out what kind of “trigger” is the best way for them to initiate the desired response.
In order to find the best triggers, you must truly…
Understanding who your target market is and how to reach them is vital to having a beneficial engagement rate. Especially when you are trying to decide what emotional triggers work best for reaching your targeted consumers.
There are several things to do in order to get a full representation of what types of people your consumers are. The most important one being researching and collecting as much data as possible.
Therefore know how to…
One thing you can do is utilize the tools that are available on your social media platforms, such as Google Analytics, Twitter Analytics, TweetDeck, and Sprout Social . By keeping up with these you can see who is reading your content, around what times they are doing so, and so much more.
Timing is everything with social media now. You must have an idea on when the best times are to reach people in order to maximize your engagement rate. In order to do so, you must have an idea of what type of consumers are keeping up with your company, and what times they are most frequently online.
To go along with that, you must…
Once you have the timing down, and your personas built up for your targeted consumers, now you can create content based on what you’ve found. Providing information that your audience can actually find useful on your social media pages will do wonders on your engagement rate. If people see that you care enough to share important information for their benefit, rather than just bombard them on how great your company is, they’re going to trust you more.
According to Zhi Yuan, author of the, 21 Social Media Engagement Tactics That Will Grow Your Audience , “80% of marketers share 3rd-party content in order to improve company visibility and buzz.”
With that said, it’s important to…
Knowing what social media sites your target audience uses the most is just as important as providing relevant content. That is why we cannot stress enough how necessary it is to know the ins and outs of your targeted consumers so you know how to effectively speak to them. By understanding your audience, you’ll be able to increase your engagement rate by understanding what grasps their attention the most.
For example, photos and videos are a great way to get more retweets and shares. They should almost always be included in a post, especially when it is over 75-100 characters long. However, what types of videos, and photos have the best chances of getting retweeted by your viewers? Freebies and contests are very popular, but their success varies from platform to platform. Instagram and Facebook work the best for contests, but does your target audience use those applications enough to have a prominent outcome? These are things you need to think about and understand, in order to see that engagement rate start to go up.
Since you understand the significance of emotional triggers, and why it’s so important to know who you are speaking to, now you’re ready to see the magic happen.
To get “put on the map,” you must find ways to constantly improve your interactions online. By doing so, this not only helps with spreading the awareness of your company or increasing sales, but it moves your SEO ranking up as well. The closer your SEO ranking is to the top, the more chances a possible consumer will choose your company over others when they search for relatable products or services.
Therefore, don’t be afraid to….
Don’t just wait for them to come to you. Take advantage of your resources and hunt for prospects online yourself. Sometimes customers may be in need of your services, but for some reason may never find you.
LinkedIn is fantastic for prospecting. Take it from Lindsey Boggs. See here how she tripled her business, just by using LinkedIn. Using relevant #hashtags, as well as searching for some, can introduce you to new followers. Just type in a hashtag related to your business and see what people are talking about.
To find more suitable followers…
By sharing daily social issues and topics, it enhances your credibility which brings in more followers. It also shows that you are online and paying attention. Not only that but by keeping up with current events online will help lead you to more attainable followers. Take a look here to see how Oreo increased their engagement rate with their innovative “Daily Twist,” campaign.
Don’t forget to….
If you are getting very few shares on a blog post, it may be because it is difficult to share. Try using a sharing widget that offers 1 or 2 platforms to easily post on through your site. Here is an example…
This way viewers can easily go from one place to another without any confusion or frustration. Having it right in front them will also help increase the chances of it actually getting reposted. Asking and allowing them to easily follow you on social media right from the blog post can also help increase your followers.
In the end, the main key to increase your engagement rate is to constantly communicate with your followers. Be available to immediately answer questions. Stay involved in groups chats, and discussions. Create polls and Q&A sessions for your customers to easily interact with you, and stay consistent. Your voice will be heard if it is constantly in the forefront.
The most relevant thing to note here, is at least know that creating emotion is more important than sharing how awesome your product is. You can’t have a successful marketing campaign, if you don’t know much about your targeted audience. Last but not least, in order to see that engagement rate go up, you must stay involved. Use what you know from researching your desired consumers, and act accordingly.
Have any questions about this blog, or would like to learn more?
Feel free to contact us.
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