If your business has any kind of online presence, then you’re probably already creating and sharing content in an effort to connect with your audience and reach new prospects. You may even have a blog where you can post and share your content. But is your blog working as hard for you as it could be?
Your blog is a tool that can do so much more than just share updates about your business and the products or services you offer. When used correctly, your blog can help to boost your online presence, build brand awareness and authority, and attract and engage new prospects. It can also help you convert readers into leads and customers.
Here are 12 ways that you can use your blog to boost your online presence and achieve your business goals.
1. Start with the right goals
Before you start with any social media advertising, you need to identify your goals. What are you trying to accomplish with your paid social media campaign?
Your goals may include increasing brand awareness, getting more website traffic, getting more leads, or increasing online sales.
Your goals will inform the rest of your strategy and will help you to determine what success looks like. Make sure your goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, you may want to measure success by how many people you reach with your ads.
2. Choose the right platform
Not all social media platforms are created equal, and the same goes for paid social ads.
The platform you choose will depend on your target audience. For example, if you’re trying to reach a younger demographic, Instagram might be your best bet. If you’re targeting an older audience, Facebook could be the way to go.
It’s also important to consider the type of content you want to promote. For example, if you want to run a video ad, you might want to consider YouTube or Facebook, where video content is more popular.
3. Know your audience
This is Marketing 101, but it’s surprising how many businesses fail to identify their target market.
When you’re running paid ads, you need to know who you’re trying to reach. Otherwise, you’re just throwing money at the wall and hoping something sticks.
Creating a customer profile can help you identify your target market. A customer profile is a detailed description of your ideal customer. It includes information such as age, gender, occupation, income, interests, and more.
For businesses involved in eCommerce for manufacturing, knowing the target market is crucial for optimizing resources and messaging. Manufacturers selling directly to businesses or consumers can use customer profiles to tailor their ads to decision-makers or procurement teams in industries that need their products.
The more detailed you can make your customer profile, the better. This will help you create ads that speak directly to your target market.
4. Use the right ad format
The next step is to select the ad format that will work best for your campaign objectives.
Facebook and Instagram have a variety of ad formats to choose from, including:
• Carousel ads
• Single image ads created using AI image prompts
• Video ads
• Slideshow ads
• Collection ads
• Instant experience ads
• Lead generation ads
• Post engagement ads
Each ad format has its own unique benefits and can be used to achieve different objectives.
For example, if you want to showcase multiple products, a carousel ad is a great option. If you want to promote a single product, a single image ad or video ad could work best.
If you’re not sure which ad format to use, you can always test different formats to see which one performs the best.
5. Create a content calendar
One of the best ways to keep your social media marketing on track is to create a content calendar.
This is a calendar that outlines the content you’ll be sharing on social media for a specific period of time, usually a month.
Creating a content calendar helps to ensure that you’re sharing a good mix of content and that you’re not missing any important holidays or events.
It also helps to keep you organized and makes it easier to track your progress.
When you’re running paid social ads, you can use your content calendar to plan out what ads you’ll be running and when.
This will help you to stay organized and ensure that you’re not missing any opportunities.
6. Test your ads
Social media platforms are always changing, so it’s important to test your ads frequently to see what works best for your business.
You can test different ad formats, targeting options, and copy to see what resonates most with your target audience.
Testing your ads will help you get the best results and improve your social media advertising strategy over time.
7. Use the right call to action
The call to action (CTA) you use in your ad will depend on the goal of your campaign.
For example, if you want to drive traffic to your website, you might use a CTA like “Learn more” or “Shop now.” If you want to generate leads, you might use a CTA like “Sign up” or “Get started.”
It’s important to choose the right CTA for your campaign. If you use the wrong CTA, you could end up driving the wrong type of traffic to your website, which will hurt your conversion rate.
8. Use video
Most people are visual learners and video is a great way to capture your audience’s attention and get your message across in a short amount of time. Plus, video ads tend to get more engagement on social media than other types of ads.
You don’t need to spend a lot of money on video production to create effective video ads. You can use your smartphone to record a short video, create AI-generated videos using Synthesia or top Synthesia alternatives, or you can use free or low-cost video editing tools like the Visme infographic maker to create a professional-looking video ad.
Just make sure that your video ad is short and to the point. Most social media users have short attention spans, so you need to get your message across quickly.
9. Use targeting options
Social media platforms have robust targeting options that allow you to get your ads in front of the right people.
You can target users based on their location, age, gender, interests, behaviors, and more. You can even create custom audiences based on your own data, such as email lists or website visitors.
Using targeting options will help you make sure you’re getting the most out of your ad budget by only showing your ads to people who are likely to be interested in your products or services.
10. Use social proof
Social proof is a powerful tool that can help you build trust with your target audience and increase your chances of getting conversions.
There are many different types of social proof that you can use in your paid social ads, such as customer reviews, testimonials, case studies and user-generated content.
No matter what type of social proof you use, the key is to make sure that it’s relevant to your ad and your target audience. If you can do that, social proof can be a very effective way to increase your conversion rates.
11. Use lookalike audiences
Lookalike audiences are a great way to reach new people who are likely to be interested in your business because they’re similar to your best existing customers.
You can create lookalike audiences in Facebook Ads Manager and LinkedIn Campaign Manager by uploading a list of your current customers. The platform will then use that list to find new people who are similar to your customers.
You can also create lookalike audiences based on website visitors, app users, or people who have interacted with your business on Facebook or Instagram.
12. Monitor your results
Finally, you need to monitor your results to determine how effective your ads are and make adjustments as needed.
Most social media platforms offer detailed analytics that allow you to see how your ads are performing. Look at metrics like reach, engagement, clicks and conversions to gauge the success of your campaign.
You should also monitor the comments and messages you receive on your ads. This will give you a sense of what people are saying about your brand and help you identify any issues that need to be addressed. To enhance this process, using a data-driven decision-making tool can provide deeper insights by analyzing trends and patterns, helping you make more informed adjustments to your ad strategy.
If your ads aren’t performing as well as you’d like, it may be time to make some changes. You could try tweaking your targeting, adjusting your budget or changing the creative.
Conclusion
Learn more about how we make social media easy for you, and feel free to reach out to us with any questions. We’re here to help.
