Thousands of brands in your industry already have a social media marketing strategy in place. Without one, you’ll be left posting ad hoc content on different platforms with one or two viewers to engage. Scroll down to outpace your competitors by learning about creating a social media strategy proposal and comprehensive steps to creating a social media marketing strategy. 

On learning about the widespread reach of social media, you might have asked the youngest employee of your company to start posting about the company randomly. Without a proper direction, they wouldn’t be able to navigate your business towards success. For succeeding in your venture, measuring the success of your post beyond the count of likes and comments is important. 

Creating an impactful and measured social media strategy is the need of the hour. It instantly gives you access to a user base of 3.7 billion (that’s 48% of people on earth!). A survey by Pew Research Center concluded with interesting statistics. According to their study, the percentage distribution of social media users based on their age is given below. 

• 65 years and older: 45%
• 50-64 years: 73%
• 30-49 years: 81%
• 18-29 years: 84%

Depending on the age of your target audience, you can select one of the right platforms – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, or a combination of platforms, to reach your audience effectively. 

But even after selecting the right platform, posting content that engages your audience can be a daunting task. Let’s take a look at how social media marketing can be used effectively.

What is social media marketing? 

When a company uses social media to promote its brand, the strategy adopted for promotion is Social Media Marketing. In this type of marketing, you can use social media for: 

• Promoting your company
• Promoting your products or services
• Building a community with prospective customers
• Partnering with other brands
• Driving traffic to your business
• Receiving feedback from your clients and customers
• Addressing customer complaints

The primary purpose of social media marketing is to make a customer or prospect feel close and connected with your brand. For establishing this connection, you must devise strategies leveraging the new features of different social media platforms. 

Creating A Social Media Strategy Proposal

As a marketer, possessing the skills isn’t enough to win clients. Whether you are a freelancer or an employee at an agency, the knowledge of creating a social media proposal will always help you. These proposals can support your endeavour to close deals with clients or respond to a request for a proposal. 

Also known as a social media marketing strategy, a proposal is an online or printed document that enlists a company’s proposed set of marketing services. In this document, you will be highlighting the goal of the customer along with the steps suggested for working on it. In the end, the timeline and budget for the project are highlighted along with an optional explanation for the same. 

Steps To Creating A Social Media Marketing Strategy

For writing a winning social media strategy, follow the steps listed below. 

• Set an attainable goal: Getting a thousand new customers in the first month of social media marketing is one of the counterexamples of achievable goals. Many businesses on social media have a vague to no answer for their goals on social media. Generally, your social media goals are in parallel to your company’s business goals.

The best way to set an attainable goal is to ensure that it includes the following characteristics: 

• Specific: Your goal must be specific to ensure that the objective is crystal clear to the team of marketers. Along with these tangible goals, you must enlist the resources that will be used for meeting these goals.

• Time-bound: Without a deadline to motivate you, completing the targets to meet the goal will become difficult. This encourages you to apply the required focus and discipline for meeting the objective. If the goal isn’t sufficiently accomplished by the end of the timeframe, you must realise the strategy’s ineffectiveness and try other ways to fulfil the purpose.

• Relevant: The goal you’re setting for social media marketing must be relevant for your business. For example, setting a target for ‘x’ number of likes and comments on each post will not help you meet your business goals. You must start by asking yourself if meeting this goal should be a top priority for your brand or not.

• Measurable: It’s good to mention what success means for your company explicitly. If reaching 5000 people through the first two posts is your aim, this measurable goal will help you track your project at every regular interval.

• Attainable: Take a pen and paper to note your requirements from a social media marketing campaign. These demands must be achievable and not impossible. While they must be challenging enough, like getting four customers in a month, it must exist within the bounds of reality, unlike getting 900 customers in the first month.

Some examples of the ideal goals are: 

• Improving your Return on Investment (ROI)
• Growing your followers
• Encouraging viewers for in-store purchase
• Selling more products or services

• Know your target audience: Once your goals are penned down, the next step is to determine who they are for. Knowing your target audience makes it easier to implement the strategy. Here, you decide the right platform, time, and type of content for the post. For example, a musical instrument store knows that its audience prefers watching tips for playing music and exploring the trends in the music industry. By sharing such content on their social media, they can attract the desired consumers to their company.

• Select the right social media platform: If your target audience spends a significant amount of time on Instagram, it won’t make sense for you to be on Twitter. It’s alright to miss a platform or two if your target audience does not use them frequently. Your primary focus should be on making the most of the platform used by your prospects, even if it means working on only one platform. Examples of social media platforms are Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Koo, and Twitch.

Example Of A Social Media Strategy

Now that you have understood marketing strategies let’s look at some examples. 

• Using chatbots: Chatbots have been a trending part of social media marketing for a long time now. They can talk, solve problems, and give a personal touch while communicating with your audience. These features ensure that they never go out of trend. Use an AI-powered chatbot to answer your customer queries and engage with them on social media.

• Building a community: Your customers must know that your scope of work expands beyond attracting customers. When they see you working for the community and creating a better world, they will soon turn into loyal customers. The best way to do this is by posting funny and witty content that invokes varied emotions. Ask your audience to interact with each other through comments.

• Running cross-platform marketing campaigns: If you’re working with more than one social media platform, try running a campaign across social media platforms to engage a broader audience base. For standing out among your competitors, you can add an emotional touch to your campaigns that allow your audience to connect with your work. Start by telling an engaging story and ask your audience to take further action by using your (unique and easy to remember) hashtag(s).

Social Media Marketing Strategy Template

You can create an effective social media marketing template by implementing the steps listed in the previous sections.

Start by introducing the project in the first paragraph. Here you can talk about how your team is well-equipped to manage this project. In the following sections, explain how you can match their social media goals with their existing goals to create an impactful strategy. Include your scope of work followed by the expected project deadlines and budget. In the end, you can also include some example proof of work from your previous projects to show your clients that you’re the best person for this job. 

Marketing Strategy On Social Media Platforms

Your marketing strategy on Facebook will be widely different from the marketing strategy the Instagram page demands. Facebook has a user base of 1.9 billion people worldwide, and it is used actively for advertising and brand awareness. B2C brands use it enthusiastically for paid and organic advertising. With 1 billion active users per month, Instagram is another platform used by B2C companies for displaying high-quality images and videos. As the platform allows for selling products directly through images, the strategy for promoting on Instagram must stand out from other platforms. 

Conclusion

Apart from these tips, you can add some more from your professional experience to find the best strategy for your company. In some cases, surveying your target audience can also help get unique and out-of-the-box ideas for your brand. 

Good luck with social media marketing!