For some time now, social media has been seen as a useful marketing tool. As a result, many businesses have gained lots of attention from using these sites. However, when these sites go down, it becomes clear that it’s unpredictable to rely on these platforms.
Social media has changed the game for small businesses and levelled the playing field to compete with larger brands. However, things can change quickly, leading to tactics such as this becoming obsolete.
Is it Risky to Rely on Social Media?
The short answer is yes- if you rely heavily on social media, you are taking a risk. These platforms are in no way legally obligated to users. Things can change quickly, especially with the nature of this business.
Alternatives to Social Media Marketing
Recently, there seems to be a push for big publishers to move away from social media groups. While it’s true that social media is a viable option for reaching your target market, you might also want to consider diversifying your efforts. It is important to reach out to customers on various platforms to bolster brand recognition and increase conversion rates.
Below, you will find 8 alternatives to social media. The more of these that you use, the greater your chances of not only keeping your existing customers but reaching new ones as well.
Strengthen Product/Landing Pages
To maintain visibility, you’ll want to make sure that your website is updated and fully functional. Consider these SEO best practices:
- Identify/map out an SEO strategy with keyword research
- Create organized landing pages and make sure they are easy to navigate
- Update product pages/images and be aware of the checkout and cart
- Use original images
- Optimize titles/subtitles with keywords
- Optimize all pages for mobile users
- Add live chat/chatbots for quick customer inquiries
Use Your Blog
Your blog is where you put your content, and you have more freedom with the content that you put on there than you do with your landing/product pages. However, make sure that the content is relevant to your product and the interests of shoppers. Traffic is great, but you must make sure that you are converting those visitors to customers.
Once you have your blog established, it can compensate for the lack of social media marketing.
Register and Advertise Your Business with Google
Google quietly retired their social media platform, Google+. However, there are other ways that your business can engage with the company.
A great place to start is GoogleAds. You can pay a fee to have your business featured above the top or below the bottom results of any given page. Of course, the pricing depends on the content and traffic of your site.
Additionally, you need to register with Google My Business to ensure that basic business info will be visible on the search results page when someone searches for your business. For example, make sure that you include your phone number, hours, location, eCommerce site, reviews, and photos. This makes it easier for potential customers to contact you when they find you in search results.
Email Marketing Campaign
A great email marketing campaign is precious. It’s easy, and it reaches a vast audience all at once time. Additionally, email marketing campaigns are affordable, which provides a better ROI than other marketing channels.
Make Informative Videos
Recently, Google has started placing a higher value on video content. This is because users demand/respond to it more than most other marketing sources. They don’t have to be professional quality, and they can be basic, as long as the content is helpful.
Many businesses post their videos on social media pages, but they should also be included on your website and even your branded YouTube channel.
Local Advertising
If you want to make your marketing more affordable and targeted, start thinking local because social media does reach many people, but conversion percentages are low overall. When you take a more narrow approach, you end up bringing in more new customers at a lower cost. You can do this both online and offline.
Online Local
To be successful in online local advertising, you need to make sure that your business is optimized for local SEO. This includes having an up-to-date Google My Business account. Once you do this, you can try running a local Google Ads campaign, which sets you up for location-based searches.
If you’ve already done this, consider reaching out to local news outlets and blogs to see if they can feature your business on their articles. This will require some effort but can provide you with a high amount of traffic.
Offline Local
Even though digital is primarily used, print ads are not dead. There are ways that you can spread your name without encouraging high amounts of ink/paper to be handed out through your community.
If you have a decent budget, you can host a community event and use that opportunity to network and show how you can help. Make the community aware of your value; in addition to hosting an event, partner with other businesses to rent a space to do a pop-up shop. This will give you the chance to interact with different business owners in your area and get to know your customers on a face-to-face basis.
Build a List of Customers
You want to immediately start working on your customer relationship management or CRM so that you can increase your conversion rates. CRM handles interactions with past and potential customers. It keeps you connected with your shoppers. It’s easy for customers to lapse from being a regular, so a friendly reminder that you’re still there can go a long way.
CRM is easy to get started. Put your system in place and ask each shopper if they’d be interested in providing contact info. Many retailers offer an incentive for sharing this information, such as a one-time discount or a loyalty program.
Ultimately, your CRM should benefit your business as well as your customers.
Get Reviews from Customers
While it is still a type of social media, we’ll consider online review platforms a break away from social media. Make sure that you’re keeping up with review sites. Register with TripAdvisor, FourSquare, Yelp, etc. this will allow you to add pertinent information and to interact with your reviewers. Thank those who leave positive ones and reach out to address the situation with those who had a negative experience.
Conclusion
More and more businesses are moving away from social media as a marketing avenue due to the issues that can occur. However, there are plenty of other options available, as you have seen here. Finally, visit https://viafoura.com/ to learn more about opportunities for marketing your business.
