Your business is most efficient when it has a plan.
You know what happens when you walk into a grocery store without an idea of what you actually need at home? You spend extra cash on things you didn’t actually need, and now that kale is going bad for the third in a row. (Sorry, Kale.) Your business is no different.
Without a set plan, it’s easy to waste time and money on techniques you THINK might be good, but haven’t actually strategized for best ROI (return on investment).
Back to the analogy: You have two lists. One for the grocery store, and one for the pharmacy, because the grocery store carries many of those vitamins that you need, but going to a specialty store gives you more specifics. This is your marketing strategy and subsequent social media strategy. You NEED the marketing strategy. The social strategy is ideal if you have the time, means, and willingness to invest.
Your Marketing Strategy vs. Your Social Media Strategy
What’s a Marketing Strategy?
Your marketing strategy is your action plan designed to promote and sell your product and/or service. It should include a high-level overview of your game plan to reach current and prospective customers based on your business plan. Your marketing strategy will be focused around your company’s selling proposition and values, and detail how it’ll handle PR, outreach, and the advertising budget.
Your Marketing Strategy May Include:
- Target market (demographic/personas break-down based on research)
- Value proposition
- Key brand messaging
- General marketing budget breakdown
- Planned outlets
- PESTEL analysis
- Social, PPC, SEO, Email plans
Bottom Line: In a world filled with so many choices and increasing number of competitors no matter what your market may be, ALL businesses should have a marketing strategy, even if it’s just a supplemental piece of the business plan.
What’s a Social Media Strategy?
Your social strategy is a section of your marketing strategy, and may be just as lengthy if you deem social an important outlet (we highly recommend that you do). A social strategy incorporates your brand’s voice and tonality so that every post, promotional piece, and ad “sounds” like your brand. Providing cohesion and clarity to your customer base helps build a community and increases your trustworthiness.
Without a social marketing strategy, your posts may lose a sense of branding, the customer can’t get to “know you” and feel invested. It also outlines your goals, expectations, budget breakdown. Without understanding what your goals are, who your target audience is per platform, and what they want, it’ll be hard to achieve results on social media. It’ll also risk you burning out and getting sick of the social game.
Your Social Strategy May Include:
- Social platforms being utilized
- Branding/Voice
- Phrases to focus tonality around
- Target Markets PER SOCIAL PLATFORM
- Hashtag research
- SMART goals
- Competitor Analysis
- Engagement plan
- CTAs and KPI metrics
These lists of what your strategies may include are not comprehensive, but a good place to get you started.
Both Marketing and Social Media Strategies help you maintain cohesion and focus on your big picture goals. They should be building blocks to your business plan, supporting the overall wants and needs of your business while ensuring that the spotlight shines on your business when someone is trip planning, typing into a search engine, or looking for places that carry a product in your area.
Don’t know where to start? Reach out and we’ll ask you 5 simple questions to figure out what work needs to be done to make your business shine and be seen.
Skye Glen Consulting Inc. 