From TikTok to Instagram to Pinterest, modern businesses can take advantage of several social media opportunities to connect with their audiences.
But getting started with social media marketing can be intimidating — not only do you have to navigate the many platforms, but you also have to strike a winning balance that lets you drive engagement, build brand awareness, and boost sales.
In this guide, understand how your marketing mix can play a key role in your business’ social media strategy.
The marketing mix — often known as the five Ps of marketing — is a foundational business concept that includes product, place, price, promotion, and people.
This is what you're selling, whether it's physical goods, services, or digital offerings. It's also about understanding what makes your product unique — like the branding, features, or benefits — and how it fits into the market.
Where do you sell and distribute your products? This could be anything from a physical store to an online platform.
Price encompasses not only how much your product costs but also pricing strategies that factor into market demand, profit margins, and competitor pricing.
How do you communicate about your product to your audience? Promotion typically includes advertising, sales, personal selling, digital marketing, and PR.
People refers to both the staff involved in your business (including distributors, suppliers, and employees) and your target customers.
Here’s how social media can amplify the five Ps:
While your social media marketing journey will differ based on what you sell and who you’re selling to, there are some universal best practices.
Nobody wants their social media marketing efforts to be a hodgepodge of train-of-thought posts and random ads.
Instead, take the time to define your goals. Is it brand awareness, customer engagement, lead generation, or direct sales? Use your objectives to narrow down the types of content you create.
Your goals will also determine your key performance indicators (KPIs). Social media content engagement rates, follower growth, conversion rates, and social media content reach are all great starting points.
While there are plenty of external tools, social media platforms typically offer analytics tools to uncover how your content is performing, who engages with it, and the overall impact on your business objectives.
Once your social media marketing program is up and running, use this data to continually refine your content strategy. Experiment with different posting schedules, content types, and promotional tactics to discover what resonates best with your audience.
The power of social media platforms revolves around their targeting capabilities. Rather than blasting messages to everyone, you can reach specific groups most likely to be interested in your business.
Using data from existing customer feedback and website analytics, review who your audience is. Consider demographic factors like age, gender, location, income level, as well as interests, values, and online habits — what platforms they use, when they're most active, and the kind of content they engage with.
With so many social media platforms available, it’s important to consider each one’s unique strengths and how they cater to different demographics.
For example:
TikTok and Pinterest, in particular, can help boost brand visibility through feeding users personalized, visual content, making it easier for people to discover and connect with new businesses.
Conduct thorough research to see which platforms align most with your goals and target audience, and check out PayPal’s guide to selling on specific social media marketplaces.
Before you dive into the challenge of creating social media content, take the time to complete a social media competitor analysis.
Focus on questions like:
Ready to bring your social media marketing strategy to life? Keep these tips in mind:
Learn more about how to market your business on social media.
Building a social media presence that drives sales starts with creating a marketing strategy.
Use the five Ps of marketing as your north star and focus on building a foundation rooted in goals, your target audience, and any relevant platforms. Experimentation is key, so mix it up to see what resonates with your audience most.
In partnership with three expert business owners, the PayPal Bootcamp includes practical checklists and a short video loaded with tips to help take your business to the next level.
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