Effectively promoting your business on social media takes work. It can be a rewarding experience for your business and you when done effectively. Getting the most out of social media takes more than a guessing game and more than just randomly trying different things. It takes research, specifically into your business. No matter what business you are in you probably spent some time learning how to do whatever it is your business does right? It takes time, perseverance, and practice to develop any crafting skills that you may use in your business. It takes research, education, and practice to develop the skills you need to offer the service/s that you do.
I want to point out that social media requires the same level of time, perseverance, research, education, and practice. Not only do you have to learn about effective uses of social media, you also have to learn about your business. And that is what I want to talk to you about today. Learning about your business. Sure when you design an ad to place on social media it is great to click that everyone 18-65 is a potential customer across the entire United States. And while that may be true I am going to be brutally honest with you, that is not the demographics of your ideal customer. Although 100% of your customers fall into this category more than likely. 90% of your ideal clients have a much more detailed demographic that you can target through the power of social media. Looking at this another way why would you waste your hard earned advertising money on a wide group of people that you may get a 1 – 2% return on when you can target a more specific group of people and get a 30% or higher return on? (Yes 30% return or higher is, I would argue, possible but you have to REALLY understand your target audience!)
I want to challenge you to be honest with yourself and your business. Who is your customer most likely to be? Take a look at your current customers and list everything they have in common. For example, 18 – 45 split pretty well between male and female, coffee lovers who like a low key atmosphere, black and white photography, and appreciate live music. They also happen to overwhelmingly be middle class affluent, most of the older customers own homes while the younger are more likely to rent. Most live within 10 miles of your business.
So what does all of this tell us? In my professional opinion that we should run two ads. One set up to appeal to a younger crowd 18-30ish with a cool hip picture of coffee and live music. We should target middle-class renters. I think we should also run an older ad 30ish to 45 and set that up to run for middle-class homeowners. Both ads should not extend for more than 12 miles from the store. Now that is for running ads. If you are also posting on social media I would post frequently your live events. I would post articles about photography, music, and the love of coffee. I would post community events both the older and younger demographic would be interested. I would encourage and develop the sense of community that surrounds your coffee shop. You will get a much larger response rate by targeting your ads to this demographic and you will not be wasting money on people who just will never come in your coffee shop (silly tea drinkers).
I would encourage anyone who is developing their businesses online social media presence to really do the research and become an expert in your business. Who stops by, who is most likely to buy, who are your current customers. All of this information will help you be more effective on social media. As always I am happy to help your business in any way I can send me an email with your questions. If you are interested in know more about how AR Media Productions can support your social media management efforts stop by our website to learn more.
