Social media marketing is an integral and essential part of any business marketing strategy regardless of the industry.  An important benefit of social media marketing is building brand awareness and increasing website visits. A business that does not have social media accounts that they regularly update are costing themselves potentially hundreds or thousands of website visits. This is especially true during this pandemic period when people are consuming a lot more on social media.

However, not all social media marketing is the same and there are going to be different tactics that are best suited for specific types of businesses. For example, a startup or small business is likely not going to have a huge marketing budget to work with. Therefore, they are going to need to find some cheap digital marketing solutions to find advertising that fits their budget. Luckily, there are plenty of inexpensive ways to do social media marketing, with the following options being the most cost-effective ones that are all but guaranteed to provide a great ROI.

Organic Advertising

Organic Advertising is the most cost-effective social media marketing strategy because it is completely free. Once a business has their basics down, they can start advertising organically through their social media platforms based on their goals and ideal audience. Basics include A corporate account, social media posting calendar, and some follower base. It is best practices to also invite your staff and colleagues to like and follow the company’s social media pages.

Organic advertising posts should be almost indistinguishable from regular social media posts.

The key ingredient to a successful social media marketing campaign is deciding the right platform to use based on the company’s target audience. For example, if a business is trying to target other business owners or executives in their early 50’s or beyond,  they may focus on social media platforms that are more respected among older professionals such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. However, a business that is seeking a much younger audience may want to take a look at using Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook for organic advertising.

Once they create a corporate social media account on their chosen platform, they can then start their organic advertising campaign by creating a series of posts that strategically promote their brand. The important thing is to choose content and posts that bring value to your target audience. In fact, if done properly, organic advertising posts should be almost indistinguishable from regular social media posts. This is the best way to get users to stop scrolling and actually read and click on the advertising post without even realizing that is what it is.

 Before a business expects any significant results from their organic advertising, they need to make sure that they build a sufficient online following first.

As mentioned before, doing this in-house does not cost the business a single cent, however it may be time-consuming to stay consistent with creating good content. If you have the budget for it, a great way to minimize work, save time, and guarantee better results can be to hire a digital media company to create and advertise posts. However, before a small business dives headfirst into using this tactic, they should keep in mind that its reach capabilities are limited. Although organic advertising can be very useful if done properly, it almost never has the same level of benefits that come from paid advertising on social media platforms.

Before a business can expect to see significant results from organic advertising, they must put their efforts towards building a sufficient following first.

Include Videos

Here is an example of a video Skyline managed, shot and curated for our client, Frontier Communities.

Including media is critical at gaining attention when it comes to social media marketing. To create momentum and a loyal following, businesses should consider creating video content. Because of its dynamic nature, video outperforms blogs or posts with images and keeps the attention of a potential customer for long periods of time.

 The best types of video content to go with are explanatory or informative videos that answer questions

Some of the best types of video content to go with are explanatory or informative videos that answer questions about the business’s various products or services, frequently asked questions, or product/service launches. According to Video Marketing Statistics 2020: The State of Video Marketing”, Wyzowl Dec 2019, People are twice as likely to share video content with their friends than any other type of content.

These are effective tools in getting prospective customers to spend a bit more time looking at the business’s content, which makes them more likely to convert into paying customers.  In the same study, 87% of video marketers say video has increased traffic to their website, 81% of say video has helped increase the average time their visitors spend on-page, and over 80% say it helped increase leads and increase sales. 

Creating good video content may not be something that costs a lot of money, it just takes time to do it with purpose and strategy. If a business is willing to dive into video content with a budget, there are many great opportunities to connect with videographers and studios like Skyline that can strategize, create video content and execute effective advertising campaigns on your social platforms.

Live Stream Events

Live Streaming has become a huge part of our work culture since the pandemic hit. Many marketers smartly and timely jumped on the bandwagon to create and distribute content seamlessly to newer audiences.

In some ways, live streaming is just another form of video content, but most marketers know that it is so much more. As mentioned above, a huge barrier to creating video content is the amount of time, details, and energy it takes to shoot the material to tell a story. However, this issue is eliminated when it comes to live-streaming. An added bonus to live streaming is that it is cost-effective.

Depending on the content, subject matter experts, or panelists, this way of content distribution is cheaper than hosting a physical event, and also guarantees higher attention spans from viewers since they have signed up to participate in your content.

One of the biggest [benefits] is […] companies can read customer questions or feedback as soon as it comes up and instantly give them an answer.

There are plenty of other benefits that companies receive from live streaming. One of the biggest ones is that live streaming provides an opportunity for companies to engage with their customers on a real-time basis. Rather than receiving a comment on a post or a review on their site and replying to them a day or two later, companies can read customer questions or feedback as soon as it comes up and instantly gives them an answer. This open dialogue helps to create a stronger bond between the business and its customers.

Live streaming gives people the opportunity to show some more of their personality, which is something that customers can really connect to.

Another big benefit of live streaming content is that it provides a business with an opportunity to show the faces that are behind the products or services. Unlike a lot of explanation videos, live streaming gives people the opportunity to show some more of their personality, which is something that customers can really connect to. Therefore, the more often that a company live-streams, the more likely they are to connect with their user base. In these times, connections are highly important to business longevity.

 In a constantly changing environment, staying at par with the trends of the market is crucial to the success of a business’s social media strategy. Even though there are many cost-effective ways, there are content studios and agencies to consider if businesses have limited bandwidth and some budget to spend.

About Skyline:

Skyline is Southern California News Group’s in-house Content Studio. We provide our clients with a full campaign support team to develop messaging, build-out creative direction and design, identify formats for content and distribution, and assembling media schedules for promotion. Our suite of services includes Custom Content, Branded Content, Influencer Marketing, Media Planning, and Creative Services.

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