An impactful social media marketing campaign needs a variety of elements to work harmoniously. For the inexperienced digital marketer, this can sometimes prove to be a challenging task, especially if resources are limited.

Many people underestimate the power of social network outreach, acknowledging that it’s “better than nothing” but not really taking it as seriously as their other marketing efforts. In truth, social media marketing can be one of the most powerful avenues for generating more interest, engagement and, most importantly, leads.

Even if your organisation understands the utility of a social media campaign, they may have no idea how to accurately analyse its success in terms of ROI. Just like SEO, the payoff is long-term results rather than a quick bang for your buck.

With that said, let’s take a look at the most important steps you need to take to ensure social media success.

1.     A comprehensive plan

Any good social media marketing campaign needs to have a concrete plan in place prior to beginning. The campaign you engineer needs to follow the natural development of you brand’s social messaging and fit into your overarching approach to social media.

Firstly, conduct some research into the network you’ve already established and where your competition is getting engagement. Make sure to acknowledge that different platforms attract different audiences with different engagement behaviour.

For example, if your product is targeted towards middle-aged men, you probably won’t benefit from investing heavily in an Instagram campaign. Make sure you know as much as possible about your target’s interaction with the platform, including what time they’re most active and what similar campaigns they’ve positively responded to.

Now it’s time for you to figure out the appropriate budget and resource commitment. Make sure you have discretionary spending in case you need to alter something mid-way.

2.     Setting measurable goals

As with any marketing endeavour, you need to have a clear idea of what your goals are and how you’ll measure your progress towards them. Being able to easily identify if you’re on the right track can help you to stay committed and prove to others that the campaign is working.

A social media marketing campaign will normally have several distinct goals attached to it. Most notably, your campaign should be used to drive traffic to your website and drive conversions while also increasing brand mindshare and engendering increased loyalty from your audience.

3.     Consistency across multiple channels

Historically, the most effective social media marketing campaigns have worked in conjunction with other mediums. This helps ensure that you have a consistent message that reaches everyone in your target audience, not just those who use social media.

Followers you have already captured on social media will be more responsive when they see a message spread consistently across other channels. This means you’ll be delivering your message at multiple points to really hammer it home.

Just make sure that you’re careful with your spacing, as you don’t want to bombard people with the same message over and over. People can get annoyed when they are oversaturated with the same marketing message, a feeling you don’t want associated with your brand.

4.     Detailed review

Now you need to evaluate how well the campaign did at achieving its goals. This is where the metrics you outlined for measurement in step 2 come in handy.

You need to weigh up how much you achieved verses the capital investment you made in order to understand if the campaign was cost effective. This information will help you understand what you did right, what could have been improved and will ultimately inform any future campaigns.

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As our marketing manager, James takes on the responsibility of overseeing the creation of original, persuasive and high quality content that is an integral part of how we achieve success for our clients. Through his experience working in the SEO field, James has developed a robust understanding of core digital marketing principles and has a particular interest in the growing importance of sincere and engaging content in world where issues like ‘fake news’ have become a major talking point.