5 Major benefits of social media marketing for businesses

Social media marketing has several benefits for businesses, and in particular, small businesses that have a limited budget for marketing campaigns. The main benefits of social media marketing include:

1. Social media marketing allows small businesses compete at the same level as large businesses.
It does not matter whether you are a startup limited business or personal brand, social media gives you an opportunity to compete favorably with the already existing businesses in the industry at an affordable cost.

2. Social media marketing allows a business communicate directly with the target market in an informal setting.
There has never been a greater time for businesses to connect directly with their customers like what social media offers. The customer business engagement not only strengthens relationships but is also a recommended channel for delivering informative and valuable communication to the customers as well as collecting feedback.

3. Social media marketing allows a business build a relationship of trust and credibility with the target audience.
With the ability to place social media targeted ads on platforms like Facebook , Twitter and lately Snapchat, audience targeting is now a reality for all businesses that advertise on social media. The social media ads are very much affordable but yet very effective when it comes to delivering results on marketing investments.

 

4. Having built a relationship with customers, social media marketing allows a business conduct detailed market research.
Due to the fact that you are able to directly engage your customers and get feedback on services and products offered, this makes it simpler to conduct a business research on any given service or product in your industry. The truth is , customers love and trust transparent businesses and they easily trust such organizations with their genuine feedback.

5. Social media marketing gives a business the potential to reach customers worldwide.
Many businesses lack the potential to set up different offices or branches in different regions but even those that have the capacity are looking for ways of breaking out in a wider region without incurring much costs. Social media grants your startup or already existing business the opportunity of global competition which encourages business owners to bench mark against leading industry companies. The global exposure encourages systems and operations improvement so as to remain competitive in your field of service. 

NOTE: Please ensure that before you adopt a social media strategy for your startup or already existing businesses , its important to first of all do a simple research on the best platforms for your business and to clearly establish which platforms your current customers are spending most of their time on. Social media can be a very cost effective tool but if not approached professionally can distort your business.

By Mwebya Fred
mwbyfred@gmail.com
www.twitter.com/ugaman01