Why social media marketing?
Small business owners are often asked why they do not advertise and the answer is simple: For many small business owners, marketing is low on the list of things that you “need” to spend money on. Because everyday things are more important than the need to “market” your business, right? Wrong. Things such as keeping the power bill paid, the mortgage/rent on the building, and inventory etc.is important. However , think about this, what if a meager $500 ad campaign could make you thousands of dollars, would you be interested then? Of course you would.
But how can that be, advertising is expensive?
Some small businesses have made some major increases in their revenue by using social media. In this article published by Lyfe Marketing they speak of how they helped one small business reach over 152 online sales with only a $500 ad budget, this could be your business, what are you waiting for? Who does not want their small business making money? If you have started a business, then you clearly want that business to succeed and make money for you, otherwise what was the point? Besides, everyone starts a business for a reason. Whether it is because you cannot find a business out there that suits your needs or just because you are tired of working for someone else.

What can help?
The
first step to any successful marketing campaign is to set up an Integrated
marketing communications plan (IMC). If
you cannot afford to hire a marketing team to set you up with one, you can get
some good information from this website on how to start one yourself. https://www.wikihow.com/Write-an-Integrated-Marketing-Communications-Plan
One of the most important aspects of an IMC is to recognizing your target market and knowing what they are looking for. Therefore, you can market to them in a way that will draw them to your business. There is no point in marketing to people unless you want them to buy something, or utilize your businesses services.
Besides, there are some ways that an IMC can help your business, one is by giving you better results from your social media marketing. An IMC can help you create consistency across all channels for your brand. It can help you align with your customers preferences, by showing you how your customers prefer to be marketed to, direct mail, email, television advertising, etc. These are just a few ways having an IMC could help your business.

Is it affordable?
Of course it is! Many small businesses just like yours have succeeded at utilizing social media to their advantage and it does not take a lot of money to do so. However, you can check out the following article in order to find a few small businesses that are doing great at using social media to market for them.http://www.thesocialobserver.com/3-small-businesses-succeeding-at-social-media/.
However, these are just a few businesses who are making social work for them,there are many more out there than any one can list in a single blog post.

As you can see, millions of Small businesses are using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more social media every day to reach the millions of active users, shouldn’t your business be reaching those people as well? How are you making social media work for your business? Have you developed your integrated marketing communications plan? Or even know what one is?
Who is your target market? Let us know below…
#socialmediamarketing #growingsmallbusinesses
#snhusmm #IMCimportance #thesocialobserver #smbmarketing #startinganIMC
#mastersmbmarketing #IMC #smm #goingsocial #socialstartup
Category: Integrating with Traditional Marketing