Among the many types of marketing, inbound marketing has become one of the most popular, as well as one of the most effective, ways for businesses to improve market reach.
This strategy aims to create valuable and engaging content for the purposes of attracting, engaging with, and ultimately converting the target audience into potential customers.
Inbound marketing has been proven to be more effective as well as less intrusive when compared to traditional means such as cold calling, ads, email blasts, and the like.
Inbound marketing utilizes social media as its main tool due to its potential to reach billions of users worldwide without much overhead.
Of course, it’s not just about regularly posting updates but rather an ecosystem of activities that will help in building trust, generating leads, and fostering relationships with their client base.
This article aims to break down the reasons why social media is an important part of inbound marketing, and why you should definitely take advantage of these channels if you want to improve your online presence and achieve your business targets.
Table of Contents
Social Media Expands Brand Visibility
Perhaps the strongest point that social media has going for it is the sheer number of people using social media platforms. With over 5 billion social media users worldwide, companies can potentially reach over two-thirds of the world’s population.
Through inbound marketing, businesses can easily use social media to amplify their brand messaging. This can also be done at a fraction of the costs of traditional marketing means, making social media the most cost-effective approach.
Using viral content, the correct hashtags, community engagement, targeted ads, and other strategies, even smaller companies can compete with larger brands if their usage of social media such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and the like, are done right.
Social media also thrives on organic growth as it allows for users to not online react to your posts but also share them to their respective circles. This creates a “ripple effect” that will make campaigns even more effective in terms of reach.
A Direct Channel for Audience Engagement
Inbound marketing is all about building relationships, and social media is one of the best channel to do so. Methods such as emails and blogs are typically one-way, while social media allows for much more effective communication and interaction.
When a user comments or has an inquiry, brands can directly respond. They can also join other communities, trigger discussions, and otherwise act as an individual that can interact with their audience on a more personal and intimate level.
This approach gives more value and helps improve metrics such as the number of likes, shares, comments, and the like. These types of feedback can help brands adjust and improve upon further campaigns, further enhancing trust and credibility.
Social Media as a Content Distribution Hub
Another reason why social media is an important part of inbound marketing is for its ability to provide an effective medium to repurpose and distribute content in ways that your audience can easily consume.
Long form articles or videos can be easily cut down into manageable chunks and turned into multiple-part content. This is mostly done through Instagram carousels or TikTok snippets, channels typically associated with short-form content.
These types of posts can then be used to drive traffic to the original content for those who want to know more. These chunks can also be easily shared, encouraging peer-to-peer distribution which is a far more significant marker for trust and credibility and is very much desired by businesses.
Driving Qualified Leads
The main goal for businesses when it comes to any type of marketing is to convert audiences, and inbound marketing is no exception. This is also where social media excels.
Through social media algorithms and other means, you can easily reach potential customers whose activities and behavior match your target audience.
You can also generate content that will further capture interest, such as visually engaging posts or subjects that interest your viewers such as lifestyle, tech, and health, among others.
Social media often provides means for lead capture such as integrated forms, allowing for a seamless process for those who want to sign up for mailing lists or to trigger further communications with your business.
Precise targeting is also a very powerful tool that is affordable yet very effective in targeting specific demographics, making this method one of the most popular means for lead generation in the past few years.
Building Trust and Authority
At this day and age, online visibility and the ability to provide valuable content equals trust and credibility. This, of course, leads to conversions as well increased brand loyalty.
Content can be intimate, engaging, educational, or inspirational, depending on your purpose. The right content on the right platform can greatly improve your reputation not only as a brand but also as an influencer of sorts.
Social media is another good place for potential customers to gather reviews and feedback. Many users search for feedback from real users on social media before committing to a transaction.
A social media page with tons of engagement, highly-rated reviews, and high-quality content can obviously help create a foundation of trust for long-term relationship building between you and your audience.
Measuring Results and Optimizing Strategy
One good aspect of social media is its ability to provide tangible metrics. This includes figures such as engagement, click-through rates, conversions, and many more.
These metrics can give businesses a clear idea on whether their posts or overall campaigns are getting the results that they want. Using this data, they can pivot and strategize to ensure that succeeding actions get equal or better results.
This ability gives social media and edge compared to other traditional means and channels as it allows brands to pivot in real time and to determine what works and what does not without the need for high costs and manpower.
Conclusion
For the reasons mentioned above, it can clearly be seen that social media can be considered as a pillar when it comes to inbound marketing, providing remarkable visibility while also being able to guide customers through the entire journey from start to finish.
With literally billions of social media users, businesses are given a huge opportunity to tap this market and connect with them at levels unimaginable just a decade ago. This also leads to huge competition within this area on who can generate the best content and can engage with customers better.
In this day and age where users crave for engaging content and meaningful connections, brands must be able to step up their marketing game and ensure that they are able to use social media to connect and generate leads, which would in turn drive revenue and provide other benefits that can lead these companies to further success.
