How to make social media your best inbound marketing partner

When preparing the inbound marketing strategy for your business, don’t forget about one very important key ingredient which is social media. This plays a crucial part in promoting your carefully crafted and tailored content and helps to maximize its reach to your target audience. 

As we mentioned in our content strategy program, the final step in creating it is to publish and manage the content and this is where social media enters the stage. Always choose the right social media channel for your current business needs, keeping in mind that B2B companies generally use LinkedIn (94%) and Twitter (87%) to share content with their target audience. 

The two peas in a pod of digital marketing 

According to HubSpot, inbound marketing is all about creating and sharing content that turns strangers into customers and promoters of your business. Let’s see together how social media has an impact at each phase of the inbound marketing funnel, especially in attraction and conversion.

                                                                                                                                   Source: HubSpot

1. ATTRACT - the stage when strangers become visitors

• Be authentic in your social media posts
• Post consistently and remain active on social media
• Use hashtags and keywords to make it easy for your followers to find you
• Focus your social media posts on content that is of interest to your target audience
• Create targeted social ads to increase brand awareness and website traffic

Useful tools: blog posts, keywords, social publishing

2. CONVERT - the stage when visitors become leads

• Think from your buyer’s perspective when creating the content for social media
• Share helpful and engaging content like white papers, infographics and case studies
• Incorporate customer reviews in your social media strategy as it builds credibility

Useful tools: forms, calls to action, landing pages

3. CLOSE - the stage when leads become customers

• Promote special offers on social media as means to motivate a lead to close
• Share gated content like a free eBook or a webinar to capture a lead’s email
• Offer exclusivity in the form of a discount coupon or a special condition for customers who follow your brand on social networks
• Tell the news and make announcements in advance especially for  your followers

Useful tools: CRM, email, workflows

4. DELIGHT - the stage when customers become promoters

• Engage with your customers on social media and they can become your strongest advocates
• Set up Twitter chats or Facebook and LinkedIn groups for your customers 
• Use the social media groups and communities to answer your customers’ questions, promote new products or services and keep the conversation alive around your brand

Useful tools: smart content, surveys, social monitoring

Why not use social media insights to learn more about your audience?

When you design your inbound marketing strategy, one of the first things that comes to your mind will be the audience you create content for. Social media analytics can become your best friend in creating your buyer persona because it gives you an invaluable insight into the demographic and geographic breakdown of your audience, while gaining insight into what kind of content your audience engages with the most.

Final thoughts

Inbound marketing and social media have an inseparable friendship. In practice, inbound marketing can help your company transition into a customer-focused business that drives quality leads which are later converted into loyal customers. If leveraged and implemented correctly, social networks are an essential channel to achieve and measure your results. 

If you want to learn more about social media management and strategy or just have any questions, get in touch with us and our dedicated marketing specialists will be happy to assist you and make you stand out as a leader in the world of social media.