What matters when creating your client’s social
We all know how important social media and content has become to our marketing plans.
Clients often times doen’t have regular content, or if they do, they don’t know how to use it to the full potential. That is why they seek experts like you to help them figure it out.
As marketers, we want to create social media goals that actually work for our clients. You know like positioning them as a trusted expert, getting more people to know and recognize them, and building strong brands that generate valuable leads.
Let’s dive into the goals that I use for clients and how I implement them.
Most commonly I begin with establishing thought leadership and authority for my client, following that I begin increasing brand awareness, then building relationships and loyalty and finally generating leads.
This is the order that I focus on. I believe you need to have some thought leadership content established so that when you increase brand awareness efforts you have substantive content that does the work for you to connect, build relationships and loyalty and only then can you start generating leads.
These work together as an ever-churning ecosystem that needs one to build up the others.
So what does this actually look like?
How do you create thought leadership?
Share your client’s expertise in blog posts, webinars, podcasts, weekly vlog, speaking engagements and anything else they are willing to participate in.
This is core content.
Once I’ve mapped out their audience and customer journey, I do a little research on SEO to find themes and topics related to their products/services and build a core content calendar.
My team researches and writes content and the client has input as to the subject matter, they present the content or approve the final for publishing.
Then we build the content. Once the content is live I leverage my clients’ teams and CEO’s who can start to contribute to discussions online.
As a B2B company LinkedIn is likely a solid platform for your client to hang out.
One of my most successful clients is active on LinkedIn regularly, commenting on the content of others in their industry, potential clients and companies they might want to work with. They also share the content we create on their personal profiles to position themselves and their company as experts. They have their team do the same.
In this day and age being visible is all part of the job, the business or your career.
Those who do this right will be the most successful.
Now how do you increase brand awareness?
Next, we figure out where their audience hangs out the most.
The client I mentioned above knows their audience is on LinkedIn, and that a segment of their audience is also on Instagram and Facebook.
So those are our primary platforms, and our social content is tailored to engage on those platforms.
This tailored content then gets a little boost by setting up engagement ads that will expand the client reach on the social platforms that matter most.
Make sure that in the setp above your client teams are participating on these same platforms.
Be consistent and create a cohesive brand identity with all the content across all profiles. Use visuals, message and tone that aligns with the brand identity.
How to connect with others and build relationships and loyalty?
Listen and respond. Since we have our clients on the social platforms and engaging with the content, we ask them to pay attention and respond. They know their business the best and can best manage and field questions.
We ask clients to have a dedicated team member or a system for responding. This ties in with the thought leadership efforts as well, if a team member using their personal profiles jumps in on a comment on the company page this expands the company and team members influence.
Have clients treat each interaction as an opportunity for genuine connection and help their audience find solutions.
Share what others are saying and talking about. Sharing your customer’s experiences, testimonials and reviews fosters trust.
How do you turn these relationships into leads?
My favorite part!
Offering value through lead magnets like ebooks, guides, video series, templates, swipe files, can help grow your client’s email list.
Their email list is where they will do the bulk of their nurturing and selling.
Start by sending people from your client’s social content to pages on their website, such as directly to the full blog post, to a specific resources or guide page on their website.
Then make sure that you have a pop-up on the pages they visit to offer the lead magnet, or at the end of the blog post a call to action button to get the lead magnet. And you can place calls to action in navigation, footer and throughout pages on the client’s website.
This way when a potential customer is ready to take the next step they know how.
Use clear, compelling and persuasive copy and visuals along with adequate calls to action.
You want to be sure you align these goals with the business goals, the client’s sales funnel process, identify gaps you might be able to fill and track the process a customer takes from introduction to submitting their information or taking action.
So the next step is how do you track these goals?
Another favorite for me. I am not a numbers person, but I love analytics.
Probably because analytics tell a story, and I get a hit of dopamine when I see how a strategy I put into place, affects these numbers.
Use tools like Google Analytics for website performance, track social analytics using a social media scheduler I like eClincher and Metricool for their scheduling features as well as analytics. eClincher is my favorite for analytics, and is a little more expensive.
Sprout Social is the best analytics tool but their scheduler is a bit limited. In Metricool I can schedule Twitter threads and have a bit more LinkedIn features than Sprout Social.
Take a benchmark of where you client is when you begin and then monitor performance monthly to see what content is working best, and us that to inform future content.
Understanding your client’s business goals will help you tailor this strategy to any client type.
The system is the same, it’s the goals that change.
Some clients core content might be a blog and others may have podcasts or film videos. Some clients will focus on Facebook while others will primarily focus on LinkedIn.
What remains constant:
- Identify the client audience
- Create core content
- Distribute that content
- Track and measure performance to do it again
Create an ecosystem to help your client leverage content for their marketing efforts.
Whenever you’re ready here are 2 ways I can help you:
- Download the Asana Starter Kit this is the system I use for my clients and my own business.
- 1:1 Strategy Session to get you unstuck. Whether you need help with the tech, strategy, systems or programs setup – setup a time to work through it with me.
