Benefits of using social media platforms for marketing

Increasing use of social media platforms has led to new behaviour among customers and creates opportunities for marketers

In the technological era, use of social media has become very much crucial especially in terms of using it as tool for marketing. Marketers use it as a tool that is highly flexible in nature and the place where different multimedia tools can be used to promote their products and services. In the recent years it is proving to be one of the best tools using which companies are targeting their customers at the global level (Smith and Zook, 2011).  It is capable of attracting the larger market base on both local and global levels. It is found that people that are from the international and local level are also becoming the part of the social media campaigns run by various companies. It is beneficial for the marketers as it gives them with new opportunities. At the same time it affects the purchasing behaviour of people.

The most crucial benefit of using social media platforms is that it enables marketers to reach to larger population at the lowest of cost. It gives an opportunity to the firms to make their marketing campaign going at the global level. This particularly benefits companies that are smaller in size or having lesser amount of resources to go for aggressive marketing campaign on other types of marketing especially the traditional marketing (Erdo?mu? and Cicek, 2012). Since the social media marketing can be done with the help of lesser numbers of people in the marketing team hence it increases the effectiveness of the company’s campaign. Since billions of people are active on these platforms on regular basis. In this some of the people are hyper active on these platforms hence targeting such people becomes easier. This is an excellent platform where targeting of the people is very easier to make that too with limited efforts. In this regards the fan pages or the official pages of the brands always helps the company to communicate messages quickly among the large numbers of people.

Company uses platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchats to increase the visibility of their brands. The new launches are promoted through these sites and hence creating buzz in the market. There is significant increase in the numbers of people that are affected by the marketing that is done on these social media platforms. It is found that these social media sites are not only capable enough to change the perception about the product but also attracts people to make purchase (Ashley and Tuten, 2015). It gives opportunities to the marketer to make sure that they convert potential customers into the ones that actually makes a purchase. This is one of the best platforms where different types of multimedia can be used for improving the quality of the promotional campaigns. The events that are launched by different companies are also promoted at these platforms with the help of their own pages or other supporting pages. Since the news on the social media sites spreads like wildfire hence it act as an excellent platform where different sorts of multimedia tools can be used to highlight the characteristics and attributes of the products and services. It is actually the attributes of the products that attract people towards it. It was also found that the company that is capable of making long term investment in their social media campaign are more likely to win the social media war (Hajli, 2014). Social media is a platform where the perceptions are built and used for improving the sales and profit margins.

Social media campaigns and their impact on purchasing behavior

Social media platforms also help the companies to change their marketing campaign as per the demand of the people as well as after seeing the reviews of the people. Companies use these reviews as a data for analysing the sort of changes that are required as well as to improve the strategies that they have made for their future. Social media is an excellent platform to collect data about different customers and hence after analysing the data companies shows the advertisements related to those products to the customers. These types of personalised marketing are highly effective in increasing the curiosity about the products and hence they are more likely to make purchase. With the data that is collected by the profile of the customers, companies show only those products that are likely to be purchased by the customers (Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi, 2012). This helps the company to improvise their efforts and not necessarily waste it on the people that might not purchase the products. With the use of data management software and the artificial intelligence it has become easier for the companies to target their customers effectively. This also reduces the problems which companies might face in the traditional marketing. For example the restaurant companies might face problems related to showcasing their taste experience of other customers in other type of marketing strategies (Bruhn, Schoenmueller and Schäfer, 2012). But, this can be easily showcased with the help of videos that contains the taste experience of people who have enjoyed their food. This makes the advertisements more attractive and attracts people to see it more than once.

Social media is also a platform where different types of products from different vendors can be compared. These comparisons have become very much common these days and are playing a role in the purchasing intention of then people. Many of the companies provides link of their website on these platforms from where sales can be made. This has influenced the way in which purchase has been made by the people in the last few years. Providing link is very much essential in the today’s business (Weinberg and Pehlivan, 2011). This is because people have numerous options to select from and they generally choose products that are easily available. It also has a psychological aspect that any advertisement sticks into the mind of the people for very short period of time and companies need to ensure that till that time companies are able to convert them either into the potential customer or actually make a purchase.

Marketers also have the opportunity to directly communicate with the customers with the help of these sites so as to recognise their problems and give effective solution to it. This is very much crucial in the modern day marketing. Some of the companies use these sites to bring new advertisements on the daily basis. Instagram and Snapchat are very much effective for such type of marketing. One of the examples in this regards are the companies that are from the travel and tourism industry. Along with this travel and tourism industry also uses the platform for showing the customer’s experience (Castronovo and Huang, 2012). This is done with the help of videos or photos. Such use of multimedia marketing plays an essential role in transforming the minds of the people. People are also selecting the companies or travel agencies whose reviews are excellent. This is because they wanted tested companies by their previous customers. Showcasing the pictures of the exotic locations also helps the companies to transform the viewers into a traveller.

The role of social media in improving sales and profit margins

In the mass marketing, these platforms provide an opportunity to the marketers to make a close relation with their customers. Company usually shares the glimpse of the projects or the innovations they are carrying or want to bring in the future. This helps them in creating an excitement in the market. This excitement plays a crucial role in improving the outcomes of the marketing. When compared with other digital marketing strategies these social media strategies are relatively simpler and reduces the complexity in the way marketing can be done (Powers, et al. 2012). One of the greatest opportunities is provided to the marketers of the small scale industries as the marketing that is done on these platform does not tends to go in race of reaching at the top like in the case of search engine optimisation. Rather the social media is a platform where the company creates its own space for doing marketing.

In the modern time, flexible pricing have become very much essential in order to improve their position in the market. It is crucial that company conveys this daily changing price to the customers. Since the people are highly active on these platforms hence they can easily convey the prices to the consumers (Andzulis, Panagopoulos and Rapp, 2012). These platforms are also beneficial for distributing the free bees, coupons and other promotional tokens so as to attract customers in their stores or purchasing stations.

In the concluding remark, it can be stated that huge numbers of people are highly active on these sites on the daily basis. This is one of the major reasons why it acts as a platform that is capable of targeting people on daily basis with different methods of marketing. This one of the most excellent marketing platform as it helps the company in every step of the marketing i.e. from research to reaching out to the customers (Durkin, McGowan and McKeown, 2013). Customers are also checking the reviews about the products and services given by the company before actually making the purchase. In future, use of this strategy is going to increase.  

References

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Ashley, C. and Tuten, T., 2015. Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1), pp.15-27.

Bruhn, M., Schoenmueller, V. and Schäfer, D.B., 2012. Are social media replacing traditional media in terms of brand equity creation?. Management Research Review, 35(9), pp.770-790.

Castronovo, C. and Huang, L., 2012. Social media in an alternative marketing communication model. Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness, 6(1), pp.117-134.

Durkin, M., McGowan, P. and McKeown, N., 2013. Exploring social media adoption in small to medium-sized enterprises in Ireland. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 20(4), pp.716-734.

Erdo?mu?, ?.E. and Cicek, M., 2012. The impact of social media marketing on brand loyalty. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 58, pp.1353-1360.

Hajli, M.N., 2014. A study of the impact of social media on consumers. International Journal of Market Research, 56(3), pp.387-404.

Powers, T., Advincula, D., Austin, M.S., Graiko, S. and Snyder, J., 2012. Digital and social media in the purchase decision process: A special report from the Advertising Research Foundation. Journal of advertising research, 52(4), pp.479-489.

Saravanakumar, M. and SuganthaLakshmi, T., 2012. Social media marketing. Life Science Journal, 9(4), pp.4444-4451.

Smith, P.R. and Zook, Z., 2011. Marketing communications: integrating offline and online with social media. Kogan Page Ltd..

Wang, X., Yu, C. and Wei, Y., 2012. Social media peer communication and impacts on purchase intentions: A consumer socialization framework. Journal of interactive marketing, 26(4), pp.198-208.

Weinberg, B.D. and Pehlivan, E., 2011. Social spending: Managing the social media mix. Business horizons, 54(3), pp.275-282.