Donald Felix Odoh — February 17, 2017 If the ROI from your social media marketing budget is less than impressive, then you need to try something different. In that case, the very first step could be simply paying attention to the mobile first demographic growth within your target market.
Interestingly, by spending some minutes on reading this post you will take that first simple step. By keeping tabs on your market, you may just get a first mover advantage currently unknown to the majority of your competitors.
For a basic understanding of this topic, let’s look at the meaning of the core concepts. What is mobile first demographic? While some people say that mobile first on its own is now an overhyped buzzword, it doesn’t actually hold true in all cases and at all times.
To understand this better, let’s look at it from these three different perspectives:
Mobile first design: This one is simply starting the design of digital products and applications with a mobile-centric approach. It takes into account well-defined outcomes of target user experience.
Mobile first access: Across the world, there is an increasing number of people who experience their first internet access on mobile devices. And for a considerable percentage of these people, it’s a mobile only experience. In such cases, activities like entertainment, networking, purchasing research and messaging happen solely on mobile.
Mobile first marketing: A strategic marketing plan aimed at reaching people who learn, work and live within the mobile spectrum. In other words, varying facts of their daily lives are connected with a mobile device.
Note here that this approach does not necessarily ignore other marketing strategies. The main goal is to get maximum business value from the target demographic and the strategies at work. You’ll agree with me that mobile first demographic exists in any industry or any niche market you can think of. Add social media to it and you’ll see the convergence of mobile, social and commerce.
So a mobile first demographic refers to the segment of people who got their first internet experience on a mobile device. Additionally, it also includes those people that spend a big chunk of their personal and business time on mobile devices.
The increasing trend of smartphone usage induces the growth of this unique demographic. Hence, this post is on how to leverage that growth trend through strategic social media marketing.
Facebook Ads
According to Facebook, mobile now make 51% of all online transactions. Is there anyone else better positioned than Facebook with over 3 million advertisers to share reliable data on this?
Maybe you are still sharing your content on this crowded social network and just hoping for the best spontaneous outcome from free organic reach. Think again.
While it is possible for some people to see your contents from their mobile, the organic reach won’t result in anything much useful. This is true especially if your fan base is very low. And in most cases, the people that see your content as a result of organic sharing won’t be well targeted.
This is where Facebook advertising comes into play. With Facebook Ads you can accomplish the following:
Build Brand Awareness
Making consistent expansion will continue to build up your brand trust level and loyalty. These intangible values often affect purchasing decisions.
Content pieces like branded images, infographics, blog posts and videos serve very well towards the main goal. Thus, the higher the number of loyalists you bring into the fold, the higher the probability of getting sales from them when the purchase time is due.
Promotion of lead magnet
Many people, especially out of the field media professionals will find some reasons to convince you that lead generation doesn’t work on mobile. Yes, the mobile screen is tiny. Granted. But these generalizations don’t hold true in all niche markets.
To get better results from their mobile traffic, discerning marketers and business owners use one-click opt-in forms. In many instances, all you have to do is enter your email address. And the journey starts from there.
One great example where I have seen this used is on Slack’s home page.
Picture: Slack
I clicked their ad recently and saw the landing page with one-click opt-in. The types of lead magnet to use in the mobile first demographic marketing include ebooks, white papers, video tutorial, webinars etc.
Direct Sales Conversion
About half of the US population uses smartphones on a daily basis. Most of these people spend a big amount of time on their phones. And that includes teens that spend around 9 hours daily on social media platforms. Besides teenagers, adults also cannot leave home and work without their phone in hand or within reach.
These are some of the key factors contributing to the growth in mobile originated revenue across niche markets. Obviously, Facebook is one of the biggest entry points and platforms where people spend a lot of time and money.
Taking the mass media approach in your social media marketing strategy won’t get you any good results. Your message is likely going to be mismatched. Hence, a lot of people still experience low or flat zero ROI.
Taking the mass media approach in your social media marketing strategy won’t get you any good results. Your message is likely going to be mismatched. Hence, a lot of people still experience low or flat zero ROI.
Taking your sales pages to the mobile first demographic will certainly make a difference between what you are getting now and the potential results. And if you are just starting out, check this detailed guide on how social media advertising works.
Picture: Facebook
However, if you do not have the expertise to implement mobile targeted Facebook ads or lack resources to employ a full-time expert, your best option is to consider hiring a social media marketing agency. These agencies often have experts in different areas such as content creation, paid advertising setup, management, analytics and optimization.
LinkedIn Marketing
Different social networks have different strategies. Most times, these variations exist based on the social media user mindset and expectations. LinkedIn is a professional social network. And for this reason, it differs a lot when compared to Facebook and others.
And like others, LinkedIn still owns a sizable share of the mobile first demographic. Job seekers, working professionals and business owners are all inclusive. But just how can you get increased measurable business value from social media marketing?
Let’s look at some Linkedin statistics.
As at October 2106, LinkedIn user base stood at 467 million. And 70% of these users are from outside of the US. Geographically, the user base spans across 200 countries. Out of the total number of users, 58% access the professional network via mobile. From these mobile users, the jobs posted on LinkedIn are viewed 1.45 million times daily. Recruiters take note.
In practical terms, the three main goals that can be accomplished through LinkedIn’s mobile audience include talent recruitment, thought leadership and lead generation. However, nothing stops you from testing if direct ecommerce sales can work on the platform too.
For effective social media marketing purposes, they have different types of advertising options used by many companies:
Build Brand Awareness
Making consistent expansion will continue to build up your brand trust level and loyalty. These intangible values often affect purchasing decisions.
PPC Advertising
Like usual pay per click adverts that we know, you are billed for each click on the link to your landing page. With this, you can target your mobile advertisements based on demographic factors that include industry, job function, job title, geography, age, gender, company name, size etc.
Picture: Linkedin
Content Ads
LinkedIn content ads provide you the option to display different types of media or content formats within one ad space. This social media advertising feature is also suitable for moving qualified prospects to your lead generation landing page.
Sponsored InMail
Want to deliver personalized and relevant messages to a prospect’s inbox? Here is the best option for you. These ads appear on the top of the user’s inbox, making it a must see. Note that InMail message is one area where people spend a lot of time within LinkedIn.
Follow Company Ads
For building brand awareness and social engagement, this feature connects your brand with a targeted audience based on their professional interests. The bigger your audience, the better the chances of getting website traffic and leads.
Instagram Advertising
If you want to take your social media marketing strategy to another level with visuals, Instagram is the network to be in. Instagram is a mobile first network. Without further analysis, it is obvious that most of their users start and end with mobile. eMarketer estimated that in the year 2017, the mobile ad revenue from global Instagram advertising will reach $ 2.81 billion.
The perceived value of this mobile audience is the reason why many advertisers are flocking to this mobile-centric network. Now, if Instagram is not part of your social media marketing plan, then your business will continue to miss out on the traffic and revenue.
From hospitality, travel, fashion, health, finance, education, ecommerce to any other industry you can think of, almost every smart company and marketer is now on Instagram. And that includes the brands and companies in your niche.
For most businesses in the offline world, the problem is usually centered on the expertise required to leverage the mobile first demographic in this visual spectrum of social media marketing. If that is your case, the best first step is to hire an agency to help out.
About content creation, automation and analytics, there are many tools to help get the exact results you desire. Apart from the organic and free promotions on this platform, you could also set aside a part of your social media marketing budget to amplify traffic and lead generation using paid advertising.
Picture: Instagram
Conclusion
Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram are not the only social media networks on which you can leverage the mobile first demographic. The fact is that you don’t need to be on every social network before you can get good results from your marketing efforts.
Mobile is hot right now. And let me inform you here that you don’t need a big marketing budget to get started. With network specific paid marketing tools, you can begin to push your brand messages and value propositions to the new audience segments.
So focusing on your existing audience only won’t accomplish the marketing goals in focus. Like I always say, having good information is just one step forward. Make a plan and go start taking action now.
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