For most business owners, the whole reason behind publishing blogs, memes and other online comment is to increase sales and, ultimately, profitability.  So many advertising agencies like to talk about branding, awareness, brand equity, engagement, and so many other fancy industry words, that often times the core purpose of advertising – increasing sales – can be quickly forgotten. 

There is no doubt that business awareness and branding are important, but only insofar as there is a direct chain of causality (whether clearly defined or not) which leads to more purchases than what would have occurred were it not for the marketing campaign. 

The good news for businesses with a strong online presence is that data continues to show, increasingly, that customers are using the internet to inform their purchases.  Whether by direct purchasing online, or through research that slowly builds over time and ultimately leads to a purchase, businesses which make information about themselves and their products/services available online are benefitting.

In this way, branding and awareness are not just abstract marketing concepts.  Issues of trust, customer identity (how they will identify with your business), and cultivation of positive association are all key to your content development strategy.  A 2018 report by Mary Meeker noted that among those who discovered a product on social media, 55% would purchase the product at a later time.  Facebook remains the leading platform through which the idea of purchasing something (any new product) is seeded in someone’s mind.

Making information like this useful requires a long term play in social media theme and content development.  While small business marketing teams may not have the time and resources to plan out a comprehensive, multi-year marketing campaign, there are some essential questions to answer, which when studied, lay the foundation to long term content development that can enable positive customer responses, ensure memory retention of your business, and trigger purchase decisions when customers are ready to make a move.

Two key considerations to include in your social media content development efforts:

• Convey an understanding of your audience:  To do that, you clearly need to understand your customers and what motivates them.  More than just having a mental understanding of your customers, however, developing content which conveys an understanding is important to connecting with them.  Content which is personally meaningful to customers will mentally stick.  This mental stickiness between your business, its products/services, and their personal lives is what will bring them back when the time is right.
• Track your messages and their success:  Without a comprehensive tracking program to monitor your social media postings and their responses, it will be difficult for you to discern over time which techniques and messages are most effective.  While all marketing efforts must point to the end game result (more sales), interim results can tell you a lot about how effectively you are reaching customers.  Keep track of engagement statistics, and be sure to actively respond to customer comments and direct message inquiries.