What is a marketing strategy? A marketing strategy is a business’s plan for promoting its products to its target market. Every successful product can attribute its success, at least partly, to its marketing strategy.
Without an effective marketing strategy, customers won’t know about your product, and even if they are aware of it, they won’t attach much value to it. A business’s entire product launch and GTM strategy could fail if the marketing strategy is weak. Given this, Qalam Consulting is sharing a four-stage social media marketing strategy you can implement to boost growth for your business.
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How to Build a Winning GTM Strategy
Four-Stage Social Media Marketing Strategy – Bird’s Eye View
Stage 1: Attention
Capture your audience's interest with the right message, on the right platform, at the right time.
Stage 2: Credibility
Build trust by consistently providing valuable content that addresses your audience's pain points.
Stage 3: Introduction
Implicitly introduce your product through use cases and stories that resonate with your audience.
Stage 4: Sell
Convert interest into action with a gentle, natural push and low-risk offers.
Stage 1: Generate Attention
Given that consumers are frequently bombarded with promotions and content, every marketing campaign only has a few seconds to capture most consumers' attention. These few seconds can make or break any marketing campaign. Therefore, to succeed in the market, you must have the right message for the right audience at the right time. Your target market would have already been outlined in your GTM strategy, so to generate attention, we recommend focusing on the following two factors.
Utilizing Platforms Effectively
Identify what media or information sources (I.e. YouTube, Instagram, Email, Blogs, Podcasts, etc.) your target market consumes and post content on those platforms.
Effective Messaging
Ensure the content you post resonates with your target market's needs/pain points. Customers will only buy products that address a problem they face.
The intended result of this stage is to get your target audience focused on your promotional material. If your target market follows, likes, comments, or otherwise reacts to your promotional material, then you have succeeded in this first stage.
Stage 2: Build Credibility
Once you’ve caught your audience’s attention, now you need them to trust you. Building trust/credibility can be done by ensuring you produce valuable content that actually solves the problems your target market faces. This is because when a customer’s problems or interests are being addressed, customers will slowly trust and incline toward the source that’s addressing their problem (your business).
The key to producing valuable content is finding problems or topics your target market cares about and addressing these issues through their lens. Doing this will establish to your target market that you know who they are and that you can be trusted for insights/information. The intended result of this stage is to have your target audience see you as a credible source of information, or for them to be excited when you post new content.
Read More →
How Qalam Consulting developed a multi-media marketing strategy for a life coaching business.
Stage 3: Introduce the Product (implicitly)
Once your target market trusts you, you should introduce them to your product. Because it takes time for customers to learn about and understand a product, we highly recommend that you introduce your product implicitly (not forcefully) in this stage. This is because if customers are shown a sales campaign to buy a product they do not truly understand, they will likely ignore that campaign, fearing it is a cash-grab/useless.
This is why you should introduce your product implicitly, which can be done by showing but not explicitly selling customers the product you are offering. The best way to do that is through use cases by showing a customer who was undergoing the same problem your target market currently faces and how their life improved from using that product. The following example below details a use case Qalam Consulting provided for a counselling business.
“Sarah was a lawyer, a mother, and a perfectionist, but no one saw her spiraling after 6 PM. After just three counselling sessions, she said, “I didn’t know I could feel so regulated without meds”.”
When potential clients see themselves in these use case stories, they naturally begin to connect the dots and see your business as one that can resolve the problems they face. That is the intended result of this stage.
Stage 4: Sell
Once your target market understands what your product does and the value it delivers, you should give your target market a small push to incentivize them to purchase your product. This stage is where curiosity turns into commitment, and a gentle push is often all it takes to convert your customer’s interest into action. Different selling techniques can be used depending on the target market you are focusing on. Qalam Consulting has detailed a few below which you may consider.
Some practical techniques include:
- Offer low-risk entry points, like a free trial/demo, consultation, or money-back guarantee.
- Offer limited-time or product bundle discounts.
- Remind your customer what they could be missing out on if they ignore your campaign.
Avoid this Mistake
One consideration we must stress is to avoid overmarketing. Many businesses have sabotaged their brand reputation simply by overmarketing their products. This is because overmarketing spams and thus annoys customers, resulting in consumers reducing the value they associate with that brand or even worse, resenting that brand. Selling should feel like a natural next step in a relationship, not a forced transaction.
Key Takeaway
A successful social media marketing strategy doesn’t happen overnight. Rather, it’s a process that moves your target market along an intentional path. We outlined one possible social media marketing strategy which you may consider using. However, if you want a marketing strategy that’s tailored to the specifics of your business or simply just need help generating ideas for content, our team at Qalam Consulting can help you.