Why Social Media Marketing is Essential for Small Businesses

As a small business owner, you've likely got a lot on your plate. From hiring and payroll to product development and customer service, there are countless tasks and responsibilities you've got to handle.

Social media marketing often gets overlooked by overwhelmed small business owners or those who don't realize how crucial it is to the success of their company. We're here to break down why social media marketing is essential for small businesses and offer our top tips and advice.

We'll also cover all our social media management services and talk about why hiring a social media marketing agency is a smart move.

What is Social Media Marketing?

Simply put, social media marketing is the use of social media to market your business, products and/or services. When utilized properly, social media marketing, also sometimes referred to as digital marketing, can help small businesses increase brand awareness, connect with customers, drive sales and more.

Benefits of Social Media Marketing Services for Small Businesses

From ecommerce businesses to brick-and-mortar local businesses, all small businesses can benefit from social media marketing. Not convinced? Keep reading to learn more about some of the best benefits of social media marketing.

Increased Brand Awareness

Social media is an excellent tool to use when increasing brand awareness is your goal. With almost 60 percent of the world's population using some form of social media, having a strong social media presence is a great way to reach potential customers.

Still not convinced? 83 percent of Instagram users say they discover new products on the platform. If your brand isn't on Instagram, you're missing out on an opportunity to put yourself in front of consumers and make sales.

Better Search Engine Optimization

If you're not using social media in your content strategy to improve your SEO and Google search rankings, it's time to rethink your strategy.

The links you share on your social media platforms can increase brand exposure and influence search engine optimization. For example, when people share your content on social media, it generates social signals that indicate your posts are useful to your target market. This can have a positive effect on your search ranking.

Reputation Management

It's highly likely your customers are already talking about you online. If you're monitoring these discussions and taking community management seriously, you can highlight the positive messages to draw attention to them and address the negative ones before they spiral out of control.

Social media is a great tool for managing and improving your brand reputation.

Better Customer Insights

If you want to learn more about your customers, data from your social media platforms can help. Using social media analytics, you can gather demographic information about your audience, such as their age and gender, what city they live in and more.

Humanize Your Brand

Consumers crave connection with the brands they shop with, and more importantly, with the people behind those brands. Social media provides a way to introduce consumers to your employees in a fun, authentic way and build brand trust.

Note: These are just a few of the MANY benefits of social media marketing. Want to discuss more benefits and ways to make social media marketing work for your business? Schedule a free 30-minute consultation with our team here.

Benefits of Hiring A Social Media Marketing Agency

Now that we've covered all the reasons social media marketing is crucial for your small business, it's time to discuss the benefits of hiring a social media marketing company.

Access to a Team of Social Media Marketing Experts

Social media agencies are made up of experts who specialize in things like creating content, paid advertising, social media management and more. When you hire a social media marketing agency, you get access to all these experts who will use their skills and experience to help your brand succeed on social.

Depending on the agency, you might even get a dedicated account manager to liaise between you and the rest of the social media marketing team.

Access to Top-Notch Tools and Resources

Social media marketing agencies often have a robust collection of tools and resources they use to assist all their clients. Rather than purchasing and testing the countless scheduling platforms, content management systems, design softwares, etc. available today, you can rely on your social media agency to handle that for you.

P.S. Keep reading to learn about all our favorite social media tools.

Save Precious Time

Time is money, and as a business owner, yours is better spent focusing on what you do best and leaving the social media marketing to the professionals.

Social media marketing is so much more than just posting a photo to Instagram here and there. It requires plenty of time, effort and know-how to be successful, and leaning on social media marketing companies is a smart move that'll pay dividends.

Establish a Strong Social Media Presence

With everything you have going on as a small business owner, it can be easy to put social media marketing on the backburner and go days, weeks or months without posting or checking in with your community. But doing so can be detrimental to your business — an inactive profile might lead customers to believe you're no longer in business and go elsewhere.

By hiring someone else to handle your social media marketing for you, you never have to worry about inconsistencies in your social media posting and presence.

Strong Social Media Marketing Strategy and Content

Perhaps you have the time to post content yourself and the money to spend on various social media marketing tools. That's great — but unless you're a skilled social media marketing specialist, it's unlikely you'll be able to develop a stellar strategy and create the kind of killer content consumers expect.

Social media agencies offer strategy and content services that will set you up for social media success, and it's in your best interest to take advantage of them.

What to Look for in a Social Media Marketing Agency

There are countless social media marketing companies out there — so how do you know which one to hire? Here are a few things you should consider when hiring a social media marketing agency for your small business.

Do They Align With Your Company Values?

Just like you take into consideration how a full-time employee will fit within your company's culture, you have to think about how the various social media marketing companies you're interviewing will work within your organization.

For example, our founder is vegan, and therefore we love working with plant-based companies. If your business is a clothing store that sells leather jackets or a restaurant that serves meat, we might not be the best fit!

Industry Knowledge

If a social media agency has past experience in your industry or niche — that's great. The better they understand your product or service, the more effectively they can market it to your desired audience. Prior experience is especially important if you work in a highly technical or specialized industry, such as law, medicine or venture capital.

On the other hand, if the agency you're considering doesn't have previous experience in your industry, that's not always a dealbreaker. What's important is that they're willing to learn and become familiar with your line of work.

Timely Communication

We all get busy and have countless emails, Slack messages, DMs, etc. to check on a daily basis. But good social media marketing companies are effective communicators who will respond to your questions and inquiries in a timely manner. While you can't expect instantious responses, if they take days to address an email from you, you might want to consider hiring someone else.

Pricing

Say you found the perfect social media marketing agency and are ready to hire them only to find out you can't afford their services. Pretty disappointing, right? Before spending too much time on one agency, make sure their fees will fit into your marketing budget. Some social media marketing companies have set packages to choose from, while others might charge hourly.

At Britteny Morgan Marketing, we love creating custom packages for our clients to ensure they get everything they need without paying for things they don't.

What Does the Team Look Like?

No, we're not talking about the physical appearance of the agency's employees. When hiring a social media marketing agency, you want to ensure the team is made up of experts with specialized skills.

It's great if the agency is able to provide you with a dedicated account manager to oversee your account, but if that person is also writing post copy, creating graphics or shooting video, that might present a problem.

Past Results

New digital marketing agencies are launching every day. But the best digital marketing agencies have a proven track record and will happily share case studies, testimonials and other proof of past success.

Whether it's a viral social media campaign they spearheaded or paid advertising with incredible ROI, the agency you're considering should have some evidence that their social media services have been successful.

About Britteny Morgan Marketing

At Britteny Morgan Marketing, we believe everyone has a story to tell, and it's our mission to help them get the word out.

We’re a boutique digital marketing agency that uses the power of social media and creative copy to help brands flourish. We excel at bringing brands to life with bespoke content and data-driven strategy.

While we work with a variety of clients across many industries, we're particularly passionate about uplifting female-founded, purpose-driven businesses. Bonus points if your brand is vegan!

Our Social Media Management Services

Now that you know a bit more about who we are, let's dive into everything we have to offer! From organic social media marketing to paid media services, we've got all your digital marketing needs covered.

Keep reading to learn about the social media services we offer.

Organic Social Media Management

Our organic social media management team will develop and implement your social-first strategy and create scroll-stopping content that keeps your brand ahead of the curve and top of mind with your target audience.

We also provide daily engagement and community management, plus monthly reports with important analytics so you can track all the progress we're making.

Paid Social Media Advertising

Whether you need help with Google Ads, Facebook ad campaigns or other types of social media ads, we've got you covered. With our paid social media advertising services, we help you make the most of your advertising budget with thoughtful audience targeting parameters, attention-grabbing creatives and the perfect call-to-action.

Ad services range from creative only (copy and graphics) to full-service ad support, which includes campaign creation, creatives and performance monitoring and reporting.

Content Marketing

Let us bring your brand to the top of Google’s search results with high-quality content, including blog posts and well-researched articles. From SEO services and website optimization to email marketing and more, our content marketing specialists are skilled in a wide range of services.

Copywriting

Whether you need brand messaging to help tell your story and connect with consumers, website copy to attract and engage your ideal customer or persuasive sales copy to turn your target audience into buyers, we can help with all your copywriting needs.

We create engaging content that's unique and designed to help your small business thrive.

Influencer Marketing

If influencer marketing isn't part of your social media strategy yet, it should definitely be on your radar. Working with influencers is an excellent want to grow your social media presence and introduce your small business to new potential customers.

We offer strategy, outreach and management of influencer marketing campaigns.

Tips for Social Media Marketing Success

Whether it doesn't fit into your marketing budget at the moment or you simply aren't ready to commit to hiring someone just yet, don't worry. Try these tips for social media success.

Create a Social Media Strategy

Posting just for the sake of posting without any real plan or strategy is a major waste of your marketing efforts. If you want to see real results and boost your social media performance, you need to have a strong strategy in place.

Start by identifying your social media marketing goals, and then begin laying out the steps you need to take in order to achieve them.

Know Which Social Media Platforms are Right for Your Small Business

There are tons of social media platforms out there — and the number keeps growing. Knowing which ones are right for your brand will help you optimize your digital presence.

While most small businesses focus on the major social media platforms — i.e., Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn— you might find more success elsewhere. Some other social media channels to consider include BeReal, Discord and Polywork.

Stay up to Date on Social Media Trends

The social media landscape is always changing, with new platforms popping up left and right and new trends emerging constantly. In order to be successful on social media, you need to keep up with the latest trends and make them work within your overall strategy.

Schedule Content in Advance

Scheduling content in advance can save you valuable time. There are plenty of scheduling tools available, but we share our favorite one later in this post.

Engage With Your Community

It's not enough to just post content on social media anymore — you have to stay on top of comments and DMs too. This means addressing both positive and negative feedback.

It's also important to interact with other people's content — but be sure to do so in a meaningful way (no one appreciates spammy comments).

Social Media Marketing Tools we Love

Social media marketing is so much easier when you use the right tools. But with so many currently on the market, it can be hard to decide which ones to use and which are a waste of time. To save you the headache of trying them all, we're highlighting a few of our favorites.

Canva

Canva makes social media content creation a breeze, with thousands of templates to use across all the top social media channels. Poorly designed creative assets can make your small business look amateur, so investing in a tool that helps you create visually striking content is a must.

Sprout

Schedule content for all your social media accounts with Sprout. We've tried tons of scheduling platforms over the years, and Sprout remains our go-to.

In addition to scheduling, we love Sprout's reporting, listening and engagement features.

Lnk.Bio

If you use Sprout to schedule your content, you can use its link in bio function, but if not, we recommend Lnk.Bio to manage your links for Instagram, TikTok, etc.

Previagram

While a picture-perfect feed Instagram is no longer necessary to grow your account, it's still nice to have a visual of what your grid will look like before you start posting content.

Previagram is one of our favorite tools for this. It's super easy to use and makes planning content a breeze.

The Bottom Line on Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses

No small business marketing plan is complete without a sound social media marketing strategy and a clear plan to execute it. Social media advertising is essential for small business success these days, but don't let that overwhelm you. There are plenty of social media marketing agencies — like us! — who can help.

Ready to Take Your Digital Marketing Efforts to the Next Level?

If we've convinced you that it's time to let the professionals put their social media management services to work for your business, let's talk!

We're happy to offer you a free consultation with our founder. Set up a one-on-one chat to learn how we can help your business achieve its marketing goals here.