Social Media Marketing Plan For SMBs

All digital marketing efforts such as web content or social media should always be backed up with a plan. Simply creating a post on social media without a well-thought-out strategy could lead to minimal results or even no results at all. Before creating content or promoting the business on social media, you should create a social media marketing plan for small businesses to help you reach your target audience and ultimately achieve your business goals.

When creating a social media marketing plan, what are the best strategies for small businesses? Today, you will be learning about how to formulate a social media marketing strategy that’s simple, easy-to-follow, results-oriented, and cost-effective for small businesses.

Social Media Marketing Plan for Small Business: Best Strategies to Keep in Mind

Identify your top social media platforms

Before even posting or creating social media accounts, it is ideal to think about 2-3 top social media platforms to promote your small business. Larger companies have more time, resources, and wriggle room to expand on many platforms, but efficiency is key to success in small businesses.

To do this, you must think about where your target market usually consumes social media content. Based on several analytical pieces of research, you would notice that around 70% of people ages 18-49 are using Facebook. Instagram users are primarily women who are ages 18-29. Digging deeper into the demographic use and research of competitor engagement in each social media platform will give you valuable insight on choosing your top social media platforms.

Once you identify 2-3 social media platforms for content creation and promotion, you can start crafting a social media marketing plan for small businesses from there.

Creating SMART goals for your social media strategy

A SMART goal is any type of quantifiable outcome as you execute your action plan. SMART simply means Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound. SMART goals in social media can look like this:

“To attain a 3% engagement rate through comments and likes by creating static posts and video content in Instagram within 3 months.”

As you can see, the goal is measurable and is within a given time frame. Creating such goals can help you track actual progress and help you see if your plan is working. Such a strategy for small businesses will help conserve and maximize your resources to get the best results.

You can make a list of long-term goals (LTGs) annually while creating some short-term goals (STGs) that will be the sub-steps to achieve your annual social media initiatives.

Reviewing effective marketing campaigns for your small business goals

Digital marketing is all about integrating all areas of your marketing campaigns to bring results to your small business. You can review some effective social media marketing campaigns that are geared towards:

• Having repeat business: Creating a line of products or services that people constantly use allows you to have repeat business with the same satisfied customers. A social media marketing campaign that introduces the benefits, features, and previously happy clients can help grow your repeat business.
• Increasing conversions: Trends in social media show that short-form videos are becoming popular in generating engagements and conversions. Adding video marketing campaigns with a strong call-to-action can boost the effectiveness of your strategy.
• Spreading the word about promotions: New product releases, sales, giveaways, and other promotions are some of the things you can post on social media to widen your reach.

Taking a look at some of the marketing campaigns that have worked for others, such as sponsored posts, user-generated content, or selling in built-in marketplaces, can help you create your plan.

Formulating a social media content calendar

Another helpful strategy for small businesses is to have a monthly content calendar ahead of time. A content calendar allows you to determine:

• What to post: You can plan the types of content to post daily, weekly, or monthly if you have a theme. For example, creating an Instagram story, a reel, and a static post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday can help in increasing your post consistency and, ultimately, the engagement rate.
• When to post: The times to publish can also be helpful when creating marketing campaigns on social media. For example, having front-loaded posts about your upcoming sales on Black Friday a week before the event can help more conversions in your social media strategy.
• Themes to follow: This strategy is helpful for content creators or those small businesses with products or services to offer. Aligning your social media content with holidays, relevant recent events, and any other trending topics can also help achieve your social media goals.

To create a social media content calendar, you can simply use a giant monthly calendar and list down the posts you plan to develop within the day. If you want to create media before, such as graphics, photos, or captions, you can also use slide presentation tools to keep all deliverables in advance.

Repurposing high-quality content

There are many things you can do with digital marketing content. For example, blog posts can easily convert into short-form static carousel posts on social media. In the same way, a simple social media post can bring forth ideas for a video on Youtube, a podcast, or a blog post.

Thus, when making ideas for social media content, think about popular blog posts that you can convert into various types of photos, infographics, or reels. You can also create snippets of your longer videos on Youtube and place them into your social media accounts.

Repurposing content allows you to fill in your social media content calendar while giving you the chance to cross-promote your offers on various platforms.

Aligning your branding with social media accounts

When making social media campaigns, another thing to consider is how you present your small business as a brand. Branding isn’t limited to the content found on your website but also in your social media accounts.

Thus, having a consistent voice in your copy, using the same color themes, font types, and even the “look and feel” of your social media content should be considered when creating posts.

Doing this strategy will make your small business more memorable and attractive to social media users who are not yet customers otherwise.

Optimize your social media content

Like optimizing your web content, it is also essential to optimize the posts you create on social media. Each social media will have different ways to make each content more searchable and have a wider reach, but in general, you should be taking note of the following:

• Relevant hashtags: Hashtags such as those on Instagram, Tiktok, Pinterest, or Facebook can be used if you want new users to engage in your content. Using hashtags and researching them can also give you insights into what types of social media posts your target audience is interested in.
• Search tags: Some social media platforms allow search tags, such as Youtube and Facebook. You can use low-competition and high-traffic search tags to help your content rank on such platforms.
• Captions: Captions are also helpful for people making social media queries. You can also load captions with relevant keywords or make them interesting for your target audience. The goal is always to engage while driving users further into your desired call-to-action, such as signing up in a newsletter, going to your website, or purchasing products in the built-in marketplace.
• Visual quality: With a few exceptions, such as Twitter, many social media platforms are dependent on visual content. A general rule is to maintain a high quality of visual media by creating crisp photos, thoughtfully-designed graphics, and videos that are well-edited as well as aligned with your brand.

Having a social media marketing plan for a small business is not only helpful but vital when you desire growth in these platforms. Keeping in mind these pointers will help you create goals and post ideas that will produce results for your business.

Social Media Marketing Plan for Small Business: A Comprehensive Solution

Are you looking for a comprehensive digital marketing solution for your small business that touches social media, search engine optimization, PPC campaigns, web design, and more?

E-Marketing Associates is here to help! We specialize in SEO El Monte, CA, website design, pay-per-click campaigns, social media marketing, and all other aspects of small business digital marketing. Let us know about your goals and see how we can provide solutions leading to success.