Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses: Top 5 Strategies

Life-size billboards, local flyers and endless email blasts — these were once the marketing staples for small businesses. But things changed with the global pandemic. It sparked a digital shift, driving more companies to social platforms to engage and connect with their customers. So social media marketing became an essential strategy to drive revenue growth, even for small companies. 

Forbes reports that 90% of users follow at least one brand on social media. This presents significant marketing opportunities for small businesses to engage directly with their target audiences. 

As such, in this blog, we'll be sharing the top tips on how you can leverage social media marketing to make your small business thrive. We’ll also be touching on the right tools and social content strategy that can help you stay ahead of the curve. So let’s jump right in. 

Why is social media important for small businesses?  

In today’s digital world, social media is often the primary channel through which customers discover and engage with companies. So social media marketing is essential in improving the customer experience (CX). For many small businesses, social media marketing offers not only extensive reach but also the ability to gain valuable customer data, which ultimately helps enhance the CX.  

Here’s are the specifics of why small businesses should embrace social media marketing:  

Massive and targeted reach

As of October 2023, the global social media user base has reached a staggering 4.95 billion individuals. That's a massive potential customer base. And this audience isn't passive. Six out of ten social media users discovered new products and brands through these platforms in 2023.  

High ROI

Social media marketing for small businesses offers a faster route to converting engagement into sales. You can integrate shopping carts, run targeted ads by user location with special offers and add influencer marketing strategies to turn visitors into customers, improving your social media ROI. 

Improved customer service

Social media allows you to connect with your customers on a more personal level. Outreach platforms like Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and WhatsApp can help small businesses go above and beyond and consistently delight their customers through social media customer service. 

Stay ahead of the curve

Social media is an excellent tool for conducting social media competitor analysis and keeping your finger on the pulse of trends and customer preferences. The outcome? You can identify content that resonates most with your audience and adapt your social marketing strategy accordingly. 

Read More: Impact of Social Media Marketing on Businesses 

5 social media marketing strategies for small businesses  

Social media marketing can boost your bottom line. But as part of a small business that’s new to the game, how do you use it? Well, here's how: 

Understand your customer persona  

"Know your audience like your best friend," says every seasoned marketer.   

Know your audience — this is the foundation of any successful social media campaign. Create a customer persona, including a detailed profile of your ideal customer, their interests, online habits, pain points and what makes them tick. Join the online customer communities they frequent, identify the keywords they search for and the questions they ask. This should be your first consideration while creating social media content. Give recommendations and answer prompts that address their needs to rank well for their search terms.   

Additionally, consider a content strategy that caters to different buying stages as your understanding grows. For example, 50% of your content should be top-of-funnel (ToFu) content aimed at attracting those who are new to your brand but interested in the topic. Next, 30% should be middle-of-funnel (MoFu) content, targeting those who know your company but haven't converted yet.

Finally, 20% should be bottom-of-funnel (BoFu) content, targeting users actively searching for a solution, which is where you position your product as the best choice. So utilizing a social media marketing funnel can turn your social media efforts from guesswork into a data-driven strategy that attracts and converts loyal customers. 

Learn More: Content Marketing: Definitive Guide for 2024 

Repurpose, reuse, repost 

As a small business, repurposing your existing content is a brilliant strategy to maximize reach and minimize workload. In fact, 53% of marketers repurpose content to improve brand awareness, while 81% of teams use it to drive website traffic. Here is how small businesses can repurpose their content:  

• Create short bits out of your podcasts for quick virality: The podcast space is booming, yet our attention spans are shrinking. So extract key takeaways and quotes from your podcast to create YouTube Shorts with links to the original episode. Look at Dr. Andrew Huberman, for instance. The scientist and podcaster adds informative Shorts to his YouTube channel to discuss science-related topics. 

Source 

• Turn long-form blogs into X posts and threads: Break down your long-form content into X threads or turn them into eye-catching infographics for Instagram and Pinterest. The former is exactly what Amazon did. In June 2024, the company announced that it had achieved a significant reduction in plastic packaging in North America. How? It added a short post on X (formerly Twitter) with a video and a link to its news section for more details.  

Source 

• Publish explainers: Did you know 91% of audiences prefer video explainers over written content? So edit your long-form videos into bite-sized clips for platforms like Instagram or TikTok. Talk about your product features, offer tutorials or create behind-the-scenes snippets in a single snapshot. 
• Share case studies: Case studies are fantastic for showcasing your expertise. Convert them into customer testimonials, reviews or creative photos and videos. You can also reverse engineer here and announce your next webinar, marketing campaign or release through client testimonials.
  
  Here’s how Deutsche Gesellschaft, a German aeronautics company, did it:  
  Source  

Dive Deeper: Repurposing Content for Social Media: 7 Actionable Tips 

🥲 Creating high-quality content for multiple channels consistently is a pain! 

There’s no doubt that making, distributing and tracking social media content can become a handful, especially if you have to maintain the ideal standards and cadence. But here’s where a holistic solution like Sprinklr Social can be a real time-saver. 

This 360-degree solution allows you to: 

📝 Preview posts, make channel-specific customizations and publish content across 30+ channels at the same time 

⚡ Generate channel-specific content across multiple formats and simplify content reviews instantly with the power of generative AI 

🤝🏻 Ensure on-brand engagements with custom approval workflows, governance rules and moderation processes  

BECOME A SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT GURU NOW

Track the latest trends 

In 2021, Duolingo, a language learning app, participated in the #learnonTikTok campaign on TikTok. The company’s campaign included videos featuring Duo, its green owl mascot. The campaign quickly became viral — one video garnered 24 million views and 5 million likes. Duolingo’s secret sauce? The app cleverly tapped into the power of trending videos, challenges and current fads — the very elements that keep TikTok's target audience engaged. 

While staying on top of trends can be exciting, it can also be quite challenging. To constantly monitor every platform, you must turn strategic, not frantic. Leverage modern toolkits across social media for trend analysis, such as: 

• Instagram's professional dashboard: Look for the "Insights" section within your professional dashboard. Here, you will find up to 50 trending audio tracks and ideas that are all the buzz on the platform. 
• Sprinklr Insights: Leverage industry-vetted solution stacks to access real-time, AI-powered consumer, competitor and market insights with 90% accuracy. The best part? It aggregates data from over 30 channels into a unified source to surface trends. 
• News and content aggregators: BuzzSumo, BuzzFeed and Feedly curate trending topics and content, making it easy to identify what captivates audiences. 
• Keyword research with Ahrefs: Use Ahrefs' content explorer tool for a data-driven approach. Run a quick keyword search to see what topics and ideas are trending online.  

Get automation savvy   

Social media automation can free up your time to focus on what matters the most — creating impactful content. While automation can't replace genuine human interaction entirely, it does help you: 

• Provide 24/7 customer service with built-in chatbots and customized service options for customers to build a positive CX.  
• Simplify answering basic questions or even handling buyer’s remorse with better-discounted deals and cashback offers.  
• Respond to DMs and comments with simple automated greetings and welcome messages for new followers to set a positive first impression. Schedule automated "Thank you" messages for contest entries or purchases. This shows your audience that you care.  
• Schedule posts in advance for a consistent content strategy and a healthy digital presence. Sprinklr AI helps you do just that by auto-scheduling social media posts for peak hours. This can help you widen your target audience and maximize your social media reach. 
  

• Integrate data pipelines into your social media management platform to constantly monitor your social media performance. Use built-in analytics to check your weekly social media engagement metrics, organic leads and traffic. Optimize your social media posting schedule and compare your marketing performance against established benchmarks.  

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Analyze your social media performance   

Social media metrics tell the real story — the tale of how your business is faring among the rest, whether you are headed in the right direction or if your strategy needs tweaking. They show which types of social media (videos, images or blog posts) and formats (long-form or short-form) resonate most with your audience and how these efforts translate into actual business value. 

To drive the most ROI from your social media marketing initiatives, align your goals (brand awareness, lead generation, sales, etc.) with measurable KPIs. Here are a few metrics you shouldn’t miss to check the success of your social media efforts:  

• Lead clicks: This metric measures the number of times users click on a call-to-action (CTA) in your post that directs them to a lead capture form. 
• Conversion rate: This captures the percentage of website visitors from social media who take a desired action (purchase, sign-up, etc.). 
• Impressions: Understand the reach of your social media post and how many times it was seen by a user. 

How to create a social media content strategy for your small business  

As a small business, you don’t want to spread yourself too thin. You don't want to be everywhere at once. But at the same time, you also don't want to miss out on reaching your target audience across platforms. So capitalize on what’s trending to garner deeper customer attention.   

To balance things out, here's how you can build a social media content strategy that resonates with your audience and drives results: 

Know your brand and audience 

Define your brand voice and identity before posting content. What are your core values? What makes you unique? How do you want people to perceive your brand — quirky, informative or something else altogether? Once you’ve created a brand language, identify your “real” customers based on demographics (age, location, etc.), interests and online behavior. 

Set your social media KPIs 

What do you hope to achieve with social media — brand awareness, website traffic, lead generation or sales? Having clear goals helps you tailor your content and measure success.  

Streamline your content creation and distribution processes 

Identify 3-5 core themes that resonate with your audience and brand. For a bakery, these might be delicious recipes, baking tips and behind-the-scenes glimpses. If you run a boutique, think about posting on fashion trends and celebrity outfits. Start by selecting any two customer-facing platforms that your target audience frequently uses. Once you’ve established a presence and strategy on these platforms, consider branching out to others if needed.  

Schedule your content in advance 

Automate routine tasks to save energy for more creative tasks. Scheduling tools like Sprinklr can be invaluable for this. Create a content calendar, automating the input of your captions and images. Be sure to experiment with various content formats, such as images, videos, blog posts, polls and stories. 

Prioritize community features over growth 

Social media is a two-way street. Respond to comments, answer questions and participate in relevant conversations for greater social media community management. 

Keep using data to refine your social media strategy 

Metrics are your war paint! Use social media analytics to strengthen your marketing strategy — identify CTAs that attract the most customers, the posts that capture the highest user attention and the pages with the lowest bounce rates.  

How to choose a social media agency for your small business  

Running a small business can be demanding. You're creating marketing messages one minute, and the next, you're closing a sale. Managing social media might feel overwhelming in this situation. If it does, you may need a social media agency. Here’s how you can select the ideal social media agency for your small business: 

Define the scope of work 

Before diving in, clearly define what you need from a social media agency. Are you looking to boost brand awareness through targeted paid advertising? Do you need help dissecting the data and optimizing your pay-per-click (PPC) performance? Or do you want to build an online brand community? Communicate your goals clearly to your agency. 

Study their industry expertise 

Look for an agency specializing in your industry and the stage of your business evolution. For example, an early-stage B2B company might prioritize an agency with content creation expertise in thought leadership rather than one focused on social media advertising.  

Ask for their portfolio 

Request for proof. Review case studies demonstrating the agency's work within your industry, focusing on engagement outcomes and website traffic analytics. Also, ask for client testimonials highlighting how the agency has managed community engagement and nurtured online communities. 

Set incremental budgets for specific KPIs 

Ask about pricing, service packages and reporting. Many agencies provide flexible packages tied to achieving targets and the option to scale KPIs later. Customize a solution that aligns with your budget and specific requirements. For example, start with a contract focused on increasing organic traffic, then amend it later to include "paid ads" or " lead generation." 

Elevate your social media marketing game with Sprinklr Social 

The social media landscape can feel overwhelming for small businesses, but it doesn't have to be. By following the tips covered in this article, you can develop a winning marketing strategy to connect with your audience, build brand awareness and drive sales.  

But before constant context-switching between platforms and tracking endless metrics hinders your progress, consider using a platform that provides AI-powered actionable insights, robust automation and services across more than 30 channels — that’s Sprinklr Social in a nutshell.   

Keen to see how you can take your social media marketing up a level and transform your small business into one that’s more thriving?