3 ways to integrate social media into your current online marketing

We’re sometimes asked by clients considering a plunge into social media whether those media can be integrated into their existing online marketing vehicles …usually search, display ads and email.

Here’s a nice post on iMedia Connection from Bill Flitter, who not only answers with a resounding “Yes!”, but cites several ways to do it…

Use social media to better target your traditional-media messages. The biggest problem your prospects probably have with your current marketing is that it tells them things other than what they wanted to learn …mostly because many marketing groups spend a fair amount of time in relative isolation, breathing their own exhaust.  You can monitor prospects’ conversations on Facebook and Twitter to discover what’s on their minds, and then speak directly to those concerns.  As Bill says, “One way to think about social media is a live focus group that produces true feelings about your brand.”  Oh, yeah… and it’s also way cheaper than a traditional (physical) focus group.

Craft problem/solution-oriented content. Bill cites the old sales-training saw that ‘no one who buys a drill ever wanted a drill;  they buy it because they want quarter-inch holes.’  Hence, says Bill:  “The way to sell more products, therefore, is to lead with information that empathizes and connects with the underlying reasons people want what you sell.”  Clearly, this is much better and easier done on a blog post, article or tutorial than via advertising, whether traditional or paid search.

Remarket to those prospects by traditional means. Now that some prospects have engaged with your brand in a relaxed, problem/solution-oriented mode, they’ll be more receptive to receiving your pitch via display ads or other traditional vehicles.  Just be sure that you message conforms to the intelligence you picked up in the first, “listening” stage above.

Bill’s post includes quite a bit more nuts-&-bolts how-to info than we had room for here, so do be sure to click on over and get the full story.