Reasons Why Your Social Media Marketing Isn’t Getting Results

When people think of marketing strategies that are popular today, social media marketing is always near the top of the list. Nearly any business you can imagine, from Fortune 500 companies to mom-and-pop shops, is getting active on social media. Many of them aren’t getting the revenue-building results they had expected, though.

Why do some brands enjoy profitable results from social media marketing while others don’t? As with other marketing channels, using social media effectively requires a thorough, well-researched, data-driven strategy with the right techniques and skillful execution. Our team at McCauley Marketing Services is taking a closer look at how social media marketing and the most likely reasons you may not be seeing the results you wanted.

First Things First: Defining “Results” from Social Media Marketing

Before we go further, it’s important to get on the same page about results. When we reference “results” for your social media marketing, we are referring to revenue for your business, not social media-only data such as followers, post engagement, and so on. These statistics are very helpful to track and analyze, but remember that these are merely indications that you may be moving toward building revenue by engaging consumers. Social media followers and likes may make your ego feel better but they won’t make money for your business on their own, so the true measure of success is your revenue.

Reason 1: You’re Focusing on the Wrong Audience

Many businesses have been confused by the mixed signals they get from their social media marketing outcomes. They see their number of followers and page likes growing, along with their post engagement, which tells them people are seeing and enjoying their posts. But they don’t see their revenue going up in the process.

In many cases, this means that you’re appealing to the wrong audience. If all your new followers live halfway across the country but your business is brick-and-mortar, or if your new followers are in an age demographic that doesn’t benefit from the services you offer, they won’t become paying customers or patients. Instead of just trying to get as much attention on social media as possible, focus on appealing to people that would benefit most from your services.

You’re Striking the Wrong Balance Between Promotion and Information

When you post on social media, you need to have the right balance between posts that promote your business and posts that purely provide information or engaging content. If you have too much self-promotion and too little content, users will stop paying attention because they aren’t getting value from your posts. If you have too little self-promotion, though, users don’t ever make the transition from enjoying your content to becoming paying customers. They might not even know what services you offer.

What percentage of your posts should you dedicate to promotion over content? There’s no magic number that works for everyone. You’ll need to experiment to see what balance strikes a chord with your followers.

You Aren’t Pulling Users Toward a Next Step

As we mentioned, many of your social media posts should be offering helpful and engaging information for followers to enjoy. However, you’ll bring in more revenue from your social media if these posts are also subtly guiding users to take one more step toward making a purchase. You want to encourage them to visit your website or call you.

For example, perhaps you want to offer tips for managing acne. Instead of posting all these tips in the body of your post, only include one or two tips as a teaser and then link to a blog on your website for more.

Getting Effective Social Media Marketing Results

Social media marketing might look like a series of quick posts, but getting effective results takes more planning and strategizing than you may realize, including ensuring that your social media marketing works cohesively with your overall marketing strategy. For help, schedule a meeting with McCauley Marketing Services to discuss our social media marketing services. For more marketing tips, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.