We’ll discuss the most effective marketing strategies you can use to make sure Twitter draws more customers to your business.
Here are the 10 best strategies for your Twitter marketing campaign:
1. Create a Twitter account that will resonate with potential customers.
You must have heard of the saying that “First impressions last,” it’s actually the same for your project, business or product. In other words, if your Twitter account is lackluster, nobody in the Twittersphere will take you seriously. It is extremely important you do not forget one key aspect of working in the virtual world – just because things are online doesn’t mean they aren’t real. Your account must have a decent profile photo that sends out a message about your brand in a clear manner. You also have to describe your profile using the 160 characters available, so make sure you pick the right words. Be smart and use hashtags, calls to action, and keywords to prompt customers to take the next step and buy your product. Don’t forget to link your company website and add your physical location as well.
2. Establish a segmented Twitter list according to the audience being targeted.
You will not be able to market your product as effectively as possible if you do not know your target audience. Communicating to the wrong target audience is a huge waste of time. It is important you send out your marketing tweets to the right audience. In order to achieve this, you have to use Twitter lists to segment your audience. There is a free Twitter tool known as Followerwonk that can help you look for users whose bios contain similar keywords as your content. There is also the option of searching for users based on their location. Find hashtags that are aligned with your industry and as you browse through them, look for the people who are using them. You can come up with some really great hashtags to use in your marketing strategy. Hootsuite is also another Twitter tool that can help you import your lists, thus making it easier to keep track of the people in your list and establish relationships with them.
3. Maintain a personal relationship with followers by sending direct messages.
Once you have a group of loyal followers, you should make things more personal by sending direct messages to everyone. Since the group is relatively small at first, you can send the messages manually to everyone on your list. However, when the number of followers grow rapidly, it becomes more difficult to do so, and therefore, you need to use a tool such as Social Oomph. This tool sends private messages to all your followers automatically. Whenever someone decides to follow you, they automatically receive a message from you. Make sure that this message is well crafted so that you don’t come across as trying to make an overt sales pitch. Just say thank you for their decision to follow you and wish them a great day, or ask them how you may help them. If they respond, then don’t forget to include their name in your message. It could be the beginning of a symbiotic relationship where you help them and they help you by promoting your product.
4. Make plans in advance.
There is no need to procrastinate and send out a tweet at the last minute yet you have the opportunity to make plans in advance. A good example is the Christmas period. This is the perfect time to send tweets that will impact your sales considerably, but if you haven’t even thought of the tweets you will be sending out, you will end up losing a golden opportunity. Ensure that tweets for every major event are planned in advance. When you send the tweets, don’t sit back and disengage; keep the fire burning by being proactive. Follow any related hashtags that might be trending and use them as a way to engage in marketing. This will help you generate momentum to propel you ahead from your rivals. There is also a powerful tool known as #OwnTheMoment planner that helps monitor upcoming events so you can get the most appropriate tweet relevant for your Twitter followers.
5. Utilize Twitter Chats effectively.
Most businesses and businesspeople fail to realize Twitter was designed primarily to enable people to engage with one another. It is not just a tool for promoting your products and services. In other words, if you intend to reap maximum dividends from your marketing campaign, then you must be prepared to engage with your followers actively. Twitter Chats enable you to create a buzz about your product or service, and as you do, people will respond and start talking about what you are offering. You have the choice of either creating your own Twitter chat or looking for a chat relevant to your industry or product. If you decide on the former option, then consider creating cool graphics to get people talking about your product. Just remember that you have to keep participating and engaging constantly with people who respond to your chats. Don’t watch from the sidelines. Instead, use @username to make sure they receive notifications every time you send out a reply about the chat.
6. Publicize your events using Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends.
There are times when all your business requires is a little advertising to draw in more sales. Why don’t you use Twitter to get noticed? Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends are two ways of making a huge splash in ways that conventional online marketing methods can’t compete with. The way this works is via retweets, click-throughs, and favorite/like tweets. The process of buying these Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends is similar to Google’s own model. They are auctioned at a rate relevant to its cost-per-engagement and you pay according to the engagement of the tweet or trend. In order to make the best use of such tools, you should consider using them when you have a major product launch or event. For example, back in 2010, Coke would send out a tweet to celebrate every goal that was scored during the world cup. This generated a lot of engagement. The truth is that most people log in to Twitter just to see the issues that are trending, so by using Promoted Trends and Tweets, you are positioning yourself to take advantage of user curiosity. This kind of advertising can be invaluable.
7. Leverage the power of Twitter Search.
Twitter searches are a great and effective way to find out what is being said about your products and services. For example, if you are running a blog about food, you can use Hootsuite to establish a search about the best chocolate chip recipe. If someone requests for such a recipe on Twitter, you will receive a notification and will be able to respond accordingly. At this stage, you can reply to the person using @username and send them a link to your food blog so they can find the recipe they want. You also have the option of running an advanced search so you discover the people tweeting using a particular keyword within your local area. People will thank you a lot if you can help them get the information they need, and some might even be converted into customers. The point here is not to focus on simply selling a product but rather to provide value to people.
8. Make use of your competitors.
It is likely your rivals are using you on Twitter, so why not return the favor? As long as this is done in an ethical way, everyone benefits. By using the advanced search feature on Twitter, you can look for any hashtags belonging to your competitor and determine who their customers are. The next step is to refine your search so you find those customers who are within any city or country of interest. You should also consider following your competition so that you stay updated on anything they do. It is inevitable that some of your customers will also be using your rivals’ products and services. You can use this opportunity to interact with your competitor’s and mutual customers may even join the conversation. Some day you may end up collaborating with the competition on a product or service that will benefit customers immensely, so don’t make enemies in business. The relationship may someday become symbiotic!
9. Learn the perfect times to send out tweets.
It is obvious your followers will not be online at all times. This means you have to find out the best tweeting times so your followers will get to see them when they are online. There are a number of tools you can use for this. One of them is Audiense, which analyzes your followers’ timelines and informs you when to tweet. There is also HootSuite, which determines and informs you of the time of day when your tweets usually receive the highest level of engagement. Another tool is Tweriod, which analyzes your followers and informs you whenever they are active online and when you should tweet them. The information you receive regarding the best times to tweet should be imported into the Buffer Schedule. This will help give you the best results possible. These tools will help you know when majority of your followers are online, and you can then adjust your marketing campaign to send out more tweets during these particular times. At the end of the day, you may not reach everyone, but at least most of your followers will be able to engage with you as you continue building your brand.
10. Engage whenever there are retweets or replies.
Finally, you have to decide what your online persona is going to be like. You must decide whether you are going to watch passively or engage actively with what is happening on Twitter. If you tweet something major, you are likely to be swamped with comments from many of your followers. This may quickly get to your head, but it is important to understand that you should never take for granted the people who follow your brand. One minute they are there, the next minute they have moved on. Every comment must be replied to and every positive tweet that paints your company in a good light should be retweeted for other customers to see. This is part of building your brand.
If your products or services are criticized, then you have to take it in stride. You should consider embedding a deep link in your tweets so that whoever has a private message they wish to share with you directly can do so easily. If there is one thing that people are missing today due to all the busyness, it is clear communication. If you are able to take the time and make the effort to communicate more clearly than your competitors, then you will find it much easier to create a bigger impact using Twitter!