How to Set Up Social Media Marketing - the Definitive Australian SME Guide
Updated 12 September 2022
Summary
Summary
- In this guide we explain the fundamental steps to set up successful social media marketing for any small or medium enterprise.
- Our guide explains the high-level strategy and gives tactical tips that apply, not only to businesses starting from scratch but also those who wish to reimagine their existing marketing strategies.
Know This First: The definition of social media marketing
Simply put, social media marketing is the process of creating and posting content on social media platforms to do the following:
- Promote your product or service
- Drive traffic to your business
- Build rapport with your target audience
Why social media marketing is important:
- Marketing is a necessity – Your business can only succeed if your customers can find you, remember you and trust you.
- Social media is a highly effective marketing channel – It allows your brand to be inside the pockets and minds of your customers.
Background:
- The importance of social media marketing cannot be overstated. At the beginning of 2022, 4.65 billion people were on some form of social media. That’s 58.7% of the global population, nearly 6 in every 10 people across the world.
- That proportion is even higher in Australia and close to 9 in 10 (89.2% to be precise) are social media users. On average, social media users spend two and a half hours on social media every single day.
- There is simply no better way to get in front of your audience at the scale and price that social media offers. By establishing a solid social media strategy, your business will be better positioned to capture those 9 in 10 people in one move. In addition to that, there’s a good chance your competition is already on social media talking to your potential customers.
- To remain competitive, it’s vital to create a strong social media presence for your business.
How to Set Up Social Media Marketing
Although it’s tempting to jump right in and create a business page on Facebook and a profile on Instagram, or even TikTok, it’s important to take a few steps back and lay a firm foundation. The foundation to great social media marketing lies in the strategy. Every social media platform is different, each comprised of a unique audience demographic and favouring different types of content. It’s crucial to pick the correct platform and produce content that aligns with your business’s specific objectives.
From beginning to end, we’ve broken down social media marketing into the following 6 key steps. The first 3 steps focus on the strategy, the following 3 steps focus on execution.
Although these steps are laid out sequentially, often you will jump back and forward between steps especially in the strategy stage.
From beginning to end, we’ve broken down social media marketing into the following 6 key steps. The first 3 steps focus on the strategy, the following 3 steps focus on execution.
- Identify your target audience
- Choose the right channels and strategy
- Define your outcome or business objective
- Get set up
- Plan your budget
- Systemise, track, and optimise
Although these steps are laid out sequentially, often you will jump back and forward between steps especially in the strategy stage.
Step 1: Identify your Target Audience
Your offering won’t be fit for everybody in the world and it’s wasteful trying to sell it to everyone. It’s much more effective to focus your marketing efforts and define a “target audience”. In general, your target audience is the group of consumers who are most likely to buy your specific offering.
Quick distinction: Target Market vs Target Audience
Identifying your target audience allows you to:
Quick distinction: Target Market vs Target Audience
- Target Market: the broad set of consumers you plan to sell to or reach with your offering.
- Target Audience: the subset of your Target Market who you are trying to target with a specific advertising activity or marketing campaign.
Identifying your target audience allows you to:
- Pick the right channels to reach your audience
- Create specific and compelling content for that audience
- Optimise and align future efforts for maximum return
How to identify your target market and audience:
Start broad with your target market by establishing key demographic identifiers that fit your potential customers. Narrow this down by adding more identifiers until you reach the subset of your target market that will become your target audience.
Below is a list of demographical identifiers to get you started.
Below is a list of demographical identifiers to get you started.
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Analysing your existing customer base and the target audience of your competitors can help refine your audience. If your SME offers a variety of products or services each aimed at different customer types, either focus on the one offering you wish to promote or establish multiple audiences, one for each offering.
For SME’s that are B2B, it’s worth considering factors such as the size of their business and who the key decision makers are.
For SME’s that are B2B, it’s worth considering factors such as the size of their business and who the key decision makers are.
Step 2: Choose the Right Platform(s)
There is a plethora of social media platforms available, however for SMEs in Australia, we recommend picking up one or more of the following four: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or TikTok.
Each platform differs significantly with regards to their audience, the style of content favoured and the types of campaigns that perform the best. Below is a brief guide on the main 4 platforms, when to use them and who their primary audiences are.
Each platform differs significantly with regards to their audience, the style of content favoured and the types of campaigns that perform the best. Below is a brief guide on the main 4 platforms, when to use them and who their primary audiences are.
Platform |
Facebook |
Instagram |
LinkedIn |
TikTok |
Best used for: |
Brand awareness and advertising (conversion) |
Images, videos, UGC* and advertising (conversion) |
B2B relationships, business development, recruiting and advertising |
Brand awareness, short-form video content and UGC |
General Audience** |
Millennials, Gen Z and Gen X |
Millennials and Gen Z |
Millennials, Gen X and Gen Z |
Gen Z and Millennials |
Largest Age Group |
25 – 34 (31.5%) |
25 – 34 (31.2%) |
25 – 34 (58.4%) |
10 – 19 (25%) |
Global Monthly Active Users |
2.91 billion |
2 billion |
0.81 billion |
1 billion |
Industry Impact |
B2C |
B2C |
B2B |
B2C and B2B |
* UGC = User Generated Content
** Audiences by approximate age range in 2022:
Gen Z: 10 – 25
Millennials: 26 – 41
Gen X: 42 – 57
Baby Boomers: 58 – 67
** Audiences by approximate age range in 2022:
Gen Z: 10 – 25
Millennials: 26 – 41
Gen X: 42 – 57
Baby Boomers: 58 – 67
If you’re unsure of which platform to begin with, research what platforms your direct competitors are most prevalent on. Find out where they are getting their leads and ask your customers how and where they found you.
The outcome or business objective of your marketing efforts is another factor that should influence which platform you choose.
The outcome or business objective of your marketing efforts is another factor that should influence which platform you choose.
Step 3: Define Your Outcome or Business Objective
Simplifying the types of outcomes you may want from your social media marketing, we come to the following categorisations.
Each of these high-level categories are multi-faceted and could have their own article dedicated to them. To save you time, here is a list of example goals that fall into each category:
Reach:
As we touched on in the table in step 2, some platforms are better suited than others when aiming for specific goals. TikTok and Facebook can be great for awareness and community building, Facebook and Instagram, great for converting those leads into sales. LinkedIn for all the above in the B2B space.
To surmise the steps in the strategy phase; you must know your target audience, observe where they spend most of their time, define the outcomes of your marketing efforts and identify which platforms are best suited for these goals. With this foundation, you can move into the execution phase, getting set up on the appropriate platforms, planning your budget and optimising campaigns.
- Reach (awareness, traffic, and new leads)
- Reputation (brand and sentiment)
- Conversion (sales and retention)
Each of these high-level categories are multi-faceted and could have their own article dedicated to them. To save you time, here is a list of example goals that fall into each category:
Reach:
- Increase brand awareness
- Drive traffic to your website
- Generate new leads
- Enter new markets
- Boost brand engagement
- Deliver better customer service
- Build a community around your business
- Increase mentions in the press and other media
- Increase conversion from lead to sale
- Deliver better customer service
- Retarget and retain customers
- Advertise peripheral products or services
- Listen to conversations about your brand
- Market insights
- Attract talent and recruit
As we touched on in the table in step 2, some platforms are better suited than others when aiming for specific goals. TikTok and Facebook can be great for awareness and community building, Facebook and Instagram, great for converting those leads into sales. LinkedIn for all the above in the B2B space.
To surmise the steps in the strategy phase; you must know your target audience, observe where they spend most of their time, define the outcomes of your marketing efforts and identify which platforms are best suited for these goals. With this foundation, you can move into the execution phase, getting set up on the appropriate platforms, planning your budget and optimising campaigns.
Step 4: Get Set Up
Creating your business accounts
Creating your business account(s) is surprisingly straightforward, and each platform has their own guides with helpful links that take you step by step. Here are the quick links to those guides:
Aligning branding
If your SME is still establishing its brand or has the time and resource to re-brand, now is the time to do so. Keep in mind the target audience you identified in step one to ensure your brand aligns with them. Here’s a helpful article on creating a strong brand as an SME.
To further augment your brand, consider what type of content you want to put out. This could be dependent on the platform and your brand.
To further augment your brand, consider what type of content you want to put out. This could be dependent on the platform and your brand.
Find inspiration
We all feel uninspired sometimes. If you get stuck, browse your competitors’ social channels and content from similar businesses overseas. Identify what is working for them and how you could adapt it to be uniquely suited to your business. Take inspiration from work that’s already out there and add your own twist.
The SME advantage
Many SME’s and business owners find it daunting and discouraging to produce content because they compare their content against the polished high budget campaigns of companies with deeper pockets and much more time. Something that isn’t commonly understood is the advantage that you have as an SME. Rather than trying to make your content polished and high budget, you can reach your users by being authentic, raw, relatable, and lovably home-made. This is true globally, but we’ve found that Australians particularly appreciate raw content from local businesses that is unfiltered and light hearted.
Step 5: Plan Your Budget
Where and how you conduct social media marketing should be dependent on your budget. Here are some tips and activities to focus on for different budget ranges.
If your budget is between $0 - $3,000 a month:
- You can set up multiple social channels for free but focus your ad spend on one or two channels and do it well. If you try to spread your budget across too many channels, you’re not going to reach the threshold for effective ad spending.
- Good reviews are crucial for converting leads to sales
- Encourage users to leave reviews. When a customer purchases, link them to your page to leave a review
- Incentivise reviews with small addons and freebies until you have at least 50. This is a rough threshold for establishing social credibility around your offering.
- Post content about your product and why it’s uniquely awesome
- Create lots of organic content (unpaid)
- Use new features released by social platforms as they reward you for it by giving new features higher weighting in the algorithm
- Focus ad spend on boosting the best organic posts
- Save time by making content in batches and use Meta Business Suite to schedule posts over time
- If using Facebook, share your content into existing groups your audience might be active in or set up your own Facebook group(s)
- If using Instagram, try a “tag us in your story to win” type of competition. It will encourage UGC and generate a consistent stream of content.
- Consider engaging micro-influencers (an influencer relevant to your audience that may have between 1,000 to 100,000 followers)
- Avoid the following:
- Overusing hashtags – instead, use less tags that are more relevant. On Instagram keep it 5 tags or less and on Facebook, feel free to skip tagging all together.
- Too many freebies or giveaway competitions – Although it may be good in small bursts or to get reviews, competitions and freebies can get costly and tend to attract lower quality customers (less brand loyal and small spenders).
- Purchasing followers – buying your audience can get you flagged, shadow banned (hidden from audiences without your knowledge), and it ruins the quality of your data.
- Overusing hashtags – instead, use less tags that are more relevant. On Instagram keep it 5 tags or less and on Facebook, feel free to skip tagging all together.
If your budget is between $3,000 - $10,000 a month:
- Everything above
- Start introducing ad spend on multiple channels and scale up spend per ad
- Consider upgrading your tools with these useful apps and services:
If your budget is higher than $10,000 a month
- Everything above
- Spend on most if not all channels your business is active on
- Consider engaging relevant influencers (100,000+ followers)
- Hire specialists or engage an agency to create, optimise and manage specific social channels
Step 6: Systemise, Track and Optimise
The principles and concepts shared in this article apply to most businesses however the specific type and flavour of content that works from business to business varies vastly. Finding what works best for your SME can take time and often requires many iterative attempts and adjustments. Systemising your social media marketing will make it easier to consistently put out content over the long term and give your campaigns the time they need to produce accurate data. In turn, this data will show you which posts, campaigns, and ad spending to scale and which to eliminate.
1. Systemise
2. Track
3. Optimise
1. Systemise
- Plan and schedule content – put aside a day, once a month, to create 15-20 posts. Schedule these posts to go live throughout the month to save yourself the daily overhead of generating content. Post only what you yourself would click.
- Monthly reviews – put aside a day, once a month, to dive deeply into the data from last month's campaigns. Reviewing too often may not give your campaigns the time they need to start working. Similarly, reviewing too infrequently will extend your iterative cycle, meaning you may be wasting money on an ineffective campaign.
2. Track
- Enable notifications on your phone so you can keep track of user engagement as it happens.
- For your website, consider setting up Google Analytics (for free) so you can track the following:
- User engagement times - observe if user engagement increases around the time of your posts or ads. Good content will result in a spike in user engagement right after it goes live. Additionally, certain times of the day may be better for conversion and identifying these moments allows you to lower your ad spend by promoting your content only during that window of time. You could even retarget users who are on the fence during this time.
- Total users and session time - does your content encourage more users and are they spending more time on your site? An increase in session time may indicate that your content is attracting the right customers who are spending more time contemplating your offering.
- Bounce rate - a high bounce rate may indicate that your campaigns are generating traffic, but your website isn’t aligned with what customers expected when they saw your content.
- Traffic source – get a sense of where users are coming from and why they may have come from there
3. Optimise
- Figure out what works and do more of it – deconstruct your most effective campaign/content, make hypotheses about why they may have worked and test these the next month. You won’t always be right, but you can always be learning. Some factors to consider when examining what worked; When did you post? What did it look like? How did it make users feel? Did it result in an action? What discouraged or disengaged users? How long was the content? Was the focus of the content photo, video, text, or a combination?
- Once you have an audience, use Lookalike Audiences to leverage the characteristics of your existing audience to target similar people.
- As you optimise, don’t be afraid to experiment and post more content even if it’s unpolished. Through your data, let your audience tell you what is and isn’t up to par.
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