Of those polled, 83% of marketers see social media as being important to their business. Its rate for getting sales from leads is 100% higher than outbound marketing efforts. But gaining those leads isn’t as simple as just signing up for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn: you need to utilize your online presence effectively. We’re here to help you do that.

This article is the first in a series on getting leads through social media marketing. In this article, we’ll walk you through the crucial first steps of the process. This includes forming a vision statement and outlining goals. You’ll have no gauge by which to measure your success without first knowing what it is you’d like to accomplish.
 

Vision Statement: Outline Your Goals

You’ll want to start by writing a vision statement. This illustrates your most ideal aspirations for your marketing strategy and business.

Take the vision statement of Sears, a Canadian retailer, for instance: “To be the preferred and most trusted resource for the products and services that enhance home and family life.”

This conveys a strong ambition and places focus on the prospective consumer. A vision statement serves as a guiding point which you can turn to whenever making a decision.

Following a vision statement that embodies an altruistic goal will make your content meaningful and compelling. For example, you might want to be a go-to-source for informative content for your clients. This can be achieved through the content you provide and will set you up for success in generating leads.

So let’s take a look at the key components you should consider when creating your own vision statement:

1) Buyer Persona: Targeting Your Content

A buyer persona is a fictional embodiment of your target market.

Imagine who they are and what they want and need. Think of some of your existing clients for tangible examples. 

At Hubdoc, for instance, we gear our content towards accountants and bookkeepers. 

They have experience under their belts and a number of clients. We think of what that niche would find useful or engaging. That’s why we don’t blog about accounting 101 and instead post about how existing advisors can improve their practice. We share insights in Q&A posts and write about how social media and content can benefit their business.

Start with considering the basic demographic of your typical buyer and dig deeper from there. You want an understanding that goes beyond numbers. For example, if targeting restauranteurs, you’ll want to understand the day-to-day struggles those business owners face.

Think about why your clients come to you for help in the first place and what their challenges are. Consider how much experience they have when they do so. Picture their journey, from the beginning to the end.

Brainstorm and write this down to create a buyer persona. Then it’s time to think about your content.
 

2) Content Creation: Targeting Your Buyer Persona

Once you’ve identified your buyer persona, the next step is to figure out what value you want to bring to their lives and how that translates into the content you create.

Social media marketing takes a variety of forms, from images and videos to articles and webinars. The content you create is dependent on a couple factors. Firstly, it’s dependent on you and your personal strengths. If you take advantage of those to create content, it will come more naturally. For example, you could utilize your knack for storytelling or love for taking photos to generate blog articles or Instagram posts.

You’ll also want to consider what kind of content works well for your business. To do this, think about what kind of content your buyer persona would typically consume. Articles are, for instance, a good avenue for accountants and bookkeepers. That buyer persona reads a lot of articles on the web. And for Hubdoc, blog posts are a great way to effectively convey information. To get ideas, you can ask existing clients about what kind of content they consume and what they’d like to see from you.

Don’t shy away from experimenting with different kinds of content. You may find out that certain content works for you and your business once you try it, even if it didn’t seem like it would. That is, for example, how we discovered webinars work for us.

And finally, think about how you can be creative in a world inundated with social media. You want to bring something unique to the table and give people a reason to choose your content.

3) Content Success: Achieving Your Goals

Analytical aspects of measuring success can come later. In defining your vision statement, think about how you’d like your content to improve the lives of others.

For example, you might want your content to help others find your practice more approachable. Your buyer persona might be looking for help on a particular subject. You can provide that help through your content, and that would help you achieve your goal of making your practice more approachable.

Consider how your content will make people feel. They could find it enjoyable, reassuring, or interesting. Imagine how the content you want to provide will affect their lives and bring you together in a positive way. This is a core part of your vision statement.

The success of marketing content through social media is directly tied to the effect that it has on others. You can’t achieve success in numbers if you don’t achieve success with an audience.

Summary

A vision statement is the foundation for a social media marketing campaign. Figuring out your buyer persona, what kind of content to create, and your end goals will set you on a path to success.

Stay tuned for for the next article in this series. The next step we’ll cover is creating your strategy for social media and content success.

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