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Today, social media has become a go-to-market strategy and a key element that drives your business growth. Thus, every startup and emerging business have been developing a social media plan that is strategically backed by a social media budget.

While budgeting assures you will have funds to achieve your goals, it could be challenging while planning your social media spends or making appropriate decisions regarding the channels you want to invest.

However, living in a digital era has made it clear that there is no one-size-fits-all concept in devising a social media budget. Every business has its own goals and resources to accomplish those goals.

In such a situation, marketers must question how much they intend to invest in their social media plan, which will eventually enable them to acquire new leads and sales.  

Here is a six-step approach to devise an optimised social media budget for your business.

Knowing your audience

Social media is not just a quick way to build a profitable small business; it can influence a user’s buying decisions. As an entrepreneur, before you invest money, time, and resources on social media, you need to know your objective and target audience.

Remember, your ultimate goal shouldn’t be getting the sales, but building long-term trust and brand image with people.

Social media influences the buying behaviour of consumers and creates a voice for your brand. Hence, building relationships and customer loyalty must come first.

One should reconsider their business objectives if their sole motive is to sell a product through social media rather than building relationships. 

Choosing the right media platforms

Social media platforms have different cultures and different values to offer. Choosing the right media platform doesn’t have to be the best/popular platform as there is the right one for every business.

Before you begin, ask yourself which social media platform your target audience is most active? 

There is no guarantee of producing results for your campaign if you invest in several social media platforms without doing your research. Understand how each social media platform works for your business by using “testing methods or strategies,” and you’ll be able to make your next big move.

Initially, you may have to invest some money in major social media advertising channels. A great piece of advice is to run smaller campaigns and test everything to ascertain whether or not you should stick to a channel.

Creating a user-friendly value proposition 

If you wish to stand out from the competition, work on your value proposition to make that happen. Being relevant, visually appealing, clear and concise and not to forget, including a call-to-action option are ideal ways to make it work.

This will assure users to click on your ad when you advertise on any social media platform. It could be promoting a product on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn, but your ad should be unique. It is key to portray the USP of the product/brand. Running ads on any discounts and exciting sales offers tend to surge conversions. 

Create different types of content 

Content marketing has paved the way for success for every business. Generating high-quality engaging content can enable you to showcase your business to a larger audience. Hence, one must invest time in innovation and creativity in their social media content by driving engagement through video content and personalisation of content.

Marketers can also create interactive content or develop video marketing strategies for their social media. Besides content, marketers should consider creating tutorial videos, infographics, podcasts, etc., to elevate brand awareness. 

Lastly, tailoring your social media content for each platform you invest in makes a lot of difference. Every social media platform has its value and a unique set of audience.

Creating different types of content for each social media platform could enable you to target your audience on a larger level and drive more conversions.

Optimising, managing, and reviewing your campaign

Planning your marketing strategies for the next quarter might not go as anticipated. A daily review is required to have a regular check on the status of your campaign. Therefore, to monitor your ongoing campaign, you can use certain tools to analyse and keep track of your campaign’s progress.

This will help businesses figure out the gaps and amplify their next step accordingly. Knowing what is working efficiently and what isn’t helps you have a successful run for your campaign. One can regularly track your campaign with the help of social media analytics or insights. 

A/B testing all channels to decide which one works the best

A/B testing can be of great use. It is a form of real-world research that allows you to test two variants of the marketing materials and show them to different segments of visitors at the same time. Later, they compare which variant drives more conversion. 

Spend your social media marketing campaign budget wisely by initially testing on various social media channels to arrive at which channel works the best. Promote your social presence on different platforms before you find the most relevant platform to devise your social budget. 

Now is the best time to amplify your social media strategies as per your defined social media budget. Using the above six-step approach will help you get the best results from your social media marketing budget.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YS.)