How Brands Can Use social media to Influence Consumers

 

The world of social media has made the landscape that brands operate in very different from what they used to be, so much so that it is quite surprising to see the number of brands that have managed to communicate with users on the basis of their social media accounts. However, more in-depth knowledge is required surrounding how brands engage with consumers if this engagement is going to be optimized in any significant way and turned into something that you can use for the furtherance of your own brand’s goals.

One way in which brands can communicate with consumers is that they can use their social media platforms as a kind of avenue that consumers can use to get in touch with someone if they have a complaint or a query. This is great because of the fact that there used to be quite a significant communication barrier between brands and their customers, but this communication barrier no longer exists and thus consumers are able to much more easily look into the impact that brands can end up having on their own personal lives by asking all the right questions.

Another way in which brand interaction with consumers is influential is by allowing brands to reach these consumers in the first place. Social media has quickly become one of the most popular ways for brands and marketing agencies to advertise to people, mostly due to the numerous options that allow you to zero in on those customers that you feel are relevant to the products that you are supplying, not to mention the wide variety of demographic identifiers that social media platforms offer to you when you are attempting to use them for the purposes of reaching the right consumers.

As far as the previous two points are concerned, nearly all social media users that follow some brands usually interact with them at some point or another. Additionally, two-thirds of consumers decided to buy a product or become interested in a brand after they saw an ad on social media, thereby proving the importance of social media in creating a bridge between brands and the people that are going to be paying for their products and services at the end of the day.

The Influence of Advertising on Consumer Behavior

Advertisements can significantly influence consumer buyin
g behavior. Some external factors play a role in how a consumer reacts to an ad, but the three biggest things that help to advertise influence consumer behavior are if the ad reaches.

• The right audience 
• In the right place 
• At the right time

Learn more about how geofencing can impact and change consumers’ buying habits by hitting those three criteria. 

How Can Advertisements Influence Consumer Behavior?

Advertisements on their own do not influence consumer behavior. For example, it doesn’t matter how many times a consumer sees an ad about the newest car on the market if they aren’t currently shopping for a car. This creates advertising waste when companies spend their advertising budget without seeing any return on investment.

An advertising campaign needs to get its message to the right audience in the right place at the right time to be most effective. When an advertisement campaign hits all three targets, that’s when it’s able to

 

• Forge bonds.
• Shape perceptions.
• Create value.
• Transform meaning into actions.  

A Food Ad Becomes Something More

Here’s an example: An advertisement shows people eating food. Fine we’ve all seen ads like that. But when placed in front of the right audience, the consumer fills in the gaps to take that commonplace imagery and view it as

 

Cool, stylish, and trendy people who have a strong social group eating a specific type of food. These elements combine to make the product much more desirable for that target audience. 

Different Ads for Different consumers 

One way you can see this in effect is with TV advertisements that consist of toys, sugary cereals, and the latest animated movie targeting children during Saturday morning cartoons. 

Meanwhile, during the middle of a Sunday afternoon golf tournament, the advertisements will be about the newest hair loss treatment, this year’s high-end vehicle, and a testosterone cream that will help you look and feel 20 years younger. 

 

While these campaigns do their best to target the right audience, there is still wasted ad spend because not everyone watching a morning cartoon eats cereal for breakfast, and not all the people watching a golf tournament are balding middle-aged men. 

Digital marketing tools, like geofencing, help companies reduce ad waste by using big data to make sure advertisements are strategically placed, helping clients get the most for their ad spend.

Current B2B Buying & and How its Effect on Sales

Sales managers often attribute this lack of access to customers to salespeople's inability to provide enough value in a typical sales interaction.

However, in looking at ways to address this access challenge, some research uncovered a very different reality. The problem is much less rooted in sellers' difficulties in selling and more in customers' difficulties in buying.                                  

Level of Influence Sellers Have on Customer Decisions                  

The instant availability of quality information through digital channels has made it much easier for buyers to gather information independently, meaning sellers have less access and less opportunity to influence customer decisions.
In fact, a Gartner study shows that B2B buyers who are considering a purchase spend only 17% of that time meeting with potential suppliers. When buyers compare multiple vendors, the time they spend with a sales rep can be as little as 5% or 6%.

                                                               (Source Google)

Personal Connections are more important

We mentioned above that a key feature of B2B marketing is long-term relationships with a smaller number of customers. With this in mind, many B2B companies often appoint dedicated account managers to nurture personal connections.

These account managers can for example pursue an account-based marketing approach, cultivating relationships with a small number of well-qualified leads by addressing them on their preferred channels