Startups have limited funds and limited time to make an impact. When you’re launching a marketing campaign, social media is usually the heart of it because you can easily launch this campaign without spending too much money.

But social media is no magic potion. It takes a lot of time and effort to make it work. This guide is going to show you the key things you have to do before you formally launch your social media marketing campaign.

Know Your Destination

One of the biggest flaws in your business is that you don’t know where your social media marketing campaign is actually going. You need to have  firm idea regarding what your campaign wants to achieve and how you’re going to make it to that point. It should be time-specific and there should be a clear line between success and failure.

Without a destination, you are essentially doing something without any reasoning. In the long-term, this is going to lead to disaster.

You need focus so you can easily figure out what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong come the end of every campaign.

Dividing Responsibility

You need to make sure that you’re dividing responsibility between the right people. If nobody is quite sure what they’re supposed to be managing, this is quickly going to lead to a confused campaign. Make it clear who should be doing what. That way you can easily trace back mistakes to the right person.

You should have a person responsible for content creation, publishing content, monitoring your online reputation, and responding to customers. Make this clear before you start the campaign so you can run the best social media campaignpossible.

Create Conversion Opportunities on Your Website

It doesn’t matter how many likes you get on Facebook. Nobody has ever managed to pay their rent through using the number of shares a piece of content had. Where you make your money is when people click on your links and visit your website. Once they are on your website, you have one chance to convert them.

Converting them means that you have to provide a number of points where someone could click to find out more about a product or service. This is where they are firmly in the sales funnel. Ensure that you have one single call to action that leads them all the way to the end.

Landing page creation will come in handy here. Tweak your landing pages and track the traffic that lands on them. Remember, the key to a great landing page is to give them two choices. They can either make a purchase or they can leave. A strong landing page is one of the key tools to develop a social media marketing strategy that works.

Create a Blog

You should have a blog that continues to publish fantastic content as often as possible. Small businesses that blog are 126% more likely to generate leads. Unlike previous years, this is not simply to drive traffic to a certain part of your website. It’s there to provide you with material in which to use on your various social media channels.

It will also serve as a key piece of content to keep people on the site when they get there. You want to keep giving people a reason to come back for more. This content will establish your brand as an authority, which will make more of your target audience trust you. Establishing trust is what will encourage people to come to your website.

Complete Your Profiles

 Smart and successful entrepreneurs make sure to fill out your social media profiles with as much information as you possibly can. The more information you can give the better because that way you can allow people to decide whether you are the company for them well in advance. It will also enable you to optimize your social media profiles for the search engines. You’re more likely to show up for your chosen keywords.

This rule applies even if you don’t intend on posting on certain platforms regularly. Claim as many profiles as you can and fill them out to make yourself as visible as possible.

Every little helps bring you closer to your goals.

Conclusion

Preparing for a social media campaign will increase your chances of success. The reality is that you are never going to get it right the first time. By planning your campaign with care, you are going to get more out of that campaign, which will make testing easier later on.

Article written by AJ Agrawal. AJ Agrawal is the CEO and Co-Founder of Alumnify Inc. Follow him on Twitter at @ajalumnify.