How To Create a Social Media Strategy Plan (FREE Template)

I'm going to break down the key steps you'll need to follow to easily build your first social media marketing strategy if you do this right it'll be a coste effective way to boost your brand and drive sales first things first what's your in-game with your posts is it to generate sales boost your Brand's reputation you'll need to set goals to make sure you're not just throwing time and resources into an endless social media pit to help with that you should create a smart goal for your business if you don't know what that is we're going

to make one right now using an easy template you can download and use to follow along it walks you through the complete process of setting up a social media strategy one field at a time so smart stands for specific measurable attainable relevant and time bound if I were a bakery owner looking to use social media to boost my brand instead of saying my goal is to get more people to notice my brand on social media I'd say my goal is to boost brand awareness by achieving 10,000 Impressions on the campaign hashtag tor's treats within the

next 30 days aiming to increase brand awareness through a targeted number of Impressions on a campaign is specific my focus on reaching 10,000 Impressions is measurable based on my current social media following 10,000 Impressions is a challenging but attainable Target enhancing brand awareness through hashtag Impressions is relevant because it directly supports My overall marketing strategy and the deadline of 30 days to achieve this goal creates a Time bound sense of urgency and focus when coming up with what your smart goal should be be sure to reflect on what your business needs the most is it

more customers better brand recognition improved customer engagement your goal should address a primary need if you want to dive in even deeper check out this video we have on smart goals now that you have your goals set let's figure out who you're really talking to understanding your audience's demographics interest and behaviors helps you create tailored content that appeals directly to them it's all about knowing who you're talking to so you can create content they'll love spend your ad money wise and increase the effectiveness of your marketing goals to begin understanding who's buying from you start

with some detective work on your target audience you can run a quick survey to gather basic stats like age location and job roles or you can try one-on-one chats with some of your best customers to find out what they value their challenges and platform and content preferences this combo of hard data and personal insights will begin to give you a clear picture of who your customers are once you have the information plug it into the template this information is invaluable for example by knowing their preferred platforms challenges and content preferences I can effectively create engaging

visual posts on Instagram and Facebook that cater to their needs of quick highquality baking Solutions and tips you now know your audience but what about the competition if you know your enemies and know yourself you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles which basically means understanding your competitors as well as your own strengths and weaknesses is crucial for success in any social media marketing strategy checking out what similar businesses are up to can clue you in on what works and what doesn't in your industry plus it's a great way to inform your social strategy

give insight into a target audience or just spark new ideas when you get stuck for my small bakery I'll start by looking up other local bakeries of a similar size and style a quick Google search or social media dive is all it takes to begin your competitor research be sure to fill out each of the fields on your template as you find the info so taking cues from Sweet Treats Bakery strategy I should definitely amp up my visual game their strong Instagram presence thanks to high quality images and engaging stories shows me the power of

visual content their success with interactive Instagram posts like polls and contest is a big hint I should get more interactive too plus their use of influencer collaborations for promotion is something I should consider diving into as well this strategy has clearly worked for my competitor so it's a solid road map for for Tor Bakery to make my own social media impact with your audience and competitors in mind what platform should you use based on our state of marketing 2024 report Facebook Instagram YouTube and Tik Tok are the top Platforms in terms of Roi and where

marketers are focusing their efforts for 2024 27% of marketers who don't use YouTube plan to start in the year ahead for those curious 68% of marketers predict more success with X than Trends in 2024 the key is to choose the platform that will serve your goals the best while Facebook is great for community building and targeted advertising for my smart goal of quickly reaching 10K impressions in 30 days IG and Tik Tok are solid choices they both promote virality and cater to an audience that appreciates quick engaging content both platforms are also hot spots for

trending topics and challenges which can be leveraged to gain quick visibility and Impressions from my campaign hashtag a great example of this is Elf cosmetics their hashtag was a big hit on Tik Tok racking up over 3 million views even though they didn't officially have an account on the platform yet so they added the platform to their digital marketing strategy and created a challenge # eyes lips face was born it became the fastest growing Tik Tok campaign of all time with nearly 5 million video contributions and around 7 billion views okay we've got our platforms

picked out now let's talk content because crafting the Right Mix is vital for engaging your audience creating a Content strategy for your business means focusing on what your audience wants and mixing different types of content to give it to them again we made this easy for you just fill out some basic info to start exploring ideas for Content topics and themes your content type is really where this shines I'm going to go with a mix short form content like Snappy tweets Instagram stories or Tik Tok Clips are perfect for grabbing attention quickly and sparking interactions

picture posting pastry of the day to Temp your follow followers long form content is where you go deep blog posts YouTube videos or podcasts that go into topics that your audience cares about I can make a blog post about the art of sour dough bread making and don't forget about images never underestimate the power of a good photo for a bakery drool worthy photos of our baked goods on Instagram can work wonders then toss on a CTA so that my audience knows exactly what I want them to do remember it's not just about pushing content

out there it's about creating stuff that your audience will find useful and interesting answer their baking questions give them cool baking tips make it about their needs and interests a tool that I personally love to use to figure out what an audience has questions about is answer the public it lets you find out what consumers are searching for on both Google and YouTube just type in a relevant keyword related to your business for example if you're a bakery you could use baking bread making or pastries the tool will generate a visual map of questions people

are asking related to your keyword look for patterns and frequently asked questions pick out questions that align well with your business and the interests of your audience judging from this chart content answering the question of how to make bread May perform really well since it's getting 33,000 Searchers on the platform also when it comes to content here's a hot tip in 2023 more than half of marketing teams were teaming up with influencers and creators why because it works partnering with people who already have the ear of your target audience a can seriously boost your reach

and make your brand more trustworthy and with social media being the number one product Discovery Channel for Jin Z you can't afford to put up content that doesn't connect so your content is up and running but how do you measure success let's break down the metrics that will show us how well our strategy is working there are a lot of different metrics you can use to track the progress of your campaign choose which ones to follow based on your goals for boosting customer engagement focus on metrics like comments shares likes and and video views they

show how much your audience is interacting with your content for my goal of boosting brand awareness the key metrics I'll keep an eye on are Impressions mentions and reach Impressions will be my primary metric as my goal specifically targets achieving 10,000 Impressions on my campaign hashtag tracking these will show me how often posts with hashtag tor's treats are seen which is directly related to Brand awareness tracking mentions will allow me to monitor how many times tor's treats is mentioned across social media di mentions can amplify your reach and are a strong indicator of brand awareness

and engagement with your campaign following my reach will help me measure the number of unique users who see my content a high reach will ensure that your campaign isn't just getting Impressions but is also being seen by a diverse and Broad audience which is essential for increasing brand awareness just fill out that info and keep track of these metrics to gauge the success of your campaign once you've posted your content give it some time to do its thing and then it's a good idea to do an audit to see how it's performing think of it

as a health check for your social media you're just seeing what's working and what's not doing this after each campaign and sometimes even during helps you keep track of things and make any changes if you need to it's all about keeping an eye on those important numbers and making sure your social media game is as strong as it can be now let's address a massive no no in the world of social media marketing a massive common mistake you should avoid at all costs is getting too caught up in how often you're posting more is not

always better it's not just about quantity constantly turning out post after post after post can lead to what's called clutter content and that's not going to win over your ideal customers if you're just starting out and you're nervous and you're wondering how often to post remember this rule of thumb for any social media platform only post when you have quality content to share there you have it your first social media marketing strategy I am so proud of you remember to make it all easier we've got a free social media marketing strategy template up for grabs

make sure to download it below until next time bye-bye I can find this client info have you heard of HubSpot HubSpot is a CRM platform so it shares its data across every application every team can stay aligned no out of sync spreadsheets or dueling databases HubSpot grow better