Social media is an essential marketing tool for businesses of all sizes across a whole range of industries – whether you’re an SME or a nationally-recognised brand.
According to Sprout Social, 79% of the total UK population (54.8 million people) used social media in January 2025, so it’s a no-brainer for businesses to reach their target audience and make their message heard.
But social media marketing teams must think carefully about the content they’re sharing, ensuring it aligns with the scrolling habits of their target audience. If it doesn’t, then they’re unlikely to engage with it – and engagement should be one of your key objectives.
Why is social media marketing important?
Social media is one of the easiest and cheapest ways that a business can promote its offering, raise awareness and drive sales, so it’s an important part of any integrated marketing strategy.
If used organically, social media offers brands the opportunity to completely own the content it puts out for no cost at all. Yes, there might be a cost for creating some elements of social media content, like photo shoots and video creation, but once that investment has been made, brands can use it to sell their products and services for no cost at all.
Of course, there is the opportunity to implement paid social media tactics if needed, which can help to reach specific audiences and push content even further. But for brands with limited budgets, social media really is one of the best marketing tools out there.
Not only is it free, but it also provides brands with valuable data which can give insights into customer habits and help measure growth. It can provide information on things like the age, gender, location and interests of a business’ followers, as well as how they interact with content and when they’re most active, which can then be used to create targeted campaigns that will appeal to these audiences. Using data such as the number of likes, comments, shares and saves can also give insights into which content performs best, informing future content planning.
How can social media help a business grow?
There are two main ways that social media can support business growth and these are by creating brand awareness and driving sales.
Let’s face it, businesses would be nothing without their customers (because they’re the ones making the purchases and keeping money coming in!) and social media helps to raise brand awareness amongst potential customers. People are much more likely to purchase from brands that they recognise and trust, so building awareness is a crucial step in the sales journey.
And as well as increasing brand awareness amongst new customers, social media also nurtures the relationship with existing customers – keeping them up to date with the latest news, allowing them to interact with the brand and ultimately building their loyalty.
When it comes to driving sales, social media is a fantastic tool to drive digital growth and support website success. By encouraging social media followers to visit their website, brands can drive traffic to the site and encourage conversions – whether this is downloading a file, signing up to a newsletter or making a purchase.
Effective ways to promote your business on social media
The best way to capture attention and promote a business on social media is to use quick, visual content. In today’s world, consumers have very short attention spans and not a lot of time on their hands, so content needs to appeal to the eye and get to the point as quickly as possible.
A great way to do this is through the use of videos – a proven tactic when you consider the rapid growth of TikTok and the increasing use of Reels on Instagram and Facebook. Videos between 15 and 60 seconds long often perform best as they maintain viewer engagement whilst giving enough time to portray key messages and calls to action.
Another great way to present information in a visual way is through infographics. These help to provide valuable information in a digestible format and will help businesses to increase the number of eyes on their posts, as users are 30 times more likely to share visual content.
Brands can also make use of influencer marketing to promote their business on social media. Influencers often have dedicated followings of thousands – or even hundreds of thousands – of followers who place a lot of value on their recommendations, so utilising them can help to introduce brands to a wider audience and boost visibility and sales.
If you’re looking for help increasing your business’ social media engagement, we can help. Our social media services are designed to increase your reach, engagement and leads to support business growth – get in touch with our expert team to learn more and enquire.
