Running a business is no cake walk. We all know that, and if we don’t, we can imagine. Having the future of a business entity on your hands, the risk component at every other turn and the struggle to maintain an ongoing integrity, even the thought of it might sound overwhelming to an uninitiated outsider. But people manage to do it, and sometimes they find themselves being so good at it that they forget to realize that often, you need to strike when the iron is hot. You need to make the most of it when you’re at your peak. When things are going well, then is the time to grab this success with both hands and make it multiply.
How do you know when you’re at your peak?
It’s actually a paradox. How do you make moves to get better than this when this is the best you can ever get? But what we refer to as “peak” in this article is more of a phase in your business where things have never been this good and although there may be a specific future plan for sustaining these results, if you don’t take care and nurture your business, even at this stage, there can be chances of a decline. Simply put, if things are better than ever, you are peaking. As a wiseman once said, you are most vulnerable when you are at your strongest. You just don’t see it coming.
What is also understood is that if you currently are at your peak, that means you already have the right formulas for success, relatively. But what should also be understood is that, now that you’re dealing with relative success, this is exactly the time when you can afford making investments to fine-tune those formulas further. Times change and evolution favors the ones that best adapts to change. Imagine trying to invest in something when you are at your weakest point. You just don’t have to funds nor the resources which would help you recover. Bear in mind any investment worthwhile is time consuming and capital intensive. Which brings me to this next question:
Why social media?
We have covered this thoroughly in our previous articles. If you’re a business in this day and age, no more is it a question of “why you need social media marketing?”. A more relevant question would be “Can you afford not being on social media?”. Everyone’s on it. All your customers, all of your competition, and everyone in between. Social media platforms are oceans of marketing opportunities. If you haven’t explored harnessing this incredible pool, you’re almost literally losing money.
Research has shown that 90% of all marketers say social media marketing has increased their business exposure and that more hours spent and more activities executed on social media had been directly responsible for generating more brand awareness. Social media might actually be the easiest method of achieving this, and enhanced brand awareness is something you could always use, especially when you’re at your peak. This is exactly one of the reasons why you need social media marketing at this stage. If your name is getting popular locally and you’re seeing benefits, wait till you see what an effective social media strategy can do for you!
Another reason why you need social media marketing is that it helps you understand your audience, and understanding your audience enables you to make the right kind of business decisions or strategies that would help you in the future, both short term and in the long run. Almost everything is in plain sight in social media. You can see what your customers are talking about. You can get to know what products they are using, their hobbies, the posts they like, places they wish to or have visited, etc. These insights have obvious marketing benefits.
The impact of an effective social media strategy
Without social media marketing, your inbound traffic is limited to your usual customers. Without social media marketing, you’ll have difficulty reaching anyone outside of your loyal customer circle. Social media plays an active role not only in gaining an extensive customer reach, but also in facilitating customer engagement and even enhancing customer satisfaction in the process. If you want to retain old customers and at the same time, convert new ones, especially when things are going well, ceteris paribus, introduce a bulletproof social media strategy is what we’re telling.
Often, a business peaks but it eventually falls, and in its dying phase, the owner desperately invests into marketing activities to save them from shutting down, only to realize that now, it’s too late. It’s like dealing with a sinking ship. Which is why you need to introduce decisions like adopting social media marketing strategies right when things are well. You still have the time, you have the money and you can afford introducing this step to keep sailing successfully.
So, to answer the question of why you need social media marketing when you’re peaking, the answer is simple, you need it because you’re not yet peaking.