Do you put a lot of thought into your social media posts? Probably not. Because it’s too time-intensive, your repair shop software doesn’t have any social media integration and it doesn’t really bring in any results, right? WRONG.
For any social media platform to work, you need to be consistent and patient for a while before it reaps benefits. And there are many repair shop owners who swear by the power of social media to improve sales figures.
Ahmed Abusharbain is a serial entrepreneur and coach with experience of over a decade in the repair industry. His most recent venture, UPPLuck, is a social media marketing tool specially made for cell phone repair stores. Because he understands the need for a repair shop to have a social presence.
So, Ahmed considers social media to be one of the fastest and cheapest ways to reach your audience.
“I don’t want to say the only way [to reach people but], the fastest way, the cheapest way, the most efficient way is the social media.”
And rightly so. In a world where people spend 145 minutes per day on average on social media, ignoring this platform as a potential avenue to get customers is naïve.
As a repair business owner, you have a different strategy to grow your business. So, your marketing tactics also vary accordingly. But no matter what your business strategy is, you can leverage your marketing with the help of social media.
To make it easier for you to create a compelling social media campaign, we’ve created a bundle of social media post templates. Download these to save time and effort anytime you have a new offering in your shop or are putting up a sale on holidays.
Let’s dig deep into creating an effective social media campaign.
How to Create a Social Media Campaign
We know you don’t have to time or the resources to really get into creating a formal social media plan. However, a little brainstorming once a month on the direction your social media needs to take is necessary.
1. Pick the right social media platforms
It doesn’t matter which social media platform has the highest number of users. What matters is which platform your audience is most likely to be on. So, choose accordingly. If most of your customers are on Facebook, use that platform. If they’re more likely to be on Instagram, pick that.
Remember you don’t need to be on every social media platform out there. Take up no more than 3 platforms at a time to work on. Even one to two is good enough as long as most of your audience is there.
2. Use the S.M.A.R.T. Goals Framework
Once you’ve decided on the social media platforms you’ll be using, set measurable goals. You don’t want to continue putting in effort aimlessly. So, make sure you know WHY you are on social media and what you want to achieve through it.
For some, it could be generating new leads and retaining existing customers. For others, it could be getting reviews and building a brand. So, know what your end goal is. Because that’s how you’ll create an effective strategy.
3. Choose Tracking Metrics
Once you’ve defined your goals, pick the metrics you’ll use to determine the success of your campaign. For instance, if you want to bring in new leads, what number of leads will you consider a success? 10 new customers or 100 new customers?
If you’re using your social media to take people to your website, how much traffic do you want a certain platform to bring in?
4. Create Best Fit Customer Persona
Knowing your customer is the most important part of marketing. What age group do you cater to? Their average income? What interests them? Are they price conscious? What are their pain points?
Once you know these basics about your customer, you can create more effective campaigns. Present your offering as a solution to their problems.
For instance, water-damaged devices are quite common during the summers. Offer water damage fixes as a solution. So, instead of saying,
“We fix water-damaged phones!”
Say something like,
“Have you dropped your phone in the pool? We can help you!” Or “Did your phone take a dip in the pool with you this summer? We just might be able to salvage it!”
The second option is more relatable and offers a specific solution.
5. Know What Your Competitors Are Up To
While we discourage pitting yourself up against your competitors, knowing what their marketing strategies are is always helpful. There might be marketing tactics that they’re using and you aren’t. So, you can work on those areas.
You can even get offer ideas from them, especially if their social media posts get a lot of traction. At the same time, you may also see a gap in their marketing strategy and work on that. For instance, they might be really active on Facebook but have completely ignored Instagram. So, maybe you can concentrate on Instagram and get more traction there.
6. Set A Social Media Budget
According to Ahmed, you spend on so many accounts thinking it is so necessary. But you never think about spending on social media ads because they seem extra and unnecessary to you. That’s where you’re wrong. Your social media spend should be treated like your electricity bill: a necessity.
“If you print flyers and you do mailers and all these things, you’re talking about a thousand dollars minimum. So why don’t you just push some social media, put a budget for $500 to $1500. I know some stores are spending $2500 to $3000 a month. So you can’t tell me you can’t afford $500 to a thousand dollars. Must need it. And it needs to be spent like the light bill or the gas bill.”
More often than not, you probably did spend on ads but didn’t get the result that you were hoping for. And after a month, and spending a few hundred dollars, you gave up. Well, spending on ads is an art that needs perfection too. There is a hit-and-trial period involved.
On the other hand, it could also be that the platform that you are targeting isn’t where your audience is.
7. What Kind Of Content Should You Put Up?
You must always put up content related to deals and offers that you have going on. And creating a quick post on that isn’t difficult because we’ve got a repair shop-centric template ready for you. You can also use platforms like Canva and Crello.
Also, remember that it isn’t necessary to only offer deals on holidays. There are many other enticing deals that you can give year round.
If you have a new hyped-about product stock coming in, mentioning it on your social media should bring in more people. Or check your repair shop software for accessory items that are selling the most. Give them a further boost by putting these up on your social media.
Social proof is the best kind of content. Put up pictures and reviews of clients who have especially enjoyed your services in the past, with their permission of course.
If you are just starting out, sharing relevant content that your target audience might be interested in should get you the right kind of following. For instance, if the new iPhone is coming out, share interesting articles on the topic. Or better yet, create a nice infographic and share it along with the link you took information from. With time you’ll see that the extra effort you put into creating posts will pay off.
8. Create a Content Calendar
Once you’ve decided on the kind of content, it is best if you make a content calendar. Making content for a month will probably take you or your employee a day. This includes creating relevant graphics as well as captions.
Creating a content calendar will make it much easier to keep your social media updated regularly. One post a day is ideal. The more consistent you are, the sooner you’ll see results.
9. Who Should Update Social Media?
For a lot of repair shops out there, the employees, as well as the employer, are too busy to make time for social media.
If you are a one-man show, you’ll definitely have to take responsibility for updating social media. If, however, you have employees, it is ideal to assign one of your employees to regularly update social media. You can even rotate this responsibility amongst your employees to save them from getting burnt out.
10. Inspect and Improve
If you’ve only just started working on your social media, give it a couple of months before you start tracking what works and what doesn’t. But if you’ve been in the digital space for a while, you’ll have enough data to analyze which platform works better, what kind of posts garner more response, and so on.
Also, use UTM parameters to gauge the platform and what kind of content is bringing in the leads if you are looking to send traffic to your website.
Facebook has made it quite simple to gauge content that works. It has recently added the distribution score that compares a post to the remaining posts on the page in terms of reach. Most social media platforms give insights into the performance of each post. And that should be your guide.
This is where your social media presence begins to evolve and becomes more effective. So, you make changes where required and show consistency.
Open any article on effective social media campaigns and they’ll share a long list of unimportant things that you have no time for. Don’t take me the wrong way. Some of them are quite useful for certain business types. But it doesn’t work in the repair industry.
So, as long as you follow the above, you’re sorted.
