With more than 5 billion social media users worldwide, there’s never been a better time to engage with customers through social platforms. The benefits are plentiful — increased brand awareness, customer acquisition, access to direct customer feedback, and an opportunity to get to know your customers. And, by 2028, social media users are estimated to increase to more than 6 billion.
But with social media conversions at only 0.8% compared to email’s 2.2%, you might wonder: is it a channel worth investing your time in?
According to the Kepios 2024 Global Digital Report:
- social media user identities have jumped by more than 5.6% from 2023 to 2024, a year-on-year increase of 266 million
- the average amount of time users spend on social media daily is just under 2.5 hours
- 94.3% of internet users access social networks each month
- 73.9% of social media users sought out brand accounts to research brands and products they want to buy
Social media users represent a huge opportunity for marketers to target based on their online behaviour and preferences.
Social media advertising is also cost-effective. According to WebFX, direct mail setup costs can range from $50 to $7200, depending on your criteria, and that’s before you’ve factored in the cost of media and running multiple campaigns. Organic social media costs significantly less money and can provide long-lasting results.
So how can you use social platforms to promote your venue?
5 benefits of social media for your venue
1. Nurture leads
Social media makes it easy to engage and interact with your audience, establishing a two-way relationship between your venue and customers. This builds trust, and trust can produce conversions. But which social media platform is best?
According to HubSpot’s 2024 Social Media Trends Report, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook are the social media channels that offers marketers the highest ROI.
And what sort of content should you be sharing?
In 2024, it’s still all about video. According to HubSpot, short-form video has the highest ROI in terms of engagement. Sprout Social reported that 87% of marketers claim video marketing has directly increased sales, while another report showed that 90% of video marketers say video has helped them increase brand awareness.
Video content, blogs, and the like can be shared via social media and help establish your venue as an industry thought-leader. Instead of just sharing links to your venue’s event space or booking page, offer your customers content they’ll find valuable to boost your relationship. This inbound marketing approach will generate interest and trust amongst your audience, making them more likely to convert.
2. Offer a personalised experience
Did you know that 99% of users access social media from a mobile device? And around 78% solely access social media via mobile? A customer’s mobile screen and personal social media habits are associated with personal space, even being called an extension of self. This means advertising has never been closer to its audience.
Meanwhile, despite some privacy concerns, customers are increasingly engaged by personalised marketing.
Sender reported that 76% of customers believe personalised messages play an essential role in improving their perception of a brand, with 78% stating that such communication encourages them to repurchase. And according to McKinsey, 71% of customers expect personalisation, and 76% feel frustrated when they’re unable find it. Despite this customer expectation, Sender’s report shows that only 32% of marketers are currently personalising digital advertising.
Personalisation can also relate to customer service, which creates ongoing relationships and improves customer lifetime value. HubSpot reports that 1 in 4 Gen Z, Millennial, and Gen X customers say social media DMs are their preferred channel to receive customer service.
3. Increase brand awareness.
Regularly sharing unique, good quality social media posts can increase brand awareness simply because people interact with your content. Each post that is shared introduces a new network of potential customers to your brand. In fact, 86% of businesses believe that increased exposure to the brand is an advantage of social media marketing.
4. Drive more traffic to your venue’s website
Social media posts and ads are an effective way to drive traffic to your venue’s website, with 76% of businesses saying increased traffic is a major boost of social media marketing provides. When you share quality content such as a video or blog, readers are likely to click through to your website and even share it on their own social media pages.
Make sure that your website address is visible on all your social media bios so potential customers can learn more about you with a single click.
And don’t forget — for visitors to convert, your venue website must be fully mobile optimised and offer an enjoyable customer journey.
You can use tools like Rezcomm’s Marketing Module, which can help boost conversions with a responsive, user-friendly, and fully secure online booking system.
5. Convert
Social media conversion rates may be lower than email marketing, but social ecommerce is on the rise. Emarketer projects that US annual social commerce sales per buyer will double from $628 million to $1.224 billion by 2027. Investing in social ecommerce will keep you in good company — a massive 97% of Fortune 500 Companies use social media to connect with customers and drive sales.
Social media ideas for venues
Use compelling visuals: Social media is a largely visual medium, especially with video being a big driver for conversion and brand awareness. Your videos and photos don’t need to be big-budget promotions either. They just need to be something that catches your customers’ eye and stops them from scrolling.
Use hashtags to build social media presence: Consider the hashtags your ideal customer uses and include them in your posts. Create a personalised hashtag for your venue and encourage your followers and visitors to include it in their posts. This way, your audience can find every tagged photo of your venue and see its potential for themselves.
Partner with influencers: Did you know that 85% of Gen Z customers say social media influences their purchasing choices? Marketers concur — 85% report that influencer marketing aids their customer acquisition efforts. Partnering with influencers can help you reach a wider audience, start conversations on social media, and set you up for more sales.
Use social selling tools: Dynamic ads and social media ecommerce integrations are great for selling products and services directly from your social media pages.
Be authentic: Sharing event reviews, client or team interviews, and live, behind-the-scenes videos are excellent ways to share unfiltered and unscripted content with your audience that showcases your venue’s authenticity.
Partner with Rezcomm for your venue’s social media
Social media marketing requires creativity, thought, time and effort to achieve results. It’s a real case of “you get out what you put in”.
No time to be social? Schedule your social media posts across your networks in just a few clicks. Rezcomm’s social media scheduler is offered as part of our Marketing module and comes with a simple calendar view so you can plan, review and publish your content with ease. Pair it with our Marketing BI module for real-time analytics, engagement and revenue metrics, and marketing campaign dashboards to see the results of your social media marketing efforts.
Interested in finding out more? Get in touch to learn how Rezcomm can help your venue benefit from social ecommerce and customer engagement.
Cultivating Rezcomm’s brand presence, Sarah Marks is our Director of Communications. A T-shaped marketer at heart, she has a broad skill set, with a particular passion for SEO and email marketing. While her core focus is on strengthening Rezcomm’s brand, she also provides strategic advice to clients.
