X (formerly Twitter) is a powerful platform for businesses looking to engage with customers, increase brand awareness, and drive sales. But achieving success on X isn’t always straightforward. This guide will provide you with actionable strategies and tips to unlock X business marketing success.
In this article
- What is X?
- What is an X business marketing strategy?
- Practical steps to optimise your presence
- Crafting authentic and engaging content
- Advertise on X
- What does X business marketing success look like?
What is X?
So let’s start with the basics. X is a free social media platform. It’s used by individuals, groups, organisations and businesses of all sizes, and its purpose is to connect people and share information. If you’re on X as a private user already, you’ll know that people post about and during all sorts of events, from Presidential elections to the latest episode of their favourite soap opera. But X is also used incredibly effectively by businesses to promote, share, engage and respond.
The key things to know about Twitter are:
- It’s completely public. Only direct messages are private
- It’s a short-content medium. Messages can only be 280 characters long
- You can follow anyone and anyone can follow you
- It’s about conversations rather than outright sales and promotion
- You can use it to drive traffic to your website
- You can connect with businesses and individuals
- You can schedule posts to help you manage your time
- You can organise your followers into lists, to help you segment and manage your activity
X thrives on real-time, fast-paced interactions. Unlike more static social networks, X is all about the ‘here and now’. This means your business must stay agile, always ready to engage and react promptly.
To leverage effective X business marketing, you need to master the art of concise communication. Posts are limited to 280 characters, meaning you have to be creative and direct with your messaging. You can, of course, use a thread – a number of linked posts – to communicate a longer or more in-depth subject. Good X business marketing also requires the use of good quality images and video, plus links that take the reader to your website, ecommerce store or other useful resource.
Success on X is about good content, a consistent approach and good quality interaction.
Understand your audience
At the heart of X business marketing strategy is a clear understanding of your target audience and what resonates with them. Whether it’s the behind-the-scenes photos, the latest industry news, or engaging polls – or a strategic mixture of all these things – understanding your audience will help you to increase your followers, engagement and action. These are all things that will help to build your visibility with the right people, encouraging them to interact with your brand. Determining your target audience is crucial – if you can, conduct some market research to understand their preferences and behaviours.
Essentially, you need to build a community. You do this by finding accounts that are relevant and useful to your business, and following them. This may include suppliers that you use, customers you have, other local businesses in your community, press and media related to your business, and more. Many of these will follow you back, starting to build your relationships. You can use tools to gain more followers, but the most successful accounts add followers by posting useful, engaging content.
What is an X business marketing strategy?
A well-crafted X marketing strategy serves as the blueprint for achieving business success on the platform. It involves detailed planning, consistent execution, and adaptation to emerging trends and insights.
Begin by identifying clear objectives, which could be increasing brand visibility, driving website traffic, or enhancing customer engagement. Content should be tailored to capture attention, spark interaction, and prompt shares; this might include a mix of posts, images, videos, and polls. Timing and frequency of posts are equally important to maximise reach and engagement, and using analytics tools can pinpoint optimal posting times.
Additionally, actively engaging with followers by responding to mentions, running promotions, and leveraging trending hashtags can amplify your brand presence. Monitoring performance through metrics like reposts, likes, and click-through rates allows for continuous improvement. SEO techniques, such as incorporating relevant keywords and using attention-grabbing headlines, further enhance your strategy by improving visibility and reach.
Practical steps to optimising your presence
Once you have identified your audience and built a strategy for the sort of content you need to post, you’ll be in a good position to start building your X presence.
- Decide on the type and tone of your posts. Think about consistency – not just in the words you use, but in the images and videos you post. Take a look at what works for other accounts – you can always learn from watching others.
- Use scheduling tools. Tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, and PostDeck can automate your posting schedule. Using these tools allows you to plan your posts ahead of time and ensures consistency in your posting routine. You can set posts to go out during high-traffic times without being physically present to hit “publish.”
- Create a week’s worth of content in advance. Spend some time each week planning and scheduling posts for the upcoming week using your chosen tool. This ensures consistent engagement with your audience throughout the week even if you are busy.
- Analyse and optimise posting times. Use your scheduling tool’s analytics to determine when your audience is most active. Schedule your posts to go out during these peak times to maximise reach and engagement without having to manually track and post at these hours.
- Build a content calendar. This helps you to plan ahead and focus on particular themes or products in certain months. You could plan and schedule your Christmas X business marketing campaign in July, for example, so you are well prepared for busier months. It also makes it easier to adjust your plan if you need to.
- Repurpose and re-use content. Marketers call this ‘evergreen’ content – where the value is not linked to a specific time or event. Instead, you can post regular, useful content that you’ve already created, helping to save time and push a consistent message.
- Experiment and iterate, Social media trends are always evolving, and each platform has its own idiosyncrasies. Experiment with posting at different times to see if it impacts engagement rates. What worked last month may need adjustment as your audience grows or their habits change. One of the great things about social media from a marketing perspective is that you can quickly change your approach to take advantage of trends.
- Analyse past performance. As you build your profile, you should make sure you have insight into the performance of your previous posts Identify any patterns in engagement and use that intelligence to refocus your campaign or your general posting approach.
- Consider time zones. If your audience is global, take different time zones into account. Schedule posts to cover multiple regions to maximise reach.
- Stay engaged. Amplifying your reach doesn’t just end at hitting the ‘post’ button. Make sure to engage with comments and reposts during high-activity periods. Real-time interactions can further boost the visibility and credibility of your content. Thanking people for engaging or reposting is simple, but effective.
- Analyse Performance Metrics: To truly excel at X business marketing, you need to be consistently evaluating the effectiveness of your posting schedule. Utilise X Analytics or other social media monitoring tools to track key performance indicators such as engagement rates, click-through rates, and follower growth. This data-driven approach allows you to identify what types of content and posting times resonate most with your audience. By regularly analysing these metrics, you can make informed adjustments to fine-tune your strategy, ensuring that your efforts are continually aligned with your business objectives and optimised for maximum impact.
Crafting authentic and engaging content
To build a genuine and motivated audience on X, authenticity is key. Your followers can quickly discern when a brand is being disingenuous. Create posts that reflect your brand’s personality, values, and voice. Use humour, empathy, or authority, depending on your brand’s identity. Diversify your content with a mix of text, images, GIFs, and videos to keep your feed engaging.
Once you have a grasp of X’s dynamic environment, the next step is to harness the power of hashtags and trends. Hashtags are instrumental in amplifying your reach and tapping into broader conversations that are relevant to your industry or your customers.
By strategically using popular and trending hashtags, your business can increase visibility and attract a more targeted audience. Additionally, keeping an eye on trending topics allows you to join the conversation in real-time, showcasing your brand’s relevance and thought leadership. Engaging with trends not only drives traffic but also enhances your brand’s presence, positioning you as an active and involved member of the X community.
And don’t forget that you can tag people, companies and events in your posts. This increases visibility and engagement and helps you to build genuine online relationships.
Leveraging X business marketing analytics
One of the best things about social media is the instant access to analytics. This helps you to see the impact and engagement that your posts have had. This analytics data gives you a clear insight into what type of content resonates most with your audience, the optimal times to post, and which demographics are engaging the most with your business. By understanding these metrics, you can tailor your approach to improve engagement and reach.
Additionally, incorporating the insights gained from X analytics into your content strategy can significantly enhance your visibility. Optimise your posts by including relevant keywords and hashtags that align with your industry and audience interests, for example.
This not only aids in improving your content’s discoverability but also helps to attract a more targeted audience. Engaging with trending topics and participating in industry-specific conversations can position your brand as a thought leader in your field. By consistently refining your strategy based on analytics, you can not only expand your reach but also establish a more meaningful connection with your audience.
Why Timing Matters
The timing of your posts can make a world of difference in your social media strategy. A perfectly crafted post can easily get lost in the noise if not posted at the right time. X’s fast-paced nature means that content has a limited lifespan. Therefore, ensuring that your posts appear when your audience is most engaged is essential for driving interactions and extending your reach.
Advertise on X
One of the most powerful ways to amplify your message and reach a broader audience is through X Ads. By utilising X’s sophisticated advertising platform, businesses can target specific demographics, interests, and behaviours, ensuring that your content is seen by those most likely to engage with it.
Whether you’re promoting a new product, driving traffic to your website, or boosting brand awareness, X Ads offer a variety of formats, to help you create scroll-stopping content on desktop and mobile.
Craft compelling ad creatives with strong visuals and clear calls to action to maximise your return on investment. Furthermore, take advantage of X’s analytics to monitor ad performance, allowing you to tweak campaigns for better results. Through strategic advertising on X, your business can effectively capture the attention of potential customers and achieve significant growth.
Your competitors’ X business marketing strategy
Watch competitor accounts closely to understand what strategies they are employing effectively. By doing so, you can identify gaps in your own approach and also capitalise on opportunities they might be neglecting.
Evaluate their engagement levels, the types of posts that garner the most attention, and the frequency of their posts. Note the hashtags they use and the influencers they engage with. This analysis will provide invaluable insights, enabling you to refine your content strategy to attract your audience more efficiently. Implementing these learnings can also help you stay ahead of industry trends, foster innovation, and ultimately enhance your brand’s visibility and follower growth.
Demographic insights
Who is engaging with your content? Understanding the demographics of your audience is pivotal for refining your strategy. X Analytics offers comprehensive insights into the age, gender, location, and interests of your followers. With this data, you can tailor your messaging to better suit the characteristics and preferences of your target demographic, making your content more relatable and impactful.
Partnering with influencers
‘Influence’ is critical to the success of all social media channels. And while you might think that influencers are mostly on Instagram or TikTok, there are plenty of influencers on X too.
If you do a bit of research, you’ll be able to see who has a large, engaged following and is aligned to your industry, your customers or your marketing campaign. Building genuine relationships with influencers means that you can amplify your brand to a much wider audience, creating a new marketing channel on the same platform.
You may even be able to collaborate with the right influencers – sometimes you can do this at no cost, and sometimes there is a commercial transaction. Look for influencers who can provide an independent and authentic voice and whose values match your own. Done with consideration and strategy, an influencer collaboration can be incredibly valuable to your business.
What does X business marketing success look like?
Like all social media channels, you need to have a strategic and consistent approach to be successful on X. So here’s a summary of the things you need to do and some action points that you can start applying to your business today.
1. Identify your goals
Before diving into X business marketing, it’s crucial to define your objectives. Here are common goals that businesses strive for on X:
- Brand awareness: Increasing the visibility and recognition of your brand.
- Customer engagement: Interacting with your audience through replies, mentions, and direct messages.
- Lead generation: Capturing potential customers’ interest and converting them into leads.
- Website traffic: Directing users from X to your website.
- Sales and conversions: Encouraging sales or other types of conversions through X.
Action Step: Write down your top three goals for X marketing. This will help focus your efforts.
2. Optimise your X profile
Your X business account profile is the first thing potential followers see, so it’s worth taking the time to get it right. Make sure it represents your brand effectively, and is consistent with other places where people might be interacting with you, such as on your website or LinkedIn.
Key components:
- Profile photo: Use your company logo or a professional image. Ensure it’s a good quality image so that it looks clear and crisp at any size. X has set sizes for profile and header photos, so make sure you use them.
- Biography: Craft a concise and compelling bio that clearly states what your business does. Include relevant keywords to help your account be found in X search results. X has a character limit for this section, so be as punchy as you can.
- Header image: Use this space to showcase your brand visually. Perhaps highlight a current campaign or product.
- Website Link: Add a link to your website or a specific landing page. This helps people to immediately see what you do and find your website easily.
Here’s what you need before optimising your profile:
- High-resolution logo or professional photo
- Concise and compelling bio
- Visually appealing header image
- URL of your website or landing page
Action Step: Update your profile components to align with your brand identity.
3. Create engaging content
Content is king. Your posts should be useful and interesting, so that people stop scrolling and start reading. If you’ve put in the work to identify your target audience, you should also have a good understanding of the type of content that will appeal to them most.
Types of content to post:
- Industry news: Share relevant news and articles.
- Promotions: Highlight sales, promotions, and special offers.
- Tips and how-tos: Provide helpful tips and guides related to your industry.
- Behind-the-scenes: Show the human side of your business.
- User-generated content: Share content created by your customers.
- Polls and questions: Engage your audience with interactive content.
Action Step: Plan a content calendar for a month. Mix different types of content mentioned above, and consider using a scheduling tool to save you time on posting throughout the month.
4. Use hashtags wisely
Hashtags increase the discoverability of your posts. Often, users will search a particular hashtag so that they are getting the latest information on a subject they’re interested in. Do you research to find out which hashtags are popular and relevant to you. Use them wisely – filling your post with hashtags looks spammy and unprofessional.
Best practices for hashtags:
- Relevance: Use hashtags that are genuinely related to your industry and target audience.
- Quantity: Stick to 1-2 hashtags per post. Overloading with hashtags can look unprofessional.
- Trending hashtags: Join conversations by using trending, relevant hashtags.
Action Step: Identify 5-10 relevant hashtags and keep them handy for your posts.
5. Engage with Your Audience
Engagement is essential for building relationships and increasing your visibility. This isn’t just about your posts – it’s about engaging with the content that other businesses or individuals are posting. Just like ‘real life’, X business marketing is about building relationships, and you can’t do that without engaging.
Ways to engage:
- Reply: Respond to mentions and replies promptly. Be friendly and open and invite conversation.
- Reposts and likes: Show appreciation for others’ content by reposting and liking. If you’re reposting, put your own message or thoughts on the post. A repost is far more effective that way.
- Direct messages: Use these for personal conversations such as customer service enquiries, confidential questions or requests to other users.
Action Step: Set aside time every day to engage actively with your audience.
6. Utilise X Analytics
X Analytics provides valuable insight into your performance. Use it to see what’s working and what’s not, so that you can refine or change your strategy quickly, based on good quality data.
Key Metrics to Monitor:
- Engagement rate: Measures how people interact with your posts.
- Impressions: Indicates how many times your posts have been seen by other users.
- Followers: Tracks growth in your follower count.
- Top posts: Identifies which posts have the most engagement.
Action Step: Review X Analytics weekly to adjust your strategy based on performance.
7. Run X Ads
X Ads can amplify your reach and target specific audiences. You can start advertising as soon as you join the platform, but it may be better to establish a presence first, so that when people go to look at your account, there’s evidence of good activity already there.
Types of X Ads:
- Website ads
- App ads
- Vertical video ads
- Carousel ads
- Collection ads
Action Step: Create a small budget and run a promoted X campaign. Use analytics to see what has worked.
8. Collaborate with influencers
Influencers can help extend your reach and credibility. But you must build and maintain good and authentic relationships for this method to work best.
Steps to Collaboration:
- Identify influencers: Look for personalities and accounts relevant to your industry.
- Engage: Interact with their content for a reasonable period before pitching a collaboration.
- Collaborate: Discuss mutually beneficial ways to work together.
Action Step: Make a list of 5 influencers to engage with and consider for future collaborations.
Need an X business marketing assistant?
For business owners or managers, handling social media can take up valuable time, adding to your costs and preventing you from concentrating on business development. But you can’t afford to ignore it either, so the best option is to contact a virtual assistant. Rates are competitive and because you only pay for the time you use, it’s a much more cost-effective option than hiring someone in.
Using a VA to run a campaign is much more cost effective than using any marketing agency, social media marketing agency, or digital marketing agency as well. In fact, an outsourced social media marketing assistant can help you handle all your social media –from strategy and planning to everyday posting and scheduling. They help with advice on the best approach as well as taking the practical, time-consuming management off your hands. It’s the perfect solution to making the most of the opportunity without spending hours of your own time trying to come to grips with things. See how a Virtual Assistant can be your social media hero, and start focusing on X business marketing today
If you are wondering whether X is the right platform for your business, or you want to use it, but you don’t know where to start, we can help. If you’re short on time and would like to know more about our social media and marketing services or any of our other virtual employees service feel free to call us on 0800 994 9016 or use our contact form in the menu above.