The ultimate guide to Twitter marketing

With so many social media platforms out there, it can be hard to figure out where to focus your marketing. But in 2019, if you want to connect with your customers and have real conversations, Twitter is non-negotiable.

We wish we could sum up everything there is to know about Twitter marketing in 140 characters or less. But that’s not possible—so we did the next best thing. Let’s jump into Canva’s ultimate guide to Twitter marketing and how to use it to take your business to the next level:

Before we jump into how to grow your business with Twitter marketing, let’s quickly cover why you should be marketing on Twitter in the first place.

Your customers are on Twitter...

One of the cardinal rules of marketing is to get people where they are. And one of the places where your audience is? Twitter.

Twitter has 326 million active monthly users and the number of Twitter users who use the platform on a daily basis is on the rise; nearly half of American Twitter users check the platform at least once a day, and from Q3 2017 to Q3 2018, daily active users for all users jumped an impressive 9%.

...and so are your competitors

Your customers aren’t the only ones on Twitter, chances are, your competition is there, too.

75% of B2B business and 65% of B2C business use Twitter marketing. And if you want to keep a leg up on your competition, you need to be leveraging every available resource they are to reach your customers—and that Twitter marketing.

Twitter marketing works!

The most important reason you should use Twitter marketing for your business?

It works.

As Twitter has evolved into a more viable marketing platform—and more businesses have jumped on the opportunity—engagement has been growing like crazy. Ad engagements increased a whopping 50% year-over-year from 2017 to 2018. And while engagement went up, cost went down—during that same time period, cost-per-engagement declined 14%.

So, in a nutshell, if you start marketing on Twitter today, you can drive more engagement for a lower cost. Why wouldn’t you use Twitter marketing for your business?

There’s a variety of reasons why you should be marketing on Twitter—but no matter what your reason, if you want to be successful, you need the right graphics. Get started with one of Canva’s Twitter Post templates, like the Colorful Shapes Twitter Post or the Yellow Orange Photo Bright Summer Promotional Twitter Post.

Alright, so now that we covered why you need to be using Twitter marketing to grow your business, let’s talk about how.

Start with strategy questions

You can’t be successful on Twitter if you don’t know what that success looks like for you and your brand—which is why, before you get started, you need to flush out your Twitter marketing strategy.

Before you start marketing on Twitter, it’s important to ask yourself:

• What are my goals?  Do you want to grow your followers on the platform? Drive traffic to your website? Sell out of your new product? Different goals will require different strategies, so before you get started with Twitter marketing, it’s important to know goals are the most important to you.
• How am I going to measure my goals?  Whatever goals you decide to pursue, they need to be measurable—and you need a plan in place to measure how and when you hit that goal.Going for more followers? Set a goal number—and a time frame to hit that number (for example, 1000 followers in the next month). Want to drive traffic to your website? Make sure you include trackable links so you can figure out how much of your overall traffic is coming from Twitter. Using Twitter to sell your products? Create a Twitter-specific coupon code so you know which of your customers are making purchases from the platform.The point is, it’s not enough to set a goal—you need to have a plan in place to measure that goal as well.
• What resources do I have to devote to Twitter marketing?  Before you get started, it’s also important to take stock of the resources you have to devote to Twitter—because those resources will have a direct impact on your strategy.Ask yourself how much time, manpower, and budget you have to pour into Twitter and then use that information to reverse engineer a strategy that will allow you to make the most impact with what you have to work with.So, for example, if you don’t have a lot of budget but you do have a lot of time and manpower, you might want to focus on having real-time conversations throughout the day to build your following. If you don’t have a ton of time or manpower but you do have a lot of budget, an advertising campaign is probably a more viable strategy.The best Twitter marketing strategies are the ones that make the most of the resources you have available. And keep in mind, that may change; continue to take stock and evaluate your resources as your strategy progresses—and if your available resources change, you can adjust your strategy accordingly.

Taking the time the flesh out your strategy is one of the keys to success with Twitter marketing. Another key? Well designed graphics. Get started with one of Canva’s Twitter Post templates, like the Cherry Cake Twitter Post or the Peach Pool Summer Twitter Post.

Create the right content and make it easy for your followers to find

In today’s marketing landscape, content is king—and that includes content on Twitter.

If you want to be successful with Twitter marketing, not only do you need to create content that’s going to grab your audience’s attention, but you also need to make that content easy for your audience to find.

But how, exactly, do you do that?

Have content you really want people to see? Then give that tweet an extra boost!

Promoted Tweets

Promoted Tweets are Twitter’s answer to paid ad placements. With Promoted Tweets, you can target specific audiences and get your content featured in their Twitter stream and search results. Obviously, you don’t want to pay for every tweet you send—but if you have important content you need to get eyes on, Promoted Tweets is a great way to do it!

Promoted Tweets will help you show up in search results—but once you’re there, you need to make an impact on your customers with an eye-catching image. Break through the clutter and grab your ideal customer’s attention with one of Canva’s Twitter Post templates, like the Black and White Classy Masculine Fashion Twitter Post or the Colorful Photo Exhibition Twitter Post.

Twitter Moments

People don’t want to search through 1000 tweets to find what they’re looking for; they want content that’s easy to find, easy to digest—and, if they like it, they want immediate access to more content like it.

And that’s where Twitter Moments comes in.

Twitter Moments allows you to organize your Twitter content into different categories—while lets your followers easily find and engage with the content they’re looking for. You can organize by topic, event, news, product...the sky’s the limit!

Make your Twitter moments more memorable (and visually interesting!) with one of Canva’s Twitter Post templates, like the Simple Trees Photo Weekend Twitter Post or the Orange Watercolor Smear Twitter Post.

Include your Twitter link on your website and other social platforms

Most Twitter marketing happens on Twitter (obviously)—but if you want to increase the impact of your Twitter marketing, you should also use any other platforms at your disposal to introduce people to your Twitter content.

Look for opportunities to promote your Twitter account whenever and wherever you can (for example, you can add your Twitter feed to your website or share your Twitter content on Facebook). The more people you drive to your Twitter feed, the more people you’ll have to market to—and the more successful your Twitter marketing will be.

It doesn’t matter if you’re sharing your Twitter content on Facebook, on your website, or on Twitter itself—if you want it to make an impact on your customers, it needs to look professional and well-designed. Nail the professional look with one of Canva’s Twitter Post templates, like the White Triangle Border Spring Promo Twitter Post or the Orange Mountain Photo Valentine’s Twitter Post.

Twitter is a conversational platform—and if you’re not using it to have conversations with your customers, you’re missing out on a huge marketing opportunity

On Twitter, you can’t just send a tweet and forget about it. If you want your Twitter marketing strategy to succeed, you need to use the platform as a place to have engaged, real-time conversations with your audience.

Here are some general rules of engagement to make the most out of your Twitter marketing strategy:

Respond to your customers

Engagement goes both ways. So if your customers tweet at you, make sure you’re responding! You might not be able to respond to every single tweet (especially as you grow), but the more you can engage, the better.

Host a Twitter chat

As mentioned, Twitter is a conversational platform. But if you want to have a better sense of control over the conversation, you should definitely consider hosting a Twitter Chat.

Think of a Twitter Chat as a virtual “town hall” for you and your customers. You set a specific time, date, topic, and hashtag; invite your followers; and when the time rolls around, all your customers have to do is search your Twitter Chat-specific hashtag to join in on the conversation.

Twitter Chats are a win-win for you and your customers. Your customers get your undivided attention and an opportunity to share their thoughts, feedback, and get answers to any of their burning questions—and you get to set parameters on the conversation (including start and end time) instead of just letting tweets and comments roll in at random.

Always address the negative

Twitter isn’t all sunshine and rainbows—and, chances are, you’re going to have to deal with some negative blowback from your customers.

Whether it’s deserved or not, it’s important to always, always, always address any customer complaints, negative feedback, or pressing questions about your brand, products, or services.

Ignoring negative customer tweets—or worse, deleting them—will just make your customers angry (and can have a negative impact on your overall marketing strategy). Instead, address their consumers with openness, honesty, and transparency. (If you feel like things cross the line and a customer is being abusive, you can report the issue to Twitter directly.)

Part of an effective Twitter marketing strategy is engaging your audience. And part of engaging your audience? Including the right graphics. Get started designing high-quality images for your Twitter marketing with Canva’s Twitter Post templates, like the Grey Fashion Spring Sale Twitter Post or the Monochromatic Fashion Shoes For Men Twitter Post.

Want more targeted tips to take your Twitter marketing to the next level? Here are some additional strategies to make the most of your tweeting:

Add a GIF…

People love GIFs—and if you want more people to love your tweets, just add a GIF!

Tweets with GIFs get 55% more engagement than tweets without—which makes adding GIFs to your Twitter marketing strategy a complete no-brainer.

When it comes to choosing a GIF, have fun with it! GIFs are a great opportunity to be funny, silly, and to show your customers that you don’t take yourself too seriously.

...or a video

There’s no doubt that GIFs can up your Tweet’s engagement level. But when it comes to getting people to engage with your tweets, you won’t find a better add-on than video.

Tweets with videos attract 10X more engagement than tweets without—so whenever you can find a way to insert a video into your tweet, you should definitely take advantage. Just make sure your video is relevant to your tweet content; for example, if you’re tweeting about a new product launch, the video should showcase that new product—not a video tour of your corporate office or a Q+A with your CEO.

Tweet at the right time

What you tweet is obviously important—but so is when you tweet it. An analysis from Hootsuite found the overall best time to tweet is between 3 PM and 5 PM on weekdays—so if you can send your tweets within that time frame, you’re far more likely to see results than if you sent between 3 AM and 5 AM.

If you’re a B2C business, you also want to consider how and when your customers can check their Twitter accounts (which, for many people, isn’t while they’re at work)—so tweeting before or after normal work hours can also be a great time to engage with your followers.

Schedule your tweets ahead of time

Twitter can be a time-intensive platform—so if you want your Twitter marketing to be effective, you need to look for ways to be efficient with your time.

Scheduling your tweets ahead of time using a platform like Hootsuite not only ensures you’re sending the tweets you want at the times you want to send them, it also frees up more of your time during the day to respond to your customers in real time.

Partner with influencers

When you hear the term “influencer marketing,” you probably think Instagram—but partnering with influencers to grow your brand is just as effective on Twitter.

40% of Twitter users have made a purchase based on an influencer tweet, and 49% of users say they rely on recommendations from influencers. That’s not an insignificant number—so, depending on your brand and the audience you’re trying to target, influencer marketing might be a worthwhile strategy to try.

And the best part? You don’t need an influencer with millions of followers in order to make an impact. Micro-influencers—Twitter users with smaller but engaged followers—can be just as (if not more) effective than the Kylie Jenners of the world.

Do a quick #hashtag search, or use tools like Hashtagify, to find the active voices in your industry—and then engage those influencers to get them on board with your brand. In many cases, a single tweet from a relevant influencer can do more for your brand than an entire ad campaign!

Twitter marketing can be an incredibly effective way to connect with your customers, increase brand recognition, and drive engagement and sales. And now that you know exactly how to market your business on Twitter, all that’s left to do is get out there and get tweeting!