Strategy
Social media is known as a great tool for generating leads, but can they be used to close sales? With so many small businesses operating exclusively on Instagram or Facebook, the answer is yes. Here’s how you can do that for your business.
As with any other sales channel, the first thing you have to do is to know your customer. You have to learn what type of customers do you get, what their interests and values are, and what pushes them to make a purchase.
With that knowledge, you can build trust with the leads you get from social networks and convert more of them into buyers.
Often, it manifests in the type of content you post on your social media. The target audience of jewellery companies wants to look their best. This prompts this small business owner creates professional photos of her goods and match her clients’ style.
People who are interested in roofing services want to see the quality of the work the contractor is making, even if the quality of the photo itself suffers. It’s exactly what this roofing company posts on its Instagram profile.
The whole point of being on social media is being closer to the customer. You’re changing your brand image from a corporation run by greedy people in business suits to a laid-back company that posts on Instagram and isn’t afraid to laugh at itself.
With 57% of millennial women influenced by brand values, that’s going to impact lead generation quite well.
What’s a better way to show customers you’re down-to-earth and care about them than talking to them in the comment section?
Posting engaging questions and talking to people in the comments is a great way to build trust. If you think nobody notices that, take a look at this totally shallow Burger King reply that got 40 likes.
It may not be intuitive for people who just discovered Facebook and Instagram as marketing tools, but DMs are very important. Answering direct messages fast makes customers happy, and great customer experience equals loyalty for over half of millennials.
Taking orders directly via DMs will also increase the conversion rate, says Michael Green, Head of Marketing at Cake HR Software. Integrating DM orders into your HR software is really easy, and sales agents can even form orders manually without the software. However, if you ask a customer to go on your website and order there, you may lose this lead as they’ll forget about it or find another company to order from.
People love when brands show they care, even if it manifests itself in the small things. However, talking to your audience isn’t only going to increase trust. It can score you some sales as well.
Discounts are standard practice of driving sales. However, you may be losing money instead of earning if you only manage to generate a sale once. Out of those who will come for the sale, there are going to be many one-time buyers.
Your job is to make the sale the first point of contact that introduces a lead to the product, not the only one. Make sure that people who are engaged by the discount do at least one of the following:
This means you are getting a lot of value apart from one sale from this discount campaign.
If a person has visited your page and liked your post, they’re interested even if they didn’t subscribe. They may have thought “it’s a great product, but I don’t have the money to buy it now.”
Make sure they don’t forget about your company as time goes by. Invest in retargeting, showing ads to people who have already interacted with your company, and many will convert eventually.
People trust influencers as much as their peers and definitely more than companies. Leverage the power of native advertising by launching an influencer campaign.
Many dedicated fans see purchasing on a special deal as supporting their favourite influencer, so you’ll get a lot of direct sales.
Social media is a great way to generate sales. Start with knowing your audience and talking to them. Collaborate with the people they follow, offer discounts to create the first touchpoint, and follow up with a retargeting campaign.
