Social Media
What is social selling?
Social selling is when sales people use social media to find and engage with new prospects. Sales people use social media to provide value to prospects by answering questions, responding to comments and by sharing content throughout the buying process – from awareness to consideration, until a prospect is ready to buy.
The research also found that sales reps who use social selling find on average 45% more opportunities.
Social selling is not a one-time activity and something that should be used alongside existing sales prospecting techniques. While it might be difficult to get started, especially if you’re new to social media, the benefits far outweigh the challenges.
One thing is clear: Prospects, customers and competitors all use social media for business. Embrace it and watch your sales grow or ignore it and get left behind. It’s that simple.
How can social media be used to create sales?
Some Ways to Drive Sales on Social Media
Work with Social Media Influencers. …
Turn Loyal Customers into Brand Advocates. …
Share User-Generated Content. …
Create Valuable Content to Educate and Entice Your Audience. …
Invest in Social Media Advertising.
Work with Social Media Influencers
A study found that the amount of trust people place in influencers is comparable to the trust placed in their friends. This simply goes to show that promoting your brand and products through social media influencers is very likely to drive sales, and has been shown to deliver ROI as high as 600% in some cases. If you want to make more sales through social media, you need to utilize the power of social media influencers. Get them to strategically feature your product in their photos or videos, or have them tell a unique and engaging story about your brand. You can also work with influencers who will give honest reviews about your product, and/or provide tutorials and how-to content regarding your product.
Turn Loyal Customers into Brand Advocates
If you want to promote your products using real people, you don’t necessarily have to always rely on influencers. Your existing customers can become effective brand advocates if you can entice them to promote your products in exchange for freebies and discounts.
Conducting keyword and hashtag searches related your brand or product name on social media will help you find people who are already posting content about your brand.
Share User-Generated Content
Before buying something online, consumers tend to read several reviews to make sure the brand and product are trustworthy. These types of reviews ease the anxiety about buying from a brand that a customer barely knows, or about investing in a product they’re not familiar with.
When these reviews are the opinions and experiences of other consumers just like themselves, then they feel a kind of honesty that they can connect with.
When it comes to social media marketing, you need to make the most out of the content created by other consumers to drive more sales.
Another way you can drive more sales through social media is by encouraging your customers to share their photos online. Also, be sure to go one step further by sharing these user-generated photos on your own social media profiles. This is an easy way to increase loyalty with your existing customers, and to add credibility to your brand whenever potential customers visit your social media profiles
Create Valuable Content to Educate and Entice Your Audience
Social media is an excellent platform for brands to provide bite-sized, yet valuable content to their audience. This content should be engaging to your audience, and compelling enough to entice them into making a purchase.
In addition to promoting your blog posts on social media, you can also create bite-sized informational content that will provide value to your social media audience.
Ideally, you should provide guides and how-to content. The goal is to provide customers with the kind of information that will entice them to try your product.
Similarly, you can provide useful tips on how to use your products in combination with other things. In case of fashion accessories, for instance, you can put together an outfit that matches the accessory. Or in the case of tech gadgets, you can showcase some of the cool things people can do with it.
Making use of this kind of “informational” content gives your product a broader context, and it gives potential customers ideas about how to use it. As a bonus, this kind of content provides your target consumers with more reasons to consider buying your product, which can lead to more conversions.
Invest in Social Media Advertising
Social media platforms have millions of users. Even when you’ve found the perfect social media platform to engage your target audience, your marketing efforts may not be effective if none of them have heard of you before. You can make sure that they take notice of your brand by investing in social media advertising.
Every social media platform has an option to either create ads or promote your content. This will ensure higher visibility for your brand among a relevant target audience. Increased visibility will further improve your chances of driving sales from social media.
On Instagram, you can advertise through Instagram Stories in addition to regular advertising.
Both Herbal Teas Australia and BiaB Australia use Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn as the main social media platforms, however, we encourage you to explore and use whatever platforms work for you as there are many to choose from.
Conclusion
These are some of the most effective ways your brand can increase sales by using social media. As you can see, these tips mainly involve winning the trust of your target audience through other people — influencers and customers alike.
You also need to ensure that your brand is highly visible to a relevant audience. And take advantage of the opportunity to use content that will engage, entice, and compel potential customers to try your products or services.
It’s also crucial that you make it easy to purchase your products through social media platforms when the option is available. The goal is to minimize any hassles or steps that might dissuade people from making a purchase.
Examples of using Social Media to benefit your sales
Interesting Facts
88% of customers check online before making a decision.
85% of customers check up to 10 reviews.
*Testimonials are another effective way to grab your customers so don’t be hesitant to ask for reviews
