Social media is a critical tool for any business. It puts you in direct contact with your followers, and your followers are people who already have expressed an interest in your offerings (because they’re following you). It’s also a good way to find people you might not otherwise reach. When your followers share or repost, their entire network gets to see your post.
But are your follower’s customers? Just because you have a social media following doesn’t mean you’re making money off it. The question then becomes, how do you move your social media followers into your sales funnel? Luckily, we can provide you some tips on doing just that.
Understand your own sales funnel
You need to know exactly what’s required to make a purchase from your own company. You need to know what the experience is like for every customer, who comes in from every marketing channel. If you don’t live and breathe your own sales funnel, you shouldn’t expect your social media followers to jump in it.
Make conversion as easy as possible
People will be really unhappy if they have to jump through a lot of hoops to spend their hard-earned money. After reviewing and studying your sales funnel, you should remove any obstacles between the first click and the purchase. Also, make sure each of your social media pages has a “buy now” button, or other call to action that links prospects to the appropriate page of your website.
Convert soft leads
Soft leads are people who already have provided you with their email address – meaning, they probably subscribed to your email newsletter or blog. This is permission-based, so that means these people have expressed interest in your overall message, but not necessarily in making a purchase. Converting these leads into customers is a big opportunity for your business. Design email marketing campaigns with content that helps these leads through the sales funnel.
Treat social media leads differently
Remember, social media leads have only expressed interest in your message, not necessarily in buying. That means they may be higher in the sales funnel – they may be in research and consideration, rather than decision-making. High pressure sales tactics will likely have a negative effect at this point in the sales funnel. Nurture your social media leads with thought-provoking content, not a “buy right now” approach.
Measure your results
The only way to know how you’re doing is to track, track, track. While electronic communications (such as social media) typically have a higher return on investment (ROI), you will be spending some time and money to create them. Keep track of what you’re spending and what you’re converting.
Social media is a fantastic tool to get your message out, and to find and stay in touch with sales leads. Salesgenie can help you improve your use of social media as a marketing and sales tool. To start, Salesgenie can help you uncover new customer data, including LinkedIn profiles for key decision makers. Once you have leads in your sales funnel, we can help you track their status, and even design email campaigns to stay in touch with them.
