Using Social Media to Nurture Leads and Sell Products
Selling your product using social media requires having a well-researched and thoughtfully conceived plan and following it. Here are 6 tips for success with ongoing and authentic customer engagement. This will help to get prospects to follow your social media and eventually click the buy button on your website.
What specific things should I do with my social media to sell my product?
1. Know your customers and their social preferences.
Keep in mind your audience social media habis, specifically what social media channel they are most active on – Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn. YouTubPrioritize your ad spend to focus on those social media channels.
Also, design graphics to sell to your specific audience, not the whole world.
2. Look forward. Create a 12- or 24-month social media marketing plan and editorial calendar.
This is your road map to social selling success. Your social media plan should include weekly or monthly focus topics for all channels, special promotions (discounts or loyalty club offers for example), calls to action, post content, post dates and ad campaigns.
This very helpful visual representation of your social campaign will keep you on track.
3. Get personal. Use your social outreach to start a conversation, create relationships, and nurture customers.
Go beyond likes with your social audiences. Work on authentic interaction by responding to follower comments, answering or asking questions, and providing content they find relevant and of value. Product reviews, customer testimonials, how-to videos are all good examples of relevant content.
This is often called social selling. Social selling is using social media to build relationships with existing and potential customers that ultimately result in sales. By interacting and connecting with customers through social media platforms, sellers can build rapport and connect with customers, helping their brand stay top of mind when those customers are ready to make a purchase.
4. Plan your social selling campaign to capitalize on special occasions and holidays.
July 4th, Father’s Day, graduation, new home or new baby — all of these are great reasons to buy something unique.
5. Make seasonal messaging a part of your social selling strategy.
LIke Holidays, seasons provide a reason for shopping. Using seasonal messages also help to set up landing pages that are unique and descriptive.
6. Paid advertising on social media is a must for visibility.
Strategic and very targeted promoted posts will help your product promos get noticed. Use your paid visibility to speak to each step of the purchase decision, from discovery through research (reviews are hugs) and special offers to deepen the buyer’s interest.
According to Sprout Social, social media recently overtook paid search as an advertising channel, growing 25% year over year and exceeding $137 billion (just edging out search’s $135 billion).
About the Author:
Hey, I’m Dianne Newton-Shaw, a principal at Placemaking Group. I love what I do which is providing web development and web services that power small business. I also focus on creating the right content to engage customers — this is the fuel that drives engagement. There is a lot that goes into making these two things happen, from strategy and defining the customer journey to defining what marketing tactics will most influence an audience.
I certainly don’t do this alone – I work with a very creative creative director, a customer experience expert, an amazing programmer, graphic designers and a cadre of videographers, content writers, social media strategists to bring this client work to life. For more about my background visit our team page, or connect with me on LinkedIn.
