Get Beyond the Click: 5 Ways to sell with Social Media

It should be clear to most of us that social media is a great way to get website traffic. Platforms like Facebook boast more than 2.2 billion monthly active users, and Instagram adds another billion for the social media giant. On those platforms alone, there are nearly half of the world on social media. That’s a ton of impressions, but your business doesn’t run on impressions. How do you turn the eyeballs you get into paying customers? These five steps will get you from impressions, pass the click, to buy.

1. Target customers, not views. You need to consider who is viewing your content, not just how many people saw your ads. You need to confine your targeting to those who are most likely to buy, or at least are in a position to purchase. That means being okay with less views with more quality. There are only two ways to increase an ROI percentage, increase amount of sales or decrease your reach. Be open to doing both.
2. Put yourself in their house and talk to them. You know the saying about “walking a mile in their shoes.” This is the next step. Your social media content needs to speak directly to your customer in the environment they are in. If your customer is a mom and she sees your content at home in the evening or morning, understand that her attention is divided and probably stress-filled. You need a message that is about reducing stress or solving a problem. Likewise, you can do this with any type of person. Develop an audience persona and make all your messages work for that customer.
3. Show them their world with your product. The next step is to show them a new world with your product or service. How is their current environment different?  If you work in B2B, how is their business different? No matter who your customer is, you are talking to a person who is trying to make a decision. They need to feel like that decision will end with a positive result. Show them that is the case. When your customer has a clear picture of how their environment is better with your product or service, the logical next step is to make a decision to buy or sign up.
4. Only use trending topics that tie to a conversion. It’s great if you can use a current event or news story as a hook for people to engage with your content. But what do they do afterward? If they simply smile, hit like and move on then it was all for not. Make sure that your customer sees that story as a part of your brand’s messaging. How does that story apply to your company and a need to use your product or service? Throwback Thursday is a great hashtag (#TBT) for people to look back at a moment in time and reflect. But, it’s only useful to your organization if that nostalgia leads to a current purchase or conversion.
5. Ask for the sale. If you have done most or all the four things above, asking for the sale is no longer going to feel pushy to your customer. In fact, for many people, asking for the sale is the permission or encouragement they need to make the purchase. But, this is made easier when you know you are talking to a potential customer, and that customer feels like you could be a potential solution to their problem. At that moment, feel free to ask them to visit your website and take the action you ultimately want them to do. You’d be surprised how many people will take you up on that.

At the end of the day, using social media just to get in front of a lot of people or to get people to watch your video isn’t a bad thing. But, putting all of that time, energy and money into something should come with the conversion you are looking for: sales, sign ups, visits, etc. Those two goals—likes and sales—don’t have to compete. You can create “sales content” that entices your customer, and you can create appealing content that gets you to your goal.

You can also read: 10 ways to Successful Social Media Marketing.

Here’s a bonus tip: don’t forget about the follow-up. If you see someone comment and they end up purchasing, reach out either on social media or email and ask how they are liking the product or service they purchased. This is how you take them from first-time customer to long-time customer.

Use these tips to get beyond the click, and right to your customer!

You can also read: How to succeed marketing on Social Media

About the Author   

Sedale McCall is a digital analyst with a passion for audience-based solutions to using social media. As the blogger of Today on Social, Sedale focuses on how small businesses, bloggers and brands can use social media to achieve whatever their goal is, without a ton of time and energy. Today on Social gives you the latest trends, news and tips that get you up to date quickly and on your way to being successful.

For more on Sedale and the blog, visit Today on Social. You can also follow Sedale on Instagram (@TodayOnSocial), Pinterest (@TodayOnSocial) or Twitter (@SedaleM).