Converting Social Media Leads Into Sales
Filed Under Social Marketing
You have gotten your social media campaign underway. You’ve built up a healthy fan base and engage frequently with many followers. Now what? Once you have gotten yourself into a routine with your social networks, it is a good time to start focusing your efforts on turning those followers and fans into customers!
The great thing about social networking is that it gives you an inside look at what people want. When you have a strong following, you have a ready-to-go marketing panel that you can bounce ideas off of and receive feedback from- without the cost of having it done by someone else.
Unlike some companies that rely on cold-calls to generate a few interested leads, you have a community of fans who are ready to find out more about your new products and services. That means you’re already on the winning side of the battle! Your foot is in the door and all you have to do is wow the customer.
Let’s go over a few tips that will help you prepare for the conversion of your followers to customers:
Understand the Full Process
With social media, you have the advantage of showing your wares to potential customers before your competitors do. That means you have more opportunities to convert in comparison to more traditional sales processes. You are essentially gaining exposure, influencing and engaging with customers before they must take action.
Streamline the Path between Fan and Customer
You want the process for buying to be as easy as possible for your potential customers. Don’t make your customers look too hard to make a purchase from you. Online shoppers have a short attention span, so if the path to buy is not immediately clear, they will quickly move on to someone else. On your Facebook Page, for example, make a tab that lets your fans make a purchase right there. Make sure that each post has a call to action that will encourage your fans to make a purchase.
Allow for Soft Lead Conversion
Not every fan is going to be ready to buy right away. Make it easy for the interested person to become an email subscriber. You will be able to build up an emailing list, which is a valuable source for leads. If he or she likes your content enough to sign up for your emails, then it won’t take much more for them to decide they like a product you offer and make a purchase.
Use Different Methods for Social Media Leads
If you are operating both a traditional and a social media campaign for your business, you need to treat each lead differently. Don’t give your social network followers the same email full of the information they have already read about on your latest post. They want to read fresh, interesting content that will induce them to make a purchase. Answer questions that typically arise about your product. This will take a fan from a soft lead to a hard lead. Hard leads are one step closer to making a purchase, giving you a better chance for making a sale.
You want to cultivate a relationship with your followers. Then, when they are ready to buy, they will come to you instead of a competitor.
Track Your Outcome
It is important to measure your results in order to help pinpoint where your leads are in the conversion process. This can be done with Google analytics, which lets you track the links you post on social sites.
Have you started to convert your followers to sales? What steps have you taken to make your efforts successful? Are there some things you still need help with in this process? Share with us!
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Suji
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Dawn Pigoni, IVAA Member
