Using Social Media For Sales: How To Incorporate Social Platforms In Your Strategy
Posted on 16th February 2024
Social media has become an important part of many people’s marketing strategy, with many businesses turning to these platforms to expand their reach and increase their sales.
With so many platforms to choose from offering different incentives for marketers, social selling can seem like a big task at first. Hubspot research suggests 78% of salespeople who use social selling methods perform better than their peers – meaning it’s important you hop onto this marketing trend if you want to compete with others in your industry.
Here’s how you can use social media for sales.
Understand Your Audience’s Most Used Platforms
A good place to start with your sales strategy is knowing which platforms your audiences frequent the most. If you already have a social media marketing strategy, then you probably already know which platforms bring the most engagement from your audience. If not, then the best way to find out is by creating a buyer persona. This should represent your ideal customer, including things such as their age, gender, income, job, hobbies and interests. Much like audience personas, your buyer persona has to represent all the qualities you’re looking for in a consumer of your products, services or content.
You need to also now how your audience is using these platforms – if they’re fans of visual based content, Instagram is the way to go. If they prefer something more professional and informative, LinkedIn is your best bet. For example, if you’re a beauty business and your audience is female, 18-25, interested in skin care and self-care, using social media to consume video content and are in university or undertaking a apprenticeships, sites such as TikTok and Instagram would help you reach this target audience the most. Following which trends are big on platforms with your target market can also lend a helpful hand to creating your buyer persona.
Share Your Customer Stories
Customer stories are a huge incentive for buyers – if they can see a customer is happy with a purchase, they’re more likely to buy what you have on offer. Using reviews as part of your marketing can influence purchasing decisions, especially when a potential customer can recognise that other buyers have similar traits and characteristics to them. Staying with our example, if you sold skincare products that helped someone combat dry skin, and they then leave you a great review about how well this product has worked for them, they will recognise that their problem has been solved for others, and will likely to work for them too!
Use Social Proof
Social proof is so important on social media – 92% of buyers feel hesitant to make a purchase when there are no reviews available, with 88% of Gen Z and Millennials using social media to research products they’re interested in. Even if reviews aren’t great, not only can you use this as a learning experience but you can also clear up anything false or incorrect that someone may say. This shows your business in a good light (as long as you remain professional), and allows you to improve your businesses reputation.
Optimise Your Personal Social Media
Personal accounts allow you to reach out to the people who already follow you. Sites like Twitter and Instagram are great for cross-sharing your content, positioning you as a salesperson and thought leader in your industry, helping to boost engagement on both your personal and professional ages.
Doing this on LinkedIn also helps to build your professional network – with B2B marketing, building a community of strong, likeminded business leaders is a hugely important step in helping you to stand out from the crowd and show your trusted by others.
Track Your Metrics & Competitors
Knowing how your business is performing extends beyond just social posts, it also applies to your sales too. These metrics from your chosen sales tactics will be able to tell you how many leads and conversions you get purely from your social media. Knowing all of these things will help you adjust your strategies accordingly, and can be a helpful aid with understanding what is and isn’t working. Facebook Ads can provide you with lots of information, and are one of the top tools marketers use for selling on socials.
You should also track your competitor’s performance – if you don’t have something to compete against, then you won’t know how your business stacks up compared to others in your industry. Most business owners dream of becoming a lead in their industry, and that comes with knowing who your competition are and what steps you need to take to outperform them. You don’t need to copy them, but you can see how their strategies are performing compared to your own, so you can form your own, powerful, unique plan for your social selling efforts.
Social Media can take your business to new heights when it come to sales, but it isn’t something that comes instantly – you need to work hard to achieve your goals and figure out which platforms are best for you. Take the dive into the world of social selling and see how it boosts your business today!
Need further advice?
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