Social media is an excellent, cost-effective way to promote your small business. Regularly scheduled posts can help expand your brand's reach and attract new fans and followers. However, if the likes and comments on your social media posts are not translating into actual sales, they serve only as a vanity metric rather than contributing to your bottom line.
Although creating and publishing social media content that generates sales can be challenging, it can be done. In this Huddle Business Capital blog article, we discuss strategies designed to turn followers into customers.
Before investing time, effort, and possibly part of your marketing budget in social media, it is crucial to create a social media strategy. This strategy should align with your overall marketing strategy and business plan. For instance, your social media goals might include increasing brand awareness, building an online community, generating leads, or a combination of these.
Your social media strategy should include a schedule outlining the timing and frequency of your posts. Your schedule can consist of a list of company news and product or service announcements that resonate with your followers. Plus, it's important to align your posts with key events or trends relevant to your company and industry.
If you prefer not to post manually to each social network (e.g., Facebook®, Instagram®, X), there are various social media publishing tools available for a monthly or annual fee. These tools let you schedule and publish posts to multiple social networks from a single platform, and most offer detailed analytics and reporting to track your follower counts and engagement.
Your business's social media followers—comprised of individuals and potentially other businesses—have a shared interest in your company and in the products or services you provide. Hopefully, many of your followers engage with your social media posts through likes, comments, or shares.
One way to advance your followers to the next stage of the sales process is to craft and publish posts that communicate the value of your products or services. By focusing on the benefits and solutions your business's offerings provide, you can inspire your followers to take the next step toward making a purchase.
Informative "how-to" videos are an excellent way to provide interactive content for your social media audience. Your videos can showcase your company's products or services and provide visual insights and demonstrations.
When your followers watch these videos, they gain a clearer understanding of what you offer, which can enhance their confidence in your brand. Ultimately, this connection can lead to increased trust and drive sales as viewers feel more informed and empowered to make a purchase.
If you think you need an elaborate video production setup to create "how-to" videos, think again. You can create videos with excellent visual and audio quality using a smartphone or tablet. There are also free video editing apps for both mobile and desktop. Just remember to export the video at the recommended length and size (pixel width and height) for each social network.
Testimonials from actual customers can help drive sales. When your social media followers see and hear about the positive experiences of others who have used your company's products or services, it builds confidence. This reinforces the idea that they, too, can achieve similar positive outcomes.
To showcase customer testimonials, take the time to explore the reviews and feedback your company has received on platforms like Google™ or Trustpilot. When crafting a testimonial-based social media post, copy and paste a short, compelling quote from the satisfied customer, and link the post to the online review.
To drive social media traffic to your website that can lead to online sales, make sure you link your social media posts to your website. Include relevant links in your posts to specific website pages, such as blog articles, product pages, or special promotions. Additionally, use compelling call-to-action phrases that encourage your audience to click through and explore your website further. Some examples include "Click to shop," "Tap to purchase," and "Get the free guide."
By posting links to your website, you gain valuable insights into how effective your social media posts are. This practice allows you to monitor user engagement and track metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and time on site. These metrics can be found in your Google Analytics account.
In social media marketing, as in any marketing strategy, it is essential to let data guide your decision-making. Most major social networks provide basic analytics data for free. By analyzing metrics such as views, engagement rates, and conversions, you can determine which types of social media posts resonate most with your target audience. The data-driven approach also reveals the posts that fail to achieve the desired outcomes.
This Huddle Business Capital blog article is purely educational and contains general information and opinions; it is not intended to provide advice or recommendations of any kind. Huddle Business Capital is not affiliated with nor endorses Facebook®, Instagram®, X, Google™, or Trustpilot.