Thanks to social media, you’ll need to rethink your marketing strategy and how to sell to your customers. Only 14% of people trust ads alone because customers want to really know what they’re buying, and that the advertising isn’t just hype. There is also information circulating about a product online that goes beyond the advertising. 77% of online shoppers tend to take product and service reviews and ratings into account when making a purchase. On top of that, customers want businesses to make a connection to them—at least 8 out of every 10 customers expect businesses to be active in social media.
Community Effort
Staying active in social media means posting quality content on your respective pages. That means bringing calls to action through targeted social ads—remember your social media etiquette—and keep engaging with customers. This helps build a community where customers feel welcome and more comfortable with not only the products and services that you might provide, but with the people in your company as well.
Using tools such as TrueSocialMetrics and Facebook Insight among others will help you determine what to post and when to post it. Facebook Insight might be the most important tool—43% of those surveyed in a 2014 Mashable study said that they could not live without Facebook, making it the go-to social network as of this writing. Although it doesn’t have the reach of Google Ads, it reaches one of the most important audiences—those between the ages of 18 and 34. 72% of those between 18 to 34 years old are habitually online, and many businesses engage with this demographic.
You should offer your customers incentives on your landing page—whether it be additional content, eBooks, webinars or training, giveaways or consultations, customers are always looking for that little extra when they decide to invest their time and money into your business and the products and services that you provide.
A great way to remarket to customers is to install a remarketing pixel on your landing page, so it can install a cookie to display your ads to them on Facebook or Google. This will allow you to hopefully get a conversion even when there was none the first time you engaged the customer, and keep your business fresh in potential customers’ heads.
Like Hotcakes
You need to utilize multiple venues to create interest in your products, such as emails, product-specific offers, blog content, webinars, and of course, remarketing to those you have already reached out to before. These venues will allow you to reach certain customers as well—some like to sit down and read if they take interest in something, such as webinars or blog posts, while others only have time to read the status update and move on, such as Google, Facebook or Twitter. Engagement through all channels should help more of your leads become customers.
But Wait, There’s More
Getting your leads to become customers is a difficult task, but it doesn’t stop there. Getting your customers to come back over and over again depends on how well you engage with the community and provide quality customer service via social media. Some businesses offer incentives to repeat customers—for example, if you buy $100 worth of products or services, they get a free product or service. You will also need to keep posting new and engaging content—no one likes reading the same thing over and over.
Paying It Forward
As previously mentioned, 14% of all people trust ads alone—that means 86% trust other customers more than they do your ads. Loyal customers are also advocates for your business. The fun part about your customers advocating your business’s products and services to other potential customers is that it costs absolutely nothing for the business other than providing a great customer experience. Getting these people to like and share your content is essential as they can reach the customers you haven’t reached yet, and possibly convince leads that didn’t become customers the first time around to become a customer this time around. High reviews will lead to more and more conversions and loyalty towards your business.
