How do you turn the relationship between you and your followers or fans into actual sales? Leads, conversion, actual sales are all very important elements in any business. The fact that you have to turn those clicks, likes and comments into actual sales is very essential for your business growth.
Once you are sharing great contents, I bet you should expect that your followers will keep liking, commenting and clicking to see through what you have on your social media platforms, website or landing page.
So, you’ve been publishing on Facebook, Twitter and maybe a few other social media platforms, and you’ve built up a decent following in each channel. Your audience is starting to engage more and more with your content.
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Maybe you’re wondering, okay, what’s next? How can I take this to the next level? How can I convert these clicks, likes and comments into actual sales?
Social media can be an extremely powerful tool for lead generation, but getting there takes time, patience, a lot of testing and the dedication to post highly-valuable content for your audience.
In order to be effective at generating leads with social media you need to treat it as a key part of your overall content marketing machine.
This means that social media becomes a place where you distribute high-value content to your audience––content found on your blog, the resources section of your site or on landing pages.
But it’s not just about the value of the content you’re linking to; what really counts is how you format the posts in each channel. Before diving into how to optimize your posts for lead generation, let’s take a look at three possible lead generation paths for social:
Social channel > Blog post with link to a relevant landing page (gated content) > lead
Social channel > Gated content > lead
Social channel > Blog post > Visitor signs up for mailing list via signup forms strategically placed on your blog (lead)
You can experiment with each of these paths, or even others that you draw up, but when you post with the goal of generating leads make sure you always link to a page that is relevant (e.g. an article on a topic that is important to your audience or a landing page linking to a guide that your visitors would want to download).
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Don’t just link to your homepage and hope people will convert. Here are some ways you can converts those likes into actual sales:
Initiate actual sales by telling your story
Your content is expected to drive engagements which is relatively what content is meant for. You should be able to use your content to say something relevant about your product or service. It should tell more about what you can offer and what you are all about.
A product by itself is boring. It only becomes exciting when you show people all of the cool things it can actually offer. You know the thing they say about pictures saying a thousand words, it sure is true.
Images help tell your brand story as they give the prospect a more visual perspective of your product which is part of telling the story. Use images to further buttress that awesome story about your product or service.
Also ensure that your content contains necessary information about what your product or service can offer your prospects.
For example, Pepsi has been able to achieve this especially by using images of celebrities like Tiwa Savage, Drogba and even Wizkid to tell a very powerful brand story.
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I bet you that even because of the love for those celebrities, leads and prospects will eventually like the ad or campaign of a social media platform and eventually decide to try the drink out.
That is what it means to tell a brand story. You can use images, videos, or articles to create a certain want for your product in the hearts of your target audience. One thing to play around with is the emotions of your audience.
Speak to their emotions and ego’s and I bet you will get tons of likes, comments and clicks that will eventually become actual sales. Don’t forget that not everyone who likes or comments might engage with your product.
But that doesn’t mean you should give all in terms of content quality to them. As we all know, content is king on the internet and in whatever form it is coming whether articles, images, videos or infographics; make sure it is engaging.
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The hard truth is people need your product to solve a particular problem but if you don’t give them enough reasons to believe in what you offer, then it’s pointless going any further.
It is important you show your prospective customers how efficient your product or service is in regards to solving their problem. That is the only way clicks can become sales.
Build on your strategies for creating incentives
Everybody loves free stuffs – in whatever form they might appear, be it discount, coupons, free gifts or raffle draws. This is one very of those areas you can catch your prospects especially on social media.
OK, so we know you create an ad or campaign on social media to probably promote a certain offer.
For example, we should have an idea on the Jumia or Konga black Friday. In most cases, you see the ads on let’s say Facebook.
The next thing a lead will do is click on the ad and it takes them to either the website or landing page for that offer.
Once the person has shown interest, it is most likely that he or she might end up buying a product or two due to the ridiculous slash in price. You can also do same as those big companies do.
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It doesn’t have to be such a ridiculous offer or incentive but it should be able to lure your lead into patronizing your product or service.
You can probably decide to discount a particular service you offer for this Easter celebration, give a coupon, or do a buy one get one free kind of bonanza. You can also hold a contest where the winner receives a mouthwatering price.
Don’t forget to direct your customers to a landing page or website where they can see varieties of other products or services you offer.
Furthermore, there should always be a call to action embedded in your campaign e.g. (claim your reward, use it on – then you provide a link to your page) etc.
Also, don’t ignore the use of images within your campaign because it aids in the process of conversion. It is really about conversion and not about you.
Learn to use testimonials
That’s a powerful tool but easily negligible by most businesses. When your target audience see what other who have used your product have to say about your product or service, it’s easy to believe.
Your testimonial doesn’t necessarily have to be all text, it could be a short video of someone saying how much they have gained from engaging your brand.
An example of this is a short testimonial video I watched on a particular slim tummy tea. The lady spoke about how she witnessed tremendous change from using the tummy tea (the tea is actually to get your tummy flat).
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Then she had her before and after picture as an evidence. With such testimonials, you can gain comments, clicks and likes which will eventually lead to actual sales.
Testimonials are the surest and easiest way for conversion because they are tangible evidence of what your prospects or leads stand to gain if they also engage or purchase that product or use that service.
It is essential to always have testimonials, whether on your website or as a video you can share on social media. This can create trust in the mind of your prospective customers on the benefits they stand to gain from engaging you.
Show a person who used your product to overcome a common problem, even something as simple as saving time or bonding with their family. The simple problems are the ones people think about most often. Solutions to those will give you the most clicks and sales.
Design and navigation
When you make accessing information on your website very difficult, then you lose the band of following you have built over time. Like I said earlier, you have a campaign on social media where you redirect your target customers or audience to a landing page.
What is expected is that all the information they need to make that particular purchase should be on that page.
But when navigating through the page is hard and the design is out of control, it is so easy for the prospect to get disconnected. Meaning that click never transcended into an actual purchase.
Do you have a clear navigation for users to browse your site and quickly find what they are looking for?
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Ensure that key pages (contact page, about us page, products or services pages, etc.) are easily accessible with a clear and logical navigation structure. The easier navigating through your pages are, the more convenient it is for prospects to make purchase(s).
Also, your design tells so much about how serious you should be taken as a brand.
Does your site look professional? Is your site design in keeping with other sites in your industry?
Does the site feel fresh, modern and sleek or clumsy and out-of-date? Style and design plays a huge part in user perception of your business so it is critical you get this right.
It is crucial that the landing pages you use for your ads should be as relevant as possible and take the user as close to the point of purchase as possible.
Understand why people like your content
Posting fun content is a great way to gain attention from your followers or fans (likes and clicks) and interact with them.
You may however find that those posts are getting far more attention than the ones that will lead them back to your site.
Find a way to balance their appetite for fun and still drive them back to your site by taking your products and services a bit less seriously.
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OK, every other day is a serious day for most people, so why bring so much seriousness when it comes to interacting with those that matter; your (customers). The ideal thing to do is understand what tickles your followers.
There should be a particular pattern of content they engage the most with.
But this doesn’t mean you should keep bombarding them with same old content all year long. You should include some variation by spicing up your contents.
You need to be active on social media to realize actual sales
One of the most important pieces of the social media puzzle is to post regularly and relevantly.
It’s great to pay attention to the news and current events and to post information about those things or happenings in your local area.
A few tools can help you schedule posts (like Buffer) so you can maintain a consistent presence.
Leaving your page bare for days or weeks at a time can signal to others that you aren’t fully committed to the business.
By posting periodic updates, you can keep your name in front of potential buyers and more readily available to those looking to make a purchase.
Good customer service can lead to actual sales
Online or not, customer service reigns supreme. It is critical that you are responsive to questions and comments whether they are posted publicly or via private message.
Customers appreciate quick and honest responses; so try to make sure you are available to your fans. Facebook now shows visitors how quickly a page is likely to respond to a message.
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A long wait time can hurt your image even before that potential customer submits a question.
It is critical to always do your best when it comes to customer service. One bad interaction can have lasting adverse effects.
Conclusion
When it comes to actual sales, it is essential you understand the basis of guiding your leads through your sales funnel until they become actual paying customers.
Everyone talks about the importance of social media marketing and how crucial it is to your overall marketing plan. And, I would agree. However, a lot of time, energy, and money can be spent generating likes, comments and compiling a huge audience base that doesn’t automatically mean higher revenue.
The biggest question now is, how can we translate those likes into actual sales?
The first step especially when using social media, is to provide contents that will trigger your followers and other prospective customers to like, share, comment and even go a step further by clicking.
Once they click through to your landing page or website, then targeting and re-targeting should be your watch word.
There are so many feeds to go through especially on the various social media platforms. Therefore, it is imperative that your campaign is attractive enough to grasp the attention of your lead and keep them clicking through until they eventual purchase or engage your services.
Remember that no one goes on social media to browse for products – they go there to read stories. Hence, tell them your story and they will listen.
Show them in the story how your product can solve their problems or make them happier and you will get new customers.
Share with me your success story on conversion.
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