The term “social selling” refers to using social media to locate ways to connect, comprehend, and communicate with potential customers or clients. It’s a method to help brands build lasting relationships with prospective clients to ensure their brand is always at the forefront of their minds.
Think of social selling as modern relationship-building. Social selling can replace outdated relationship-building and sales techniques like cold calling! Engaging with potential customers via social media could help you become the first company someone is considering when looking to buy.
What is Social Selling?
Social selling is not about bombarding people with unintentional tweets or DMs. That’s spam. Could you not do it?
Social selling isn’t just simply about adding more contacts to your database. It’s about making the interactions relevant and showing your company as having solutions to problems. If you can do this, it’s easier to establish trust and earn loyalty.
For example, the natural skin-care company SoKind uses fundamental social selling principles to create their Facebook post. They outline clearly the ways their product solves the problem of mothers. Highlighting the value of their products will help the brand reach the right audience and boosts sales.
How Can You Make Use of Social Selling?
For many companies, it’s superior to cold calling or email outreach. It is a great way to get customers into the sales funnels, including those created using software for sales automation.
Contrary to cold calling and social selling, social selling has more authenticity and can be extremely useful during downtime, like curing the COVID-19 epidemic.
“Social selling” refers to a phrase that describes something you’re probably already doing. Like, for example, adding buttons for social sharing to posts on your website, such as the one found at the end of this article on chat acronyms from Preply.
Another approach to social selling is to advertise the landing pages of your products using Facebook ads or social media to promote products related to your Amazon store.
1. Leverage User-Generated Content
People don’t trust brands; They trust others, and that’s why user-generated content can effectively increase sales through social media.
Content created by users has a natural tone that will speak to your clients naturally. Check out the way StuDocu uses the Twitter platform to share relevant images from different accounts within their field of expertise.
While there’s no selling on these posts, they contribute to their overall perception and tone. Sometimes your audience would like to be entertained without being pushed around.
2. Work with Social Media Influencers as a Partner
Selling your products at this time is difficult – you do not want to be perceived as sexist, marketing your brand while people struggle with their financial situation. Instead of advertising directly for your product, think about joining forces with social media influencers.
A producer and business consultant, Kimberly Brook, who married James Van Der Beek in 2010, uses her social network to promote brands associated with sustainable and natural ingredients, as shown in this article.
Are you unsure where to find the most efficient social media influencers to promote your company? Ninety-two percent believe in influencers more than stars, including the Kardashians. Find smaller influencers who enjoy a large following but do not have celebrity status.
Another great example is the way Runners Athletics runs its Instagram page. If you visit their homepage, you’ll find an area linked to the Instagram account. This is not just a way to encourage users to follow Runners on social media, but it also helps users to believe in their brand. What exactly is it, you might ask?
They are running Athletics partners with smaller social media influencers that wear their sunglasses. This creates a stronger connection and trust between the two parties because people don’t think of a brand or a product. They can see a natural person who loves their product.
3. Combine Social Selling and SEO
In social selling, SEO (search engine optimization) may not be at the forefront of your concerns. These are two completely different strategies. However, mixing the two strategies can yield powerful results.
For instance posting, for example, posting on LinkedIn could boost your SEO and drive sales. The co-founder of the Content Marketing Institute, Joe Pulizzi, uses LinkedIn to communicate with colleagues and customers and to market a new novel.
Do not forget to consider other specific social networks like LinkedIn, Reddit, or Slideshare. These sites are just as effective as Facebook or Instagram for particular brands.
4. Tie Podcast Promotion and Social Selling
What was the last time that you listened to podcasts? Similar to most Americans, you probably did it within the previous month. Social media is an effective platform, and social media can be a great way to spread the word to your target audience.
In Jan 2021, there were more than 72 million monthly downloads of podcasts on Buzzsprout and 91,000 podcasts.
Tun Myaing, who is the creator and producer of the Art of the Grind Podcast, has shared this information about making use of social selling to promote their podcast:
“We typically rely on the power of word-of-mouth to get people to hear about our podcast. Certain of our guests have massive social media followings, which is why we leverage their followings to gain more listeners.”
Be innovative. At the same time, you’re ensuring you’re engaging and communicating with your clients through your podcasts, like NUOPTIMA’s SaaS Minds. It’s a SaaS Podcast that offers huge value to a relevant audience, setting a high standard for industry engagement.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a simple acknowledgment to a regular reader who left a comment on your Facebook post or created an entire program that your customers wanted to watch; it’s crucial to pay attention to your clients and make them feel a part of the community.
5. Combine Social Selling with Email Marketing
In most companies, the email list of their customers is one of the best assets they own. As stated by Oberlo, more than 3.9 million people are using email across the globe, and this number could rise to 4.3 billion in 2023.
The potential of social media with email marketing is a two-way punch your company should not afford to overlook.
Here are a few ways to mix social selling with email marketing:
- Utilize your email signature within Gmail templates to advertise your social channels.
- Send the “exclusive content” tease to social media sites only accessible by sign-up for an email subscription.
- Include an email sign-up form on the Facebook page.
6. Buy Easy on Social Selling
If you’re looking to sell more, you must facilitate buyers to complete their purchases. One extra mouse click (between five and six) when they check out could reduce sales by 10 percent.
Reduce friction by linking your Facebook category to your inventory, making it easier for consumers to purchase directly from their feed on social media without the hassle of navigating multiple sites or logging into other platforms.
Conclusion
Selling during a time of epidemic is not a straightforward job. Being alert to the ever-changing world is essential, and cutting out marketing altogether could spell the end of the line for your business. Over half of the small businesses believe they will not last in the middle of the six months without filing for bankruptcy.
Social selling can help brands navigate the lines between ignoring the issue and moving forward as if nothing ever occurred.
The problem is that your clients are already using social media and are purchasing. The question is: will they find you on social media?
