The goal of any business is to make a profit. For this to happen, paying customers are key. Countless things can affect what customers are drawn to your business and why, such as reviews, special offers, and branding. But, in general, if you can attract customers and keep them coming back, you’re already well on your way to small business success.
In the age of the internet, there are lots of added extras in this process designed to help you find and retain customers. Digital marketing techniques are highly useful, and one of the most popular ways to market your business digitally is through social media. However, if you’ve worked to build up a following on your social media accounts but aren’t yet seeing the benefits at the checkout, you may be a little stuck on what to do next.
In this post, we’re going to explore customer conversion through social media and help you find smart ways to turn your existing followers into dedicated buyers.
The Basics of Conversion
The process of taking individuals and turning them into your customers is known as conversion. To convert customers, you must have something they want. While there is a lot more to the game of marketing than this, the most basic facet of conversion is ensuring you align with market and customer demand or create that demand. Once you know you have a product or service that will sell, you’ll need to start pushing it to your followers in smart ways. Let’s take a look at some of the specifics of this conversion process.
Sales Funnels
Oftentimes conversion is not as easy as convincing followers to make a purchase and immediately watching their money roll in. Conversion in essence is a one-step process. However, in reality, there are lots of steps in this system of customer-focused marketing and the decision to purchase. In combination, these steps are known as a sales funnel.
Generally, the first part of the sales funnel will constitute marketing wherein you hook potential leads, the middle of the funnel will be common sales techniques (such as demos, tutorials, and anything that can foster an emotional connection to your business), and the end of the funnel will be down to customer decision. By keeping track of what part of the “journey to purchase” a particular customer is in, you can tailor your conversion tactics to what they may feel about and need from your business at that time. If people have followed you but are yet to make a purchase, they are currently in the sales funnel. This is good news, as they may just need a little push in terms of your content to finally decide to purchase from you.
Calls to Action
Conversion is also used to refer to the process of getting an individual to follow through on a call to action. A call to action is a directive that points potential customers to take a step toward making a purchase. A call to action might be a link in your social media bio to sign up for a mailing list where you can offer more marketing materials, or it may be the big red subscribe button for your whole service on the home page of your site.
Calls to action should appear everywhere potential customers can see them, in your post or image caption, as well as in your bio or pinned post. They need to be short enough to catch people’s attention, direct enough to push them to make a purchase, but open enough to not come across as pushy or desperate. Whatever your call to action says, without it, individuals will likely not take that first step to become customers.
Visibility
A huge part of conversion is getting your small business’s name out there. If users don’t know about your business or see your calls to action, you can’t convert them into customers. However, if you already have a lot of followers, visibility is still important.
Most social media algorithms work by offering your posts to a select group of your followers first, and if engagement is high enough, it is pushed to the remaining users. If you don’t post regularly or make the most of tags and SEO, your visibility even among your followers will be low. If you can’t get your existing followers’ attention and engagement, how will you attract new followers? You should aim to appear on your followers’ homepages as often as you can, to familiarize them with your brand and ensure your marketing materials have full effect.
Know Your Business, Know Your Customer
To create a sales funnel and calls to action that work, you need to know the customer that you’re trying to persuade. You can’t know every single one of your followers on an individual basis. But, if they already follow you, you can be sure your followers resonate with what your small business branding or products are all about. Using this knowledge, your branding is the key to the specifics of any conversion tactics you choose to employ.
For example, if your small business is all about glamour and luxury, you probably shouldn’t post in informal language or use childish colors or fonts. Similarly, your customers might like to feel like they’re part of an exclusive club, so you can use your posts and stories to advertise special offers just for social media viewers. This is all about creating a strong link between your products and your customers. If you need to know customers to convert them, they also need to know you to be willing to convert. Correct and cohesive branding is the best way to form this initial connection between business and customer.
A great way to know who you’re advertising to before conducting your follower research is to create your ideal buyer persona. This is the person you know your small business can convert through your social media. List your business’s ideal customer’s age, demographic, gender, potential interests and personality traits. If you tailor your marketing to this individual, you’ll be more likely to draw in similar leads that have a higher chance of conversion.
Conversion Techniques that Work
Now that you’re familiar with what is necessary for customer conversion to take place, let’s take a look at some specific social media conversion techniques your small business can employ.
- Hone your Presentation
Every part of your social media page will play a part, albeit a small one, in customer impression and decision to purchase. Optimize your social media name to be easily findable in search functions, your bio to be succinct and informative with a punchy call to action and relevant link, your profile picture to be your logo or another brand-cohesive image, and your header to include all the necessary information customers might need to contact you. Remember, any text on your social media page, even text in imagery should be SEO-friendly.
- Create a Conversation
In life, the best, and sometimes the only way, to turn acquaintances into friends is with conversation. The same applies to conversion; conversation is a great way to form an emotional link between you and your potential customers, to get them to see beyond your brand. To do this, you can ask questions on your posts to solicit comments, put out customer surveys with the reward of a discount code, and generally chat about your industry niche. This last option helps you become a thought leader among your competition, which can draw people away from purchasing from other small businesses similar to yours. For any conversation to be effective, both parties have to talk, so make sure you reply to any comments or messages you receive from your followers.
- Format Your Content
For the best results, you should try and treat your social media like a second, much more succinct, blog. If you simply post the same ad for your services over and over again, your followers are quickly going to become bored and look toward your competition. To keep them engaged and push them toward a purchase, try out interesting content formats such as infographics. If you help people out with common questions in your niche, they’ll come to understand that you truly believe in what your business stands for, and trust that your products will benefit them just as much as your content.
- Utilize Every Social Function
Social media sites are always adding new and interesting ways for people to connect. An example is the recent addition of reels to Instagram. However, the most popular is still the story function that is built into almost every social media app. If you’re comfortable, you should show your face, or even your employees’ faces, and talk directly to your customers through your social media stories. Stories are usually a little more informal than planned posts, so use this to your advantage. Chat about your niche, and your day-to-day with researching and designing products, and give viewers a glimpse into your meetings or storage facility. Show them that there is a team of friendly and talented people behind the business. This can combat the ‘faceless’ image that a lot of small businesses have on social media, and once again, help your customer form that all-important emotional connection to your brand.
To add to this, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok all have shop functions built-in to assist small businesses with their success. By getting your business set up with these, it means your leads don’t even have to leave the social media they’re using to purchase from you. This means you can go live and show off your products with a direct link to your store. You’re far more likely to convert with this technique, as a purchase will take up as little of a customer’s time as possible, and pose minimal disruption to their day.
- Giveaways and Competitions
Giveaways and competitions are a favorite of small businesses looking to convert because they include almost every part of the sales funnel in one. They inform followers of your business and products, up your engagement, generate leads, and turn the lucky winner into a happy customer. The most popular forms of social media giveaways are the ‘like to win’ contests, wherein followers who like your post are entered into a draw to win one of your products. Other great prizes include discount codes or free delivery for life, etc. Sponsorships from partners in your industry are also a great way to find prizes that people will fight for.
For the best results when it comes to conversion, your competition should incentivize a purchase from your store. However, be sure to check the rules for giveaways and competitions on the social media site you’re using and communicate the terms of the competition very clearly to your followers.
In Conclusion…
If your small business has social media followers, but those numbers aren’t translating to purchases from your site, your potential customers are almost at the end of the sales funnel. To push them to make a purchase, you need to make sure they’re familiar with your business by posting often and increasing your visibility. Any post you make should be informative and have a persuasive call to action, as well as a link to your products or site. Be sure to solicit comments and interactions to up your engagement and encourage fruitful conversations with your potential customers. You should make use of all the relevant functions built into social media sites for small businesses, the most rewarding of which is the integrated shop services. Finally, don’t forget that all this is to help your followers form a connection to your small business that will convince them they need your products.
By using the techniques above, you should start to see your conversion creeping up. If you know a particular method is working to bring customers out of the sales funnel, hone in on it. However, don’t get caught up in tried and tested approaches if they’re not getting you the results you want. Sometimes a refreshing approach to social media marketing can go a lot further than you think.
Sources
https://buffer.com/library/social-media-for-small-business/
https://digitalmarketingschool.com/content-marketing-grow-business/
https://www.clickx.io/basics-about-conversions/
https://keap.com/product/sales-funnel
https://www.abtasty.com/blog/call-to-action-guide/
https://www.jeffbullas.com/convert-social-media-followers-to-buyers/
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/do-consumers-shop-directly-on-social-media-platforms
https://www.omniconvert.com/blog/20-ways-convert-followers-into-customers/
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