So your business has taken the plunge into social media. Do you have a Facebook page and are you active on Twitter and blogging? Best of all: you have a growing list of social media .
Here are six tips to increase your sales conversion success on social media.
- Create a strategy
Start right by creating a social media strategy. All those Facebook posts and tweets may not help your sales much without proper planning.
First, determine the goals of your social media presence, whether it's attracting more customers, increasing brand recognition, or improving customer service. Decide who your target audience is and outline a content strategy that covers:
your key messages
types of content that will attract your audience
a list of keywords that describe your business. You will use these words in your content to help you rank higher in internet searches for these terms.
Second, create an action plan that establishes employee responsibilities for social media tasks and a publishing schedule for posts.
- Optimize your website
The world's largest social media page won't do you much good if it attracts fans to a terrible website – one that's hard to navigate and plagued by cluttered text.
A website with compelling images is extremely important for converting social media fans into paying customers. Visitors shouldn’t have to click or scroll to find what they want. Pages on your site should also prominently display your contact information and clear calls to action – a box or image that asks visitors to take the action you’re looking for (e.g., buy your products, contact a sales representative).
- Create unique landing pages
Improve your chances of conversion by creating unique landing pages for each of your social media pages. This is a special web page designed specifically for visitors arriving from a social media page. Make sure you have consistent messaging and a clear call to action on the landing page.
- Use social selling
Social selling is the process of building a network on sites like LinkedIn and Facebook to make connections and present yourself as an expert in your field.
To get started, research the companies you’re interested in doing business with and discover who you’d like to connect with. Then, connect and start building a relationship with these people by sharing content, inviting them to events, or introducing them to potential clients.
- Explore the conversion features of social networks
Social media platforms now allow companies to directly promote their products and services with paid advertisements.
Facebook, for example, allows you to create special offers that can be redeemed on your website or in-store. You can also create ads that show your catalog to a targeted audience or even promote in-store visits to people near your location. Instagram has similar features that can be used to directly target consumers.
- Measure, learn and optimize
As with any conversation, listening is half the battle. Make sure you monitor what your fans are saying and doing. Look at what kind of content gets the most engagement and conversion rates. And monitor other successful companies in your industry to see what they’re doing on social media.
