It has been reported that whether it’s a mobile device, laptop or desktop, the average adult spends over ten hours a day in front of their screens. Furthermore, of those ten hours, three are devoted to social media platforms.
While not all of this time is dedicated to making or planning purchases, when you consider that there are only 24 hours in a single day, this is still quite a bit. And that's not all; the data also suggests that adults who are active on social media spend 7% more than their non-social savvy counterparts.
If your mind works anything like mine you’re probably saying to yourself, “Yeah, that's great.... However, what does any of this information have to do with my business?”
I'm glad you asked.
As a business owner, you stand to benefit immensely from embracing social media. In other words, if sales aren’t what you’d like them to be, you can use social media to improve your numbers. Are we together now? Well, here's five ways to increase revenue with social media.
1) Blogging for Dollars
Do you own a blog, or better yet, are you publishing to your blog on a regular basis? If not, you're missing out on a tremendous opportunity. That said, there are four things you can do to ensure that your blog makes cents, no pun intended.
- Regular updates. Create a content calendar to aid you in updating your blog regularly. While there are no right or wrong answers as to the absolute frequency of posts, most experts agree that at least two to four articles per month is sufficient to establish your web presence.
- Give your readers value. While the occasional promotion or two is fine, no one wants to be bombarded with sales information day in and out. So, be sure to publish a good mix of value-added posts to your blog. If your articles solve your user’s problems, then you know they’re adding value.
- Promotional material. When you’re sharing value with your readers, they don't mind seeing promotional material. Some even welcome it. So, don't shy away from adding customer testimonials, sales pages and calls to action to your blog.
- Encourage social sharing. As a business owner, you want to make it as easy as possible for visitors to share your posts. Doing so can be as easy as adding a reminder to ‘like’ or ‘share’ your posts, or you can take it a few steps further by adding social sharing buttons to your blog.
2) Social Media Platform Selling
While blogs are a major factor in selling online, so too are the social media sites themselves. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc., offer ample opportunities for social savvy brands to sell while engaging your audience. However, as with everything else in life, “the early bird gets the worm.” Here are three ways to sell on social media.
- Social ads. Social media ads are one of the most exciting opportunities for brands. Namely, this is because they offer as many targeting options as you'd find in search engine ads with the added benefit of peer pressure in the form of ad ‘likes.’ Combining your social ad campaign with a great landing page and a compelling offer is a surefire recipe for success!
- Responsiveness. By far, customer support is one of the most overlooked avenues about social selling. So, the next time a client messages you about a purchase via social media be sure to respond promptly. You never know when the person on the other end will refer you to someone else or surprise you with an even bigger purchase.
- Solicit meaningful participation. There are various ways to solicit engagement on social media. You can throw contests, ask questions, publish customer spotlights, etc. But the bottom line is that the more your prospects engage with your brand, the more likely it is they will do business with you. Additionally, the fact that so few companies get this part of social media right means that if you can master customer engagement, you’ll reap serious rewards.
3) Catchy Headlines and Descriptions
Although there are tons of potential clients on social media, don’t make the mistake of thinking that sales will happen on their own. Unfortunately, this notion could not be further from the truth. Indeed, you will have to work for every sale that you generate and one way to do so is to use catchy titles and headlines. The reason that headlines and description text are so important is that if it doesn't catch the eye, your audience will ignore it and your marketing efforts will be for naught.
Another point to keep in mind when crafting description or headline text for your social profiles is that you must include the offer near the beginning of the message or it may get stuck beneath the fold.
4) Consistency Is the Key
One of the biggest dangers of starting a new social media strategy is inconsistency. If you begin implementing an activity with regularity and suddenly stop, you risk losing credibility with your audience. Sadly, once you've lost credibility, there’s usually no coming back.
So, the best thing to do should you decide to begin a new social media campaign is commit to it for the long haul. If this means putting an annual social media calendar together, so be it. But by all means, don't start a new campaign if you're not ready to see it through.
5) Know Your Audience
You can do everything above on a regular basis, but if you don't take the time to learn about your audience, it could be to no avail. Fortunately, social media offers the perfect opportunity to acquaint yourself with your prospects.
Let's take Facebook, for instance. If your business owns a fan page, the amount of data the platform provides is staggering. To view this data all you have to do is head to the ‘Insights’ tab of your fan page. It‘s just below the search bar. Once in the data portion of your page, scroll down to the people tab in the left sidebar. The information is segmented by age, gender, geographic location, etc., and you can further break it down by fans, people reached and people engaged. Armed with this information you can better tailor messages to your audience.
We’ve come to the end of the list, but I certainly hope that you've found this article helpful. Of course, as with all advice, it can only help if you put it to use. However, the good news is that if you do implement these tips you just might join the ranks of social selling ninja!
How have you adapted and tailored your content for your audience? Share an example below!
Source: SEMrush blog