The goals you establish for your sales team are more easily attained when you build up your brand, generate leads, and establish loyalty among your current customers. If you are a company that has yet to embrace social media, you are missing out on an opportunity with social selling. Let’s take a look at how social media can build you up in areas that assist your sales goals.
Leads – Social Media Is a Generation Machine
Content marketing in social media works great for companies who have made well-planned lead generation efforts. For instance, companies using Twitter learned that they get dramatically different results when they share images in their tweets. You hope that your tweets will interest users enough that they will retweet you, thus creating a snowball effect that generates a large number of warm leads. Some companies have improved their retweet rates by 150 percent when using images.
Allstate is a company that has had great success in lead generation with its blog. The insurance company provides content that connects to the company’s specialty. Allstate offers videos on various subjects that will interest homeowners and uses popular television shows as a theme in some of the content. Each blog entry focuses on offering value to the reader without trying to sell them something. However, the reader has the opportunity to get a quote or subscribe to the blog in every entry.
Build Your Brand
Use social media to help define your identity. Because social media is built around a network of linked users, it’s a natural situation for these channels to be a conduit for raising awareness that leads to social selling opportunities. You need to focus on putting a human face on your brand, a face that will interest users and bolster your position. Don’t make the mistake of approaching social media like you approach other facets of your business – you can let down your guard with social media and let personality shine through.
Loyalty Pays
It’s important to use social media for things other than just trying to sell your product. Remember, you’re trying to gain leads and build your brand, not overwhelm consumers with a large number of ads. As you embark on creating brand loyalty, you need to ask yourself why a user would want to follow you. It’s not because they want someone trying to sell something to them; they want interaction. The more you engage with them, either by asking questions, sharing tips and tricks, or information that will add value to the lives of your followers, the more loyalty you will amass.
Starbucks is a company that provides an excellent example of how using Twitter helps to establish loyalty. Ranking in the top five companies of successful use of Twitter, according to socialbakers.com, Starbucks uses the channel to respond to individual tweets from other users. This proves that they’re listening to their customers and offering feedback, which results in gaining loyalty.
What is your organization doing to reach out to current and/or future clients? Are you having a difficult time locating your target audience on social media? Social selling is not an easy process, which is why you should consider bringing in professional marketers to assist you. The return on investment will have you wondering why you didn’t consider it earlier.