5 Proven strategies to sell through social networks

Selling through social networks is something that begins to become more of a basic business growth strategy, than in a luxury or a simple option. According to the Search Engine Journal,  93% of companies in the United States use social networks as part of their marketing strategy, and although in Latin America we still do not reach the number of them, the trends of the influence of the Internet in the business world, continue to increase year by year. That is why we must be prepared and design a good strategy in digital media to continue driving the growth of our companies, and even potentialize it.

Due to the high influence of social networks in the different stages of purchase of our potential customers, today I will tell you about 5 proven strategies to sell through social networks:

1. Take advantage of the virality of the videos to sell through social networks

Virality is about getting shared, rated and commented, as much as possible, some content (such as image, video, etc.), in a short period of time. This helps you to increase the presence of your brand in digital media, and it is not necessary to invest a lot of money in this, but rather to have a good creative team capable of creating content that is sufficiently striking and captivating, so that people share it. For this, you must:

• Get away from what you do traditionally, is what they call: thinking outside the box, which is nothing other than seeing things from another point of view.
• Make it as simple as possible; you do not need to invent the black thread, sometimes the best ideas are usually the most «obvious», but unusual at the same time.
• Try to be as concrete as possible: try to last between 15 and 60 seconds, or people will get bored and will not see your video until the end

Personally, one of the strategies that I liked the most, was one of inmuebles24, a portal to advertise or search for real estate options. In the real estate industry we do not usually find very creative strategies; It is almost always a description of the property, with its photos (in magazines or websites) or spectacular residential complexes with some phrases. However, a few months ago I came across a real estate serie, with a very simple story, but attractive enough to attract more than 8 thousand people in a short time, in its first chapter. I know that maybe the numbers are not very impressive, but still I think it was a very good strategy to sound the name of your brand in several corners of the internet. If you like you can see the video of the first chapter and judge it yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiLXI-aIQLE

2. Discover the magic on images

Take a break, and think a little about the applications you have on your cell phone … they all have icons that help us identify more quickly each of the functions of that application. This is because, by nature, humans process images much faster than text, so they tend to call our attention much more; what makes it an important point that you must take into account when selling through social networks.

According to a study conducted by Hubspot, Facebook posts with images receive 54% more likes, than those that do not have them, and receive up to 104% more comments.

Now, when choosing the text and the photograph of your post, you must be clear:

1. Who is your target audience? It is really important that you know the characteristics of your ideal client in order to design the right message for them, as well as the language and tone of the client (serious and formal, comical, ironic, among others).
2. What is your goal: you can not publish just because yes, you should know what you want to achieve with this, be it with your audience, buy it, recommend it, get more followers … whatever it is, You must have it clearly to design your post.

3. Monetize your posts

Always add a link, either of any offer, special promotions, new releases. The goal is to interest people and get them to our page to buy (and if not, at least have their data to communicate future offers or news). Even the big brands do this: Dell, Apple, Victoria’s Secret and other great global mountsruos ….

As we usually have more than one ideal customer profile, and more than one value proposition (or type of product / service), I recommend that when designing your strategy to sell through social networks, consider having Landing Pages or Microsites, which are pages focused 100% on sales. In these we seek to show the client specific benefits of a type of product, and interest enough to  leave their data, usually in exchange for something (such as an eBook, Demonstrations, Advising, Templates or more information). 

The specific objective of putting a link in your posts as part of your strategy to sell through social networks, is to obtain a database, well qualified, of people interested in your product, know what they are called and get at least your email to have a direct channel to them, and increase sales opportunities. To better understand the concept, I show you this fragment of a Landing Page of a company dedicated to maintenance for commercial companies and industries:

*As an extra data: do you remember that the posts with images work best ?, because if these are accompanied by a link, their level of clicks increases up to 84%, according to Hubspot.

4. Listen to your audience

There is no better way to know what your audience wants, than by asking them! You can not be guessing what works best and what does not, and that’s why dialing studies are important; but if we are talking about social networks, take advantage of the «social» part and interact with your audience.

One of the most popular examples that roam the Internet of this, is Starbucks and its page: MyStarbucksIdea.com, where customers can suggest new flavors and the same audience can vote for those who like them most; but I do not want to explain this extensively, instead I would like to tell you about a very recent case that happened in Mexico. This is the case of Jaime Rodríguez Calderón, better known as El Bronco, who won the governorship of Nuevo León, as an independent candidate, using social networking strategies, and doing precisely this type of market research (and continues to do so). The basis of this strategy is simply to maintain a high level of interaction with its audience and take action according to what the public demands. This image is an example of what you usually do:

According to an article in Forbes in Spanish, El Bronco answers at least 95% of its audience, and mentions that it declared: «I am the only entity in this world that has such power of interaction. I like to talk with the people, I am a Facebook addict, there I realize everything that happens in the state «. And it is precisely this, what has marked his success so far; The same applies to commercial brands when selling through social networks:

1. Ask your audience for their suggestions and needs
2. Take action according to the demand

5. Attend your clients (and make them loyal)

Selling through social networks (or by any other means) is not only about moving our products or services as many times as possible, but to ensure that those people who already consumed us, at least once, are satisfied enough so that they can buy us again, and perhaps even more important, to recommend us.

This is called loyalty. According to the Inc. company, a loyal customer spends up to 67% more than a first-time customer; and it costs between 5 and 10 times more to attract new customers, than trying to get those who already bought us to stay with us … now that it has numbers, it has already caught your attention, right? If your strategy is to sell through social networks, there are certain actions you can take:

• Create a customer service to solve doubts or complaints.
• If your company has a subscription, such as gyms, or reservations, such as restaurants, you can facilitate the process with the help of social networks.
• Establish a system of points, discounts, prizes or special offers for those who have more time with you and announce them on your social networks to encourage others to stay with you.

These are just some examples, but I’m sure that if you spend at least an hour to keep thinking about loyalty and delight strategies, you will think of many more for your business. 

These were the 5 proven strategies to sell through social networks that I wanted to share with you today, and we can summarize them in:

1. Create content, unique to your company, that adds value to your ideal customer.
2. Always publish having an objective in mind.
3. Look for the contact information of people who have already shown interest in what you offer.
4. Do not finish the process in the sale, make them stay with you and recommend you.

If you want to start implementing this type of strategies to increase your sales and potentiate the growth of your business, do not hesitate to schedule a free consultation on the banner below, and we will gladly help you with some ideas: