Social Media & Sales Funnel

By now you probably know most of the different facets of good SEO practices for Australia business use; and you know that the purpose of any of these practices is to get more traffic that converts into customers. But did you know that social media channels play such an important role in the conversion process. It’s true social media is a pillar in the digital marketing process, and at some point the pros here at Studio 56 may suggest a social media strategy and the following article explains why:

Importance of Social Media for Outreach Services

More and more consumers are using social media, and businesses that know how to leverage the power greatly improve their sales. These platforms are being used more than ever before but when marketing strategies are left unfocused, well; let’s just say that some serious marketing challenges and costs arise.

Social media often represents a challenge for businesses. You see when using social media for Australian business, the problem lies is finding ways to make meaningful connections with customers, and in doing so at every stage of the sales process.

In the years we’ve been working with social media, we’ve come to understand that the key to success lies in understanding that the social media marketing model is consumer focused, and as such, new additions and modifications constantly come into play to adapt and grow the success of this funnel and to adapt to the changing consumer behaviour. Businesses need to realize that the social media sales funnel works much like a step by step process:

1. Awareness 2. Familiarity 3. Consideration 4. Purchase 5. Loyalty

So where does social media fit in? How do we tie our posts to each stage of this funnel? What kind of engagement would be appropriate at each step?

Awareness

This is the point where your customer is just starting to get to know you. He may only be aware of your brand and may not be interacting as yet. At this point, the more consumers you get to interact with your brand, the easier it will be for them to purchase from you further down the funnel. However to get this interaction you need the appropriate content. At this point it is about increasing engagement.

How to Engage

Need more engagement? Ask questions, post surveys and ask. Anything that gets a response creates that engagement. This requires better search rankings and site visits which eventually turn into more conversions.

Organize Events

This is a feature that works for both the physical in store event as well as the virtual. You can include live Q&A, competitions, live events, webinars and more. Facebook can easily handle all of these events. Include giveaways and prizes in return for engagement, and content submissions. Just be sure to check the Facebook or social media rules before you design your competition.

Encourage Content from Users

The aim is to get people to post to your social media profile and to encourage contributions. This works when you ask for feedback about your content and the customer experience from other customers, or when you ask for responses to your content.

For Instance:

If you sell art pencils, then you might ask for people’s drawings or run an art competition.. But if you sell automotive parts then you might run a competition and ask for pictures of cars with their parts in place. By the same token if your product is intangible you might make your efforts more playful and ask for gifs or pictures that represent the customer experience.

Creating More Familiarity

This is the point where customers become very familiar with your brand. It’s here that customers will know who to buy from when they want your type of product. These are consumers who are already your friends; they like your posts, your content and your social interaction. This will weigh heavily with their purchasing decision.

This Socializing Spills Over into Other Areas

When done correctly social interaction will affect other digital marketing areas such as email. In fact, we can say that email and social media work very well together. It is the use of effective email auto-responders that creates more interaction and branding. And these auto-respondents are spurred by social media interaction.

Consideration

When the consumer gets to this stage of the sales funnel, he is actively considering purchasing the product or service. It is at this point that he is weighing options and your reputation can help tip the balance in your favor.

Build up your business reputation

It’s important to continue to build your reputation using social media through positive reviews and content. The combines use of SEO, content and social media via social buttons ad video.

Purchase

It’s here that a consumer decides to buy from you which is wonderful. But it’s important here to continue that engagement, and you should reach out once they make payment and when the product arrives. Social media and email marketing here allows you to up-sell and cross-sell which can increase your revenue. And social media channels can help you do this.

Loyalty

Social media also offers you the opportunity to keep customer loyalty and brand advocates that drive even more revenue to you. So you want to make it a priority to promote this loyalty post purchase. Encourage repurchase with your social content and email marketing methods. Do this by running loyalty programs on social media.

All-Encompassing

Social media isn’t just the beginning of the consumer experience, to the contrary, it plays a major role at each stage of marketing. It is a major factor in branding, interaction, sales and retention. The stats are there and they indicate that businesses that use social media for each stage of the purchasing process improve ROI and use social channels more productively to increase sales.