The power of personal connections has driven your sales department for many years. The results have been favorable and your sales figures are looking good on the productivity reports that go out to management each month. As your sales approach changes with industry activity, you need to look at how to increase sales through social media marketing. It is a segment that generates more activity than just boosting the number of likes your company has on its Facebook page.
Create Personal Relationships
Social media for business presents you with the opportunity to create personal relationships with customers and pursue the lead generation of potential clients. As you reach out to strengthen the existing relationships and establish new ones, your sales department productivity levels will increase as well. Here are ways that you can maximize the sales potential of social media marketing.
Make an Introduction
When you locate an individual on a social media channel who is in your target market audience, reach out and make a connection. You may ask a colleague or mentor to make an introduction on your behalf if they have an established connection with prospective customers. Keep your initial connection professional yet personable and avoid making a sales pitch at all costs.
Start With LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the professional older brother of Facebook. It is your starting point for making personal connections with current customers and reaching out to prospective clients. Virtually every company you could wish to do business with will be on LinkedIn. Before interacting with the ones of interest to you, make sure your profile page or that of your company is up-to-date. At this point, it is about getting to know someone rather than pushing a sale on him without giving him the chance to engage in the social aspect of social media with you first.
Find Common Ground
The key to effectively increasing sales through social media activities is to be personal. Look for something of interest that you share with a prospective client. You are looking for a common thread that does not relate to your business. Conducting research will help you determine if perhaps you both went to the same university or grew up in cities that are not far apart.
Twitter Trends
Throughout the day, Twitter features a list of topics trending at the moment. Review the trending topics for something that is a passion you share with a potential client. When you see something that works, use that information as a way to start a friendly conversation in your sales approach. Mentioning something that you have in common with potential customers first works as an icebreaker before you move towards the sales pitch of a product or service.
Start a Conversation
Social media provides excellent tools for you to communicate with customers and potential clients in a more casual setting than your sales office. To effectively engage in conversations, you need to keep an eye on your social media news feeds throughout the day.
Twitter Talks
Twitter streams real-time conversations taking place in your industry throughout the day. When another company or manufacturer in your industry tweets something that you think would be of value to your target audience, retweet it. Add comments on a discussion focusing on the latest trend or industry hot topic. Engage with customers and potential clients as you see them appear on your timeline. Pay attention to problems that your customers share, and ideas potential customers have that you know a product or service in your company can provide or solve. It is an opportunity that you can turn into lead generation for potential sales down the road.
Include Everyone
As you monitor the news feeds and timelines of your social media channels, remember to pay attention to your current clients as well. Social media marketing should not focus on generating new sales leads. You need to nurture existing client relationships as a means of providing value and appreciation to this group.
If there is a customer who has not reached out to you in a while to make a new purchase or inquire about a new service, Facebook can help you reestablish that lost connection. Take a look at his/her profile page and find something he/she has recently posted. You can like that post or add a comment if you have something personable to share. Seeing your interaction on their page will reignite their awareness of doing business with you. That individual may then reach out to you to see the latest product or service you have to offer.
Bring Your Business to Life
Social media is not your only outlet to generate new leads and bring potential customers on board with your company. However, it is proving to be an effective means of establishing a personal connection with your target market audience. The more personable you appear, the easier customers will find it to do business with you. They will begin to place value and appreciation on your services.
When customers and potential clients begin to feel they can trust you, they are more willing to make a sale. Social media can help make that happen. Contact us today to learn more about how to put social media to work to brand and promote your small business.
