The key ingredient to good social media marketing is having a plan. Without a sales planYou may be posting on social media platforms for the sake of posting. If you don't understand what your goals are, who your target audience is and what they want, it will be difficult to get results on social media ❌.
Whether you want to grow your brand through social media or level up as a marketer on these platforms, it is essential to develop a social media sales plan.
In a general way, a sales plan sets out your company's sales objectives and tactics and identifies the steps you will take to achieve the objectives..
A sales plan will help you:
A sales plan is integrated into, or accompanies, a marketing strategy to direct the efforts of your sales team. A social media plan, or what amounts to the same thing, a social media marketing strategy, is, in short, a detailed summary of everything you plan to do and hope to achieve on your social media profiles. 📈
Establish a well-thought-out strategy for your company in terms of the presence on social networks is very beneficial. The more specific and detailed the plan, the better the performance.
If your social media platforms work well, your brand awareness will increase, you will acquire more customers, social proof will become visible and your company will gain more credibility. All this contributes to strengthen your position in the market as a professional organization and consequently increase the number of conversions.
Most marketing teams develop and refine social media plans several times a year. This is likely to occur in conjunction with other planning at the team and company level. Separate social media plans may also be developed for special launches or campaigns, which will also support the overall social media strategy.
For simplicity and ease of implementation, we will divide the social media sales plan into seven parts:
This is not a recipe for digital marketing success, but a framework to help you lay the groundwork. In the end, you'll be better equipped to understand how all these pillars are connected and inform each other, which will help you make smarter decisions and revise your social media strategy over time.
A strategic social media sales plan requires more than just a marketing strategy to support it. Social networks are an interactive platform that allows users to create and share content with the public efficiently. So it is the first element that we will have to take into account.
Each platform presents its own challenges and therefore requires a different strategy. And just like any other marketing channel, there is a definite learning curve to generate sales on any of them.
However, there are some common items among the different social networks that will help you increase not only the number of followers but also conversions.
The best way to leverage social media is through paid ads, as you can reach a wider audience and appear more in people's feeds.
Lately, organic reach has been steadily decreasing due to new social media algorithms. Paying to increase the likelihood that people will see your content will allow you to increase sales and brand awareness.
Whether through photos, videos or even stories, paid ads are effective and definitely worth the investment!
While it is important to build your own following on social media, many companies are also making use of the so-called influencers to increase sales.
Nowadays, people rely more on the influencers than in your own family and friends. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? However, a study showed that 49% of consumers rely on the recommendations of influencers and will buy the product after seeing it on their social networks.
This creates a huge opportunity for companies to reach new audiences and influence big spenders, such as millennials and Generation Z.
To take advantage of this, find the influencers that match your industry and have followers who are interested in your product/service.
Ask them to promote your brand by posting about your product/service and giving honest reviews in exchange for special discount codes or free samples.
This will help drive awareness of your brand among your massive following and is proven to drive sales.
In addition to the influencersYou can also promote your products through ordinary people. To have a successful social media presence, people have to talk and share about your brand.
Ask your most passionate customers to comment on their experiences and promote your products in exchange for gifts or discounts. This will generate word-of-mouth marketing among their friends and family. 💬
You can even use a referral brand ambassador program, where you give your loyal customers special referral codes and reward them with discounts every time someone uses your referral code to purchase an item.
User-generated content is organic content created by customers and followers on social platforms. It can be photos taken by them featuring your product/service or content created by them for contests and sweepstakes.
By republishing these photos/videos, you demonstrate the authenticity of your brand.
According to Business InsiderIn fact, customers who see user-generated content are 97% more likely to convert and buy something than those who don't see it.
People prefer user-generated content, as they can easily relate to a customer like them, compared to a professional photo taken by the company.
User-generated content is a great way to demonstrate social proof, the psychological and social phenomenon that people unconsciously want to copy the actions of others. And of course, it's also a proven way to drive sales.
Remember to create valuable content that doesn't always sell your product, but also educates and engages customers.
Unlike typical marketing efforts, social media marketing is totally different. Your followers need to see new and entertaining content on a regular basis.
If you think about it, people are on social media mostly during their free time, so they want to see posts that are entertaining rather than posts that are pushy and force you to buy something.
If your posts are too "advertorial", people will quickly pass you by. So you have to find a good balance between promoting your products and making the content engaging.
Here are some ways to do it:
You may not know that, on most social media platforms, there are now features where customers are able to buy directly from a post.
One way to boost your example sales plan on Facebook would be through the product catalog feature where businesses can showcase their best products and allow customers to purchase through the site.🎁
In addition, Facebook now allows business owners to include your products in the "store" section of a Facebook page, which is really easy to set up.
Pinterest, meanwhile, introduced shoppable pins in 2014. Any Pinterest user can use these pins to purchase products while browsing Pinterest, making the shopping experience easy and seamless.
Meanwhile, Instagram's new shopping features allow users to tag products in their posts and buy directly from the feed main. To enable this purchase feature, make sure your Instagram account is a business account and enable the purchase feature in the settings.
Shoppable posts allow users to make quick and secure purchases while browsing their social networks.
This not only reduces the effort of a multi-step process to a single click, but also reduces the time for customers to reconsider their purchase decision.
Given that there are many social media platforms, how do you know which ones to use and what content to create or publish for each of them?
Here are some general tips:
Facebook is often used by everyone, but the main users are mostly an older audience. Content should be longer in terms of video and subtitles, as it is a strong storytelling platform.
The hearing of Instagram consists mainly of millennials and a younger market. Content should revolve around images and aesthetic stories.
Snapchat also focuses on a younger audience. Snapchat content is primarily short, real-life videos that are entertaining.
Pinterest is ideal for providing more detailed information on products and tips, e.g. recipes, DIY, etc.
Twitter is known for his brief but accurate tweets and updates.
LinkedIn is used for business professionals and is mainly used for recruitment.
YouTube is for long, informative and entertaining videos.
TikTok is where you can unleash your brand's creativity with videos of less than 1 minute.
Overall, Instagram is best used for most businesses, Facebook and Pinterest are great for driving purchase intent, and Twitter and Snapchat are used to build buzz.
Para utilizar eficazmente las redes sociales, es necesario entender tu marca y en qué plataforma se encuentra tu público objetivo. Sólo entonces podrás elegir la mejor plataforma y crear contenido único que sea relevante para ella.
For example, fashion brands focus more on Instagram than Facebook, while professional services may prioritize Facebook.
If you prioritize and invest in the right platform to reach the right audience, your sales are more likely to increase by reaching the right people.
Creating content and promotions around seasonal events, such as Valentine's Day or Christmas, is no longer enough to keep content exciting and relevant.
With random trends becoming popular every few months, you need to come up with creative posts related to these trends to draw more attention to your brand.
For example, not long ago "The Squid Game" and "The House of Paper" were trending worldwide. There were many companies that exploited such trends by creating publications related to the series or by featuring something related to them in some part of their content pieces 😉
When creating trending posts, do it as soon as the trend emerges, or even before if you can foresee it in advance.
Trends come and go really fast, so you should publish your relevant content before it disappears and it's too late.
People are constantly looking for new information every day. To get the most out of your social media marketing, you must post regularly to keep your page active.
People get tired of seeing the same ads or content, so change it up from time to time. Surprise your customers with unique and creative content. Remember that it must be attractive to attract people to your page.
If you post the right content on a consistent basis, people will have more confidence in your brand and sales will increase as a result.
Las redes sociales pueden ser un canal difícil para muchos vendedores, especialmente cuando se trata de impulsar las ventas directas y un customer service nearest.📲
Now that you know some ways to create a solid and impressive social media presence on your chosen platforms, get started now! Use these suggestions to formulate your sales plan and target your desired customers, stick with it and watch the interactions roll in and conversions increase.
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