Can Social Media still be your best friend for sales? Here’s how (+What people are actually saying)
Social Media is, without a doubt, this era’s strongest sales tool, ally, friend, and a sidekick for brands, marketers, and advertisers in general.
Why? Because it’s free to use, has immeasurable growth potential, and ironically, can be measured in terms of effectiveness, handing over a deadly sales ninja tactic for innovative brands looking forward to increasing sales, creating better campaigns, and increasing brand awareness.
This doesn’t mean it’s a cinch.
Social Media as a sales tool for getting more customers requires knowledge of your audience, being self-aware of the reach of your service, and a proper strategy in place to measure and optimize your campaign as you go.
And for that reason, today’s article is exclusively dedicated to the proper use of Social Media as a sales tool, including ads, and visual examples you can use and learn more about.
Why do you need to use Social Media as a sales tool?
Social Media being used as part of a sales strategy is the new normal. But, to do it right, you need to understand why it is so important.
As Criteria for Success says, lead generation is crucial for any sales effort, and even more so when social networks are part of our daily activities. We all consume content in many ways – memes, news, status updates, you name it.
Therefore, Social Media can be (and is) a powerful tool in the right hands.
Things change a bit when you’re using Influencer Marketing in your Social Media strategy. It could provide a huge ROI, but it truly depends on how connected the Influencer is to its audience and how it ties back to your brand.
Here’s an example of what happens when there’s no such connection:
Yeah, an actual rate card for TikTok and Instagram posting.
But is it truly worth it?
Metrics will tell.
How does Social Media work as a sales tool?
Using Social Media as part of your brand awareness strategy is a great way to make your audience notice you, your company’s values, mission, and vision.
You’re turning followers into fans.
And the very next step would be… Turning them into customers or consumers, buying your services over and over. A never-ending pipeline of sales. An organization’s dream come true.
But, how does it work?
Here’s a breakdown:
According to Hubspot, there are 8 main steps to making a Social Media sales strategy work.
- Identify which platform your ideal customer hangs out in. You want to be where they are, after all.
- Use these social channels to provide real-life feedback on your service. Don’t just say you are great – prove it.
- Use social proof in your sales efforts. Clearly, you need to build trust with your future customers, and that’s only possible, showing you’re a real deal.
- Optimize your personal Social Media accounts. Yeah, we are all stalkers. We want to know who’s the brains behind the funny. And you want to look nice when these prospects see your picture.
- Use Social Media when prospecting. This is more of a B2B approach (and outbound marketing technique) but still relevant. Want to sell using your brand’s socials? Don’t be afraid to reach out.
- Define and track relevant metrics. Your KPIs should be personalized. You need to know what is essential for your optimization purposes before even considering to track.
- Use active social listening. This means paying close attention to how people interact with your brand to provide real solutions. Everyone hates the usual robotic responses brands give to customers, and that’s how they lose a hot lead. Don’t be that brand.
- Conduct competitive analysis.
Need some proof?
This Twitter thread breaks it down while using a relatable story: Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook scale. From zero to hero:
How do brands use organic sale tactics through Social Media platforms?
Organic sales tactics work like magic for getting new, more, and better customers.
Most brands, marketers, and advertisers use Social Media channels such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to create valuable sales opportunities from scratch. And it’s powerful when done the right way that it makes total sense.
See, audiences value authenticity. Like Forbes says, people perceive value when the brand highlights benefits instead of just features. Thus, making the sale tactic less pushy and more genuine.
But what happens when brands just follow a cold-hearted script to convert?
This happens:
Did Zuck forget he cut organic reach on Facebook some time ago? He suffers because of his own greed. I go to FB only to chech Adleaks and a few more groups (your’s as well @TylerGarner_ ). IG is toxic, people bragging about life they don’t have.
— Tomasz Pasko (@tomekpasko) February 7, 2022
People can tell.
Just like Tomasz did when stating that Facebook is hurting organic reach to benefit its ads.
Which could be true. Or not.
An undeniable fact is that people go where they feel called to.
The authenticity sparks masses to engage with certain content, which is why organic sales tactics work like magic in the right way.
Just like Rok said here:
Users go where content is. Content creators go where they can get adequate organic reach. If I was Zuck that is where my focus would be.
I am not sure Reels are enough to get enough audience attention time back into the Meta ecosystem.
Thoughts? 🤔💭
— Rok Hladnik (@rokhladnik) February 6, 2022
Reads like poetry.
Best practices for sale tactics on each central social platform
We love adding LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube tips for brand marketers like you to use and win.
And, precisely because of that, we’re about to break down the very best things to note when making sales on these platforms, with an extra: TikTok.
Want some proof? Here:
Besides, au contraire to what most people think, targeting older audiences in TikTok breaks havoc (in a good way). More and more 50+ people are using this platform and having fun with it, creating a new digital ecosystem for brands to explore:
Moving away from TikTok, let’s go with LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is the go-to place for B2B sales. People are more willing to engage in business-related conversations here, thus throwing down the awkwardness of cold-selling for brands.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be careful, though.
LinkedIn has extensively worked against automation to prevent users from fleeing the platform, just like Brafton says. The real reason makes even more sense. They do this to enhance their own advertising tools, which are pretty neat for targeting people while staying compliant.
So, that said, LinkedIn-related efforts for sales go back to staying compliant with ethical approaches, allowing you and your brand to stay safe from getting permanently banned. Happy hunting.
As for Facebook, it’s another subject. Facebook-related sales tactics are more geared towards ads because Facebook Ads are still viral, potent, and effective.
While there’s a growing confusion on whether Facebook has lost ground in ads or not, there’s a point where most marketers bury the hatchet… Outstanding performance comes along with being excellent at brand marketing.
Just like Cody said here:
Some of you might not like this, but…
I think success on FB ads in 2022 comes down to being really good at brand marketing.
— Cody Plofker (@codyplof) February 11, 2022
Being great at product marketing allows brands to enhance their visibility, engagement, and natural spark for potential customers. That way, your ads will perform better, people will buy more, and your strategy will go full smooth sailing.
Instagram, most people’s sweetheart, is another case.
Just like Agora Pulse says, you have to set up an Instagram Native Shop to succeed at sales on this platform (i.e. using in-app purchasing).
If you qualify for setting up an Instagram Shop, it all comes down to performing a strategy that gently showcases your brand’s products without sacrificing the captivating content you usually share.
After all, people don’t like feeling they are being pushed to buy. So, be careful of that.
As per YouTube, it’s a compound of steps to follow.
Like Social Media Today explains, it’s not enough just to promote your videos on Google or Facebook Ads. It’s about having appropriately crafted content, short and engaging videos, having a branded channel, and making sure the sale doesn’t feel out of place or touch with your brand.
Otherwise, your audience will ignore it. And that’s a brand’s worst nightmare.
But, how to measure sales?
Great question. And we’ve got the answer.
It’s the ROI.
Understanding how your return on investment works is the key to brilliant sales days.
We say this because ROI isn’t calculated the same for every brand. Because not every brand has the same KPIs.
But, let’s use a typical example to shine some light on.
First, you need to calculate how much you spend on Social Media. This includes tools, campaign budget, content creation, team, and even agencies if you use them.
Second, your brand should have clear and trackable objectives that connect to your business goals.
Third, you need to track your KPIs. Those metrics align with your brand and objectives.
These could be reach, audience engagement, generating leads, conversions, revenue… What makes sense to your brand’s higher purpose.
And finally, you need to create an ROI report that shows the impact of Social Media, just like Hootsuite says.
Some examples of brands having excellent sales tactics on Social Media
We love acknowledging what genius people and brands do, same as you.
That’s why we’re putting together two fantastic examples of effective sales tactics applied to Social Media from some greats.
First, we’ll put our chips on Nespresso.
These coffee-magicians drove a killer campaign with George Clooney because, honestly, who doesn’t like the guy?
Besides, he sticks like glue to what Nespresso’s brand reflects, providing extraordinary outcomes.
Then, we have Nike. They just do remarkable things when fusing sales with social awareness.
As you can see, they are showing as relatable and whole-heartedly as they can, without neglecting the sales component that drives ROI to the table. Again, they… Just do it.
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions, doubts, or comments about this article. Our team will reach out back to you as soon as possible.
